Quirky Calendar

Shlomo Perelman claims his Jewish calendar is accurate while others aren’t.

September 19, 2008

Bryan Schwartzman
Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia)

Tis the season for new calendars. Yet for the founder of the merchandising Web site, www.Judaism.com, the Judaic calendar is far more than something to be grabbed nonchalantly off a table outside High Holiday services, then tacked to the wall, only to be looked at sporadically throughout the year.

The Jewish calendar—with all its quirks, including the “leap” month of Adar, which is repeated twice every few years—is something to be absorbed, studied and used by all denominations as a means to transmit Jewish identity, history, culture and religion, according to Shlomo Perelman, who also owns Pinsker’s Judaica Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“To think Jewishly, we first have to connect to Jewish time,” said Mr. Perelman, an Orthodox Jew.

“We have this calendar that is so unique. It’s fixed. It’s the only thing in Jewish life that there is so little disagreement about,” he said.

According to Mr. Perelman, the problem comes down to the discrepancy between the Jewish calendar and the Gregorian, or secular, calendar. As every Hebrew school student learns, the Jewish day begins at sundown, not at midnight.

But Mr. Perelman said that printed Jewish calendars routinely ignore or gloss over this fact. In his opinion, that means that virtually all Jewish calendars since the invention of the printing press are partially inaccurate.

That’s just one of his beefs with existing calendars, and the reason why he decided to develop and market his own, titled “The Calendar of the Jewish People: The Animated Edition.”

“We’re looking to change the way people see the Jewish calendar,” he said. “It’s an easy way to express your Judaism by having an authentic Jewish calendar.”

Aimed particularly for use by families with young children, the new calendar—shaped like a daybook and bound with plastic rings—utilizes Claymation images that depict scenes ranging from a modern Passover seder and the Maccabees’ revolt to the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac descending from Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.

According to Mr. Perelman, what separates his daily planner from the rest is that it offers a “visual reminder” that the day begins at nighttime.

Another feature: For the festivals of Sukkot and Passover, the calendar displays the correct day both outside and in Israel, since the holidays last one less day in the Jewish state.

But how original is the calendar, and how much relevant information does it have to offer? For one, what it does not incorporate are sunset times indicating exactly when a day starts.

So if a child is born or someone dies close to sunset, you’d have to go to another source to find out when the Jewish date begins. Mr. Perelman explained that the exact time of sunset differs from place to place, and that it would be impractical to print dozens of different times.

What about Mr. Perelman’s claim for accuracy in his calendar? “Perhaps he is the first to incorporate this information visually into his calendar, and that is laudable,” said Elisheva Carlebach, a history professor at Queens College who is writing a book about Jewish calendars.

Ms. Carlebach, who answered all questions by e-mail, noted that one of the earliest printed versions of the calendar dates back to the late 15th century. In fact, since the publication of Hebrew characters was often restricted in much of Europe, the Jewish calendar did not become a common household item until the early 18th century.

“Most printed calendars were intended to be ephemeral—used for the year and then discarded,” explained Ms. Carlebach. “In modern times, as printing became more ubiquitous, more elaborate calendars bore advertising, political indoctrination, religious instruction and more elaborate artwork.”