Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei-Hachodesh

Check Number  

March 12, 2026

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by HaRav Chaim Weg 

This month shall be for you the beginning of the months, it shall be for you the first of the months of the year.

Shmos 12:2

The Ramban explains that the months are counted from Nisan to commemorate yetzias Mitzrayim. The months had only numbers, not names, until Yirmiyahu commanded the Jews returning from galus Bavel to Eretz Yisrael to commemorate that redemption by calling the months by their Babylonian names: Nisan, Iyar, and so on.  

As the Minchas Chinuch and Get Pashut understand the Ramban, today one may call the months by any name he wishes—but not by the wrong number; for example, by starting the count from Tamuz. According to the Binyan Shlomo and the Abarbanel, neither the names nor the numbers may be changed. 

Later poskim disagree about whether one may write the date on a check using the numbers of the months of the Gregorian (solar) calendar. The Chasam Sofer (peirush on Bo) and the Steipler hold that one may not do so, based on the Ramban. But the Sheivet Halevi and the Minchas Yitzchak permit it, and the common custom follows their view.[1] They explain that while one may not renumber the Jewish months, that does not apply to the months of the secular calendar.

[1] For further discussion of the lenient view, see Tzitz Eliezer (8:8), Yabia Omer (Y.D. 3:9), and Minchas Asher (Shmos 14).