The A-Z of Believing: Y is for Year

Ed Kessler, head of the Woolf Institute, presents the 25th part in a series about belief and scepticism

Saturday 02 February 2019 18:16 GMT
Comments
Just because you’re reading this in year 5779 doesn’t mean you’re in the future
Just because you’re reading this in year 5779 doesn’t mean you’re in the future

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice – TS Eliot

Some of you may be reading this series in the year 1440; others in 5779; for the majority I’d imagine it is 2019 although for Hindus living in India, the year could be 2075 (according to the Vikramaera cycle) or 1941 (according to the Shaka era). There are other options for Hindus as well. Confused? So was I when began to write the letter Y.

Let’s start at the beginning. For Jews, according to tradition, this is 5779. Why? Because that is the total number of years since the creation of the world, according to the Bible, first outlined by Rabbi Moses Maimonides in Sanctification of the Moon, written in 1178CE. CE, you might ask? I’ll come to that in a moment.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in