Seder Olama timeline of Jewish history

Six thousand years,
running right now

Jewish history is not a closed book. The count that began on the first day of Creation has never stopped — it is running this very second. Here it is whole: from Bereshit to the present year and onward, to the end of the sixth millennium.

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691 events · 1 782 articles in English · every date traceable to its source in Torah, Tanakh and Talmud

Eras · Routes · Index of articles · Glossary · Today in history · World map · Family tree · Test yourself

the count runs on

This is the timeline: 6000 years, 587 events, and everything opens in place. Open it in full

Every event opens where it stands

The timeline does not send you elsewhere. Click a point and a card rises: the Hebrew date, the era, where the dating comes from, a short account and a link to the full article.

In the animation — the Giving of the Torah, 6 Sivan 2448. The card is the one in the timeline, word for word.

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Time slice: who was alive at this minute of history

The blue slice line sets on any year — and the timeline shows them all at once: who held the chain of halachic authority, who was alive and how old, what was happening nearby in the world.

In the animation — the year 4850: Rashi in Troyes, the Rif in Fez, Yehuda HaLevi in Spain; nearby, the First Crusade. Clicking a name opens the person and his teachers.

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Who was alive ·
Nearby in the world

What is already here

691events
1 782articles
1 266people
70chasidic courts
182books
304world parallels
6 857source references
2 569pages in English

Recounted at every build. The last one was 8 September 2026.

App for iPhone and iPadFree on the App Store, works offline

Eras

1–1656 AM · 3760 BCE — 2105 BCECreation and the Flood

34 events

1657–2237 AM · 2104 BCE — 1524 BCEThe Patriarchs

41 events

2238–2447 AM · 1523 BCE — 1314 BCEEgypt and Slavery

19 events

2448–2502 AM · 1313 BCE — 1259 BCEExodus and the Wilderness

22 events

2503–2927 AM · 1258 BCE — 834 BCEJudges and the First Kings

45 events

2928–3337 AM · 833 BCE — 424 BCEThe First Temple

78 events

3338–3407 AM · 423 BCE — 354 BCEThe Babylonian Exile

15 events

3408–3827 AM · 353 BCE — 67 CEThe Second Temple

50 events

3828–4259 AM · 68 CE — 499 CEMishnah and Talmud

50 events

4260–4798 AM · 500 CE — 1038 CESavoraim and Geonim

63 events

4799–5249 AM · 1039 CE — 1489 CERishonim: the Middle Ages

66 events

5250–5559 AM · 1490 CE — 1799 CESpain, Safed, Chassidut

83 events

5560–5699 AM · 1800 CE — 1939 CEHaskalah and Zionism

66 events

5700–6000 AM · 1940 CE — 2240 CEThe State of Israel and Our Days

59 events

Anchor points

1 · 3760 BCEThe Sin of the Tree of Knowledge

The single prohibition—not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge—is broken the same day: the serpent persuades Chava, who gives the fruit to Adam.

1 · 3760 BCEThe Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

The human is sent out of the garden lest he reach for the Tree of Life; cherubim and a whirling fiery sword guard the way back.

1 · 3760 BCEThe Creation of Adam and Chava

On the sixth day the human is formed from dust and filled with a living soul; from him the woman, Chava, "mother of all living", is separated.

1 · 3760 BCEThe Six Days of Creation

In six days God calls the world out of nothingness—light, separation, life—and on the seventh He rests, sanctifying the Sabbath.

40 · 3721 BCECain and Abel: the First Murder

Two brothers bring offerings: Abel's is accepted, Cain's is not. In the field Cain kills his brother and becomes a wanderer.

130 · 3631 BCEThe Birth of Shet (Seth)

130 years after the creation Shet is born to Adam—"for God has granted me other offspring in place of Abel". All humanity descends from him.

Routes

Guided walks through the timeline: fifteen to twenty minutes each, every step explaining itself.

Where to Begin: The Events You Have to Know

Twelve points that carry the whole of Jewish history: Creation, Abraham, the Exodus, Sinai, the two Temples, exile, the Talmud, Spain, the Shoah, and the State of Israel. Walk it once and you have the skeleton of the timeline; after that every other event has somewhere to hang. No prior knowledge is assumed — each step explains itself.

13 steps · ~10 min The Twelve Tribes: who they were and what came of them

Twelve names repeated in the Torah more often than any others — and of each most people remember a single line. This route walks the tribes in order of birth: whose son he was, what Jacob said of him before his death, where the portion fell and who came out of that tribe. By the end the twelve names stop being a list.

13 steps · ~16 min Abraham's Road: from Ur Kasdim to Hebron

Abraham lived 175 years and spent most of them on the road: Ur, Charan, Canaan, Egypt, Canaan again, Moriah, Hebron. This route follows those places in chronological order and shows how a people grows out of one man who left home. Along the way it becomes clear why tradition calls him the first who found the Creator by himself.

17 steps · ~14 min From Sinai to the Talmud: How the Torah Was Handed Down

"Moses received the Torah at Sinai and handed it to Joshua" — the opening mishnah of Avot describes a chain passed hand to hand. This route walks its links: prophets, the Men of the Great Assembly, the pairs of sages, Yavne, the Mishnah, the academies of Babylonia, the Talmud. You will see how an oral tradition twice came close to vanishing and both times was saved by being written down.

18 steps · ~16 min Exiles: Five Times a People Lost Its Home

Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, Spain — five exiles, each with its own mechanism and its own ending. This route shows how they differed: from where people returned and from where they did not, and why the ten tribes disappeared while the Judean community in Babylon flourished. It is the key storyline for understanding Jewish history between the Destruction and the modern age.

17 steps · ~15 min Who ruled the Land of Israel: from Joshua to our days

Three and a half thousand years of one land: whose rule stood over it in each age and what it meant for the people. The route follows the same strip as the track 'Who ruled the land' on the timeline, but step by step, through events: judges, kings, Babylon, Persia, Greece, the Hasmoneans, Rome, Byzantium, the caliphate, the Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, Britain, Israel. In all that time Jewish rule over the land stood three times.

18 steps · ~18 min The Ninth of Av Through the Centuries

One date that keeps returning: the spies in the wilderness, both Temples, Betar, the expulsion from Spain. This route follows those coincidences in order and shows how a people learned to fold different catastrophes into a single day of memory. It is not only about grief — by the end you see why the tradition keeps such a date at all.

18 steps · ~15 min How the Tanakh Took Shape

The Tanakh is not one book but a library assembled over roughly a thousand years: Torah, Prophets, Writings. This route runs from Sinai to the Men of the Great Assembly, showing when each part appeared, who wrote it down, and why the canon was eventually closed. Along the way it becomes clear how a prophet differs from a sage, and why nothing was added after Malachi.

18 steps · ~16 min Two Temples: Building, Destruction, Memory

From a portable tent in the wilderness to the Western Wall — nearly three and a half thousand years of one idea: worship needs a place. The route passes through the Mishkan, Shiloh, the purchase of Aravnah's threshing floor, both Temples and both destructions, and ends with what remains. You will see how the notion of "God's house" outlived the house itself.

18 steps · ~16 min Hasidism: The Argument That Changed the Jewish World

In half a century a new movement swept half of Eastern Europe — and provoked the sharpest internal conflict of the modern era. This route shows what Hasidism grew out of (Lurianic Kabbalah, pogroms, the trauma of false messianism), what exactly outraged the Vilna Gaon, and why in the end both sides won. It is a story about an argument that enriched a tradition instead of destroying it.

18 steps · ~16 min The Hasidic lines: from the Baal Shem Tov to the courts

There are more than two hundred Hasidic courts in this database, and nearly every one is named after a town that is long gone. This route shows where they all come from: the Baal Shem Tov left no heir, and the movement went out not as one line but as a bush, through the disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch. Twenty steps along the roots: Lizhensk, Chernobyl, Karlin, Chabad, Lublin, Peshischa, Kotzk, Ger, Vorka, Breslov, Kosov, Belz, Sanz, Ruzhin, Siget. The branches are named in the notes and can be opened by search.

20 steps · ~20 min The Return: from the First Aliyah to the State of Israel

Two centuries from the first organised resettlements to a state and the great waves of aliyah. The route passes through pogroms, Herzl, Tel Aviv, the Balfour Declaration, the Shoah, 1948, and the mass immigrations from Arab lands, Ethiopia and the USSR. You will see that "return" was never one decision but dozens of different ones — religious, political and forced.

18 steps · ~15 min

What you can do here

Besides reading. Reliability here is determined by Torah and tradition; where that count differs from the academic one, we say so.

TimelineLines of life

Noah died when Abraham was fifty-eight. Shem lived to see Jacob. On the timeline you do not work this out — you see it.

 TreeWho is whose

Family lines from Adam and lines of teaching from Sinai; every person has a page of his own.

 MapWhere it happened

The same history on a map: where each community lived, where each school taught, where each road led.

 QuizTest yourself

Questions from the timeline, and a title for the right answers — from Talmid to Chacham ha-Razim.

 TodayToday in history

What happened on this day of the Hebrew year, and in which year from Creation.

 AppSeder Olam on your phone

The timeline, the articles and the weekly portion, offline, without a browser.

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