The Hebrew calendar is lunar-solar. Understanding the feasts is essential for the New Testament: every major event from the Last Supper to Pentecost is set against a feast backdrop that shapes its meaning entirely.
The religious year begins in spring (Nisan). The civil year begins in fall (Tishri). Both appear in Scripture.
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Leviticus 23 establishes seven annual feasts as "appointed times" (mo'adim — "rehearsals"). The NT presents these not as abolished but fulfilled — each foreshadows an event in the life, death, and second coming of Jesus.
The feasts are timed to the agricultural seasons — harvest festivals as much as religious observances.
The seven-day week pattern is extended to years. Every seventh year is a sabbatical year (Shemita). Every 50th year is the Jubilee, the most radical economic reset in ancient legal codes.
The land lies fallow — no plowing, sowing, or commercial harvest (Leviticus 25:1–7). Debts between Israelites are released (Deuteronomy 15:1). Hebrew slaves are freed (Exodus 21:2). Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus allows scholars to calculate the sabbatical year cycle with confidence back to the 2nd century BC.
Proclaimed on Yom Kippur with the shofar: all land returns to its original owner; all Israelite slaves are freed; all debts cancelled (Leviticus 25:8–17). The land ultimately belongs to God — Israelites are "tenants and sojourners" with him (v.23). Whether Jubilee was ever actually observed is debated.