New in 5772: Ask the Rabbi

I have started a new feature on Darchei Noam called "Ask the Rabbi."  You can ask me any Jewish questions (you get to define what "Jewish question" means), and I will attempt to explore them on the blog.  Notice that I didn't write answer them because sometimes good questions don't have answers, they just bring up more questions.  You can send me your questions via the Beth Israel webpage, and I will periodically select questions to feature on the blog.  

So, here is the first question of 5772 from Karen, and it is very timely:

Where exactly did the Hebrew year come from? We're going into 5772. I've read it's supposed to be the start of the world, which we know isn't true, but how was this derived?

Great question.  You mean the world isn't 5772 years old?  To answer Karen's question, we have to go back to the Tannaim who attempted to calculate the date of Creation.  The ancient sage Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta calculated, by using the Bible's account of lifetimes and kingdoms, the creation of the world to have been on (in our secular calendar system) on Monday Oct. 7, 3761 BCE.  Here is Rabbi Yossi's scheme.  A work attributed to Rabbi Yossi callled Seder Olam codified this view, and by the Middle Ages, this became the standard Jewish date.  "Christians count from the birth of their guy, but we count from the birth of everything," I can see one of our ancestors exclaiming.

Now does this mean that to be a Jew you have to believe that the world is only 5772 years old?  The simple answer is: no!  Some Jews do take it literally, but they are very small in number.  Some try to find mystical meanings in the number and then reconcile it to science and the Big Bang.  Others, like me, read it as a myth.  When I use the word "myth", I do not mean "fairy tale" or "lie" as it is usually defined in today's parlance.  I mean "myth" as a foundational story that give our personal and communal lives meaning (see Neil Gillman).  When we Jews say that we are counting from Creation, we are saying the world and our role in it is important.  In other words, our lives are orientated towards the world.  We live in creation, and it our job to help bring perfection to God's creation.

Shabbat Shalom.