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Question: Can you please tell me what time period is being counted when we see that the new Hebrew year is 5769. I guess the question is where does the calendar start? What time in history?
Answer: G-d’s calendar follows the lunar cycle but is coordinated with the solar cycle because the Jewish year must be kept seasonally adjusted. To do this, every 19 years there are 12 years of 12 months and 7 years of 13 months. This maintains the two calendars always well within a month apart of each other.
G-d’s years begin with the birth of Adam, the first man. This was Rosh Hashana of the year 1. Note that Adam was born on Creation Day #6, and that the calendar does not include what happened in the telling of the first 5 days of the Creation Story. Today we are in the 5,768 year since the birth of Adam, and this corresponds to parts of the Gregorian years 2007/08.
Regards,
Eliahu Levenson
