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The Jewish calendar is one of the more complex calendars in use in the world today and is a good example of a lunisolar calendar. |
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Throughout the discussion of the Jewish calendar, various terms in Yiddish or Hebrew are used. The translation of the terms into English is subject to considerable variation for several reasons. First, note that written Hebrew includes only consonantal letters. Second, the accepted manner of representing certain sounds varies with author and time. Older texts frequently use ch, for example, for the guttural 'kh' sound, while modern usage tends to use 'h'. The existence of Yiddish, and the fact that it derives from German roots, further complicates this situation. The 'sh' sound is frequently represented as sch. The letters 'v' and 'w' are frequently inverted. The labials 'b' and 'v' are often exchanged, as they are in Mexican Spanish, and terminal 't' and 'th' are frequently confused. |
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For the purposes of this discussion, I have elected to use certain spellings consistently. By and large, the choice reflects modern usage. You are cautioned that spellings are only translations, so you should be prepared to find other authors using other spellings, particularly in older texts. |
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9.4.1.1
Structural Details |
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This section considers the Jewish calendar from the standpoint of its structure. |
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The day begins and ends at sunset. This rule applies to religious observance, but for the purpose of calendric calculation, the day begins and ends at 6 p.m., Jerusalem time. The hour 6 p.m. is designated as hour 0 (or 24). |
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9.4.1.1.2
Parts of the Day |
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The day is divided into 24 equal hours. Midnight is hour 6, noon is hour 18. Each hour is divided into 1,080 halakim. Each helek is divided into 76 regaim. The rega unit is not further divided. |
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The days of the week are numbered, rather than named, except for the last, called Sabbath. Thus, the first day of the week is Sunday. The week is the largest unit with an invariant size. |
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9.4.1.1.4
The Month and Year |
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Beyond the week, any lunisolar calendar must face two problems: |
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The synodic period of the moon is not constant, but varies. |
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