Jewish Years

Question

What is the Jewish Counting of the years based on? Why is this year 5766?

Answer

Jews have been counting years for quite a while. Prior to that, the count is based on working out the Biblical lives of various characters whose ages are given. One classical text that works it out is called “Seder Olam”.

Michoel Reach

Follow-up question

Question

In the calculation of the Jewish Years (5767), how many years were allocated to the time the Israelites spent in Egypt?

Answer

It’s a complex question, as there are several different numberings given in the Torah: 400 years, 430 years, and the count based on the lifetimes of the descendants of Levi = Kehat, Amram, Moses, given early in the book of Exodus. According to the latter count, they could not possibly have been in Egypt more than a couple of hundred years or so. Thus, our sages understand (and this understanding is found also in the Septuagint translation into Greek), that the count of 430 years includes “Egypt and other lands”, actually everywhere that the Jewish family/people lived from the time that the prophecy of exile was first given to Abraham until they finally left Egypt. Much of that time – 30 years of Abraham’s life, the whole lifetime of Isaac, and 137 years of Jacob’s – were actually lived in Canaan. But it was still in “a land not theirs (the text of the prophecy to Abraham)”; they had not been given it yet. Only 210 years were actually spent in Egypt.

It’s worth mentioning that every discussion of exile (and how long it will last) found in the Bible is intentionally unclear and has been misunderstood by the participants, until it was finally clarified by its fulfillment. This also happened for the 70 years in Babylonia, and our current exile (according to the book of Daniel). Of course, the last has not yet been clarified, may it be soon in our days.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach