Elul Thoughts #5: The Hebrew Calendar

As we approach the New Year 5769, it is fitting to discuss our calendar. The Hebrew calendar is cool when you think about it. The months of the Hebrew calendar are real lunar months. Months really should have something to do with the moon shouldn't they? Isn't it cooler to count the years from the Creation and not from the birth of you know who? Think about it!

Here in Israel you can write the Hebrew date on checks. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. Perhaps that will be one of my New Year's resolutions: to use the Hebrew date as much as possible, to be as conscious of the Hebrew date as much as possible. Today is the 16th of Elul, 5768! A Simple Jew has got the idea. My children were born here in Israel have almost no knowledge of the Gregorian calendar. Sometimes they will ask me questions like, "When is March?" I answer them and say that March is around the time of Adar.

A guy I know in Jerusalem is very strict about using only the Hebrew date. This calendar is his handiwork: