ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Jewish chronology

Alright kiddo, so Jewish chronology is all about figuring out the dates of important events in Jewish history. You know how we have calendars that tell us when we celebrate things like birthdays and holidays? Well, the Jewish people have had their own calendar for thousands of years, and they use it to keep track of their history.

The Jewish calendar is a bit different than the one we use today. It's based on the cycles of the moon, and it has 12 months instead of 12 months and four quarters. Each month starts with a new moon, and the first month of the year is called Nisan. This is when the Jewish people celebrate Passover, one of their most important holidays.

The Jewish calendar also has special rules for adding extra months to make sure the holidays happen at the right time of year. This can make it a bit tricky to figure out the exact dates of events in Jewish history, but scholars have been working on it for a long time.

One of the most important events in Jewish history is the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. This happened in the year 70 CE (that stands for "Common Era", which is a way of saying "after the birth of Jesus"). Jewish scholars have worked backwards from this event to try to figure out the dates of other events in their history.

For example, the Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah as the start of their new year. This falls on the first day of the month of Tishrei, which is usually in September or October. Based on ancient texts and other clues, scholars have estimated that the first Rosh Hashanah happened around the year 3761 BCE.

So, Jewish chronology is all about figuring out these dates and putting them in order to understand the story of the Jewish people. It's kind of like a big puzzle, and people are still working on it today.