A plan for a new universal calendar, based on reform of the Hebrew calendar, gas been brought forward by Nissim Elnecave, Jewish scholar, in an article in a special edition of the review La Luz commemorating the end of the 57th Hebrew century.
After reviewing the calendars of ancient and modern times, the author outlines a Perpetual Sabbatical Calendar, involving primarily reform of the Hebrew calendar but which could be used by all nations.
This calendar’s characteristics are the following:
(1) The year, the month and the week start always on Sunday and end on Saturday. Commemoration of the Sabbath as a day of rest would fit in perfectly since Sunday always would come at the end of a week, a month and a year.
(2) The year is sub-divided always in complete weeks. The dates of holidays and the day of the week in which they occur would thus be permanently established. For example, Rosh Hashona (Hebrew New Year) and Easter would always take place on a Sunday.
(3) A year consists of 364 days (or 52 weeks) when a regular year is involved and 371 days (or 53 weeks) in a leap year.
(4) A year is divided into 13 months of 28 days each. The additional week in a leap year is added to the 13th month, making it a 35-day month. Thus a Sabbatical Calendar applied to any year is suitable for the ensuing years.
(5) The calendar establishes a 28-year period during which five additional weeks are included in order to offset the loss of 111/4 days each year. These five weeks are added on in the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 28th year of this 28-year period, which thus become leap years.
(6) To establish whether a year is a leap year or not all that is necessary is to divide the specific year by 28. If the remaining figure is equal to 5, 10, 15, 20 or 28 the year is a leap year, otherwise it is a regular year.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
