Hebrew leap year
Enter any Hebrew year and see whether it's a leap year, where it falls in the 19-year cycle, how many months and days it has, and the leap years coming up next.
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Why the calendar adds a month
The Hebrew calendar is lunar: twelve months of about 29 or 30 days add up to roughly 354 days, eleven short of the 365-day solar year. Left alone, a lunar calendar drifts through the seasons, the way the Islamic calendar does, where Ramadan cycles through every season over about 33 years.
The Hebrew calendar avoids that drift by adding a 13th month, a second Adar, in 7 of every 19 years. That 19-year cycle (the Metonic cycle) keeps the lunar months in step with the solar year closely enough that Passover always falls in spring and Sukkot always falls in autumn.
Adar I and Adar II
In a leap year, Adar I (30 days) comes first, followed by Adar II (29 days), which carries Purim and all of Adar's usual observances. Adar I has a minor, obligation-free echo of Purim called Purim Katan.