Q&A: Hebrew Calendar
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Hebrew Calendar
Question
Rabbi Michael Abraham, hello.
With your permission, I would be glad to ask two questions:
1. Is there anything improper, and perhaps even an issue of idolatry, in speaking and conducting oneself according to the Gregorian calendar? (There was a responsum by one of the rabbis who said that this is even idolatry, and it seems strange to me.)
2. Why does the Hebrew calendar still exist, and why do so many people still follow it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go by the Gregorian calendar, since it is much more precise and doesn’t require adding months every other year, etc.?
Answer
- That indeed does not sound plausible. This is the civil calendar accepted throughout the world, and it has completely lost its religious significance. It is roughly like Christmas celebrations that people have today. One can say that there is value in using the Hebrew calendar, but to say that using the Gregorian calendar is idolatry seems very puzzling to me. And in practice, everyone does it all the time.
- Here you are entering questions of Jewish law. In everyday life you can use whichever calendar seems right to you, but for setting holidays and the like there is a full obligation to calculate according to the Hebrew calendar. This is also not a question of being more or less precise. Precision is defined relative to some standard. But when the two calendars are aiming at different things, there is no way to compare them and determine that one is more precise than the other.