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Ha-Tesha

On Saturday, the Jews will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year's Day (Literally, "Head of the year"). The Jewish year starting on this holiday will be 5770.

In Hebrew gematria, witch assigns numeric values to letters, the new year starting next week will be called "Ha-Tesha" (ה' תש"ע), meaning "The Nine". People will by trying to find a meaning to that. What is, or who are the nine? Maybe there's a clue in the bible or another Jewish text. Maybe there are prophecies about this year that have the number nine in them.

Thinking of it, the 60's are ending this week. Thinking of it again – we're in the 58th century. The Hebrew calendar counts the years since the creation of the world. According to the bible, the world will be 5770 years old on Saturday. Actually, in the bible itself, the dates donated don't mention the years since the creation of the world – they were relative to various events, like the beginnings of kings' terms, earthquakes, etc. Only at the time of the second temple, the time passed since the creation of the world was calculated, and the Hebrew calendar started to use these years.

A similar case is in the Christian calendar: Today, it is 2009 years since the birth of Jesus, but actually, these years weren’t really counted since Jesus' birth. The Roman Empire, even when it adopted Christianity as its official religion on the fourth century, kept its original calendar. Only in the middle ages, the dates were calculated retroactive. It is said that there might even be an error of up to 7 years in the date when Jesus was born.

The Muslim case is different. The Muslims have actually started to count the years from the beginning. Their calendar is called "The Hijri Calendar". It starts in an event called the "Hijra", when Muhammad moved from the city of Makah to the city of Medina, and the Islam started to rise. Their year today is 1429. Texts from early Islam times mention the years in the Hijri Calendar, years like 1, 2, and so on.

People would say that the time when the calendar was set is not as important as its meaning. The reference to the creation of the world, Jesus' birth and the Hijra are the important issues.

The communist Soviet Union, that didn't allow religions, allowed one and only holiday: New Year's Day. It was set at January 1^st, it has decorated trees and a character that would definitely remind us of Santa Clause, but the Russians insist it has nothing to do with Christianity.

May your year be good and as sweet as an apple with honey.

September 14^th, 2009.

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