WINCHESTER, California (Press Release)–The story of the Jewish calendar, which begins with the Exodus from Egypt, is more than 3,500 years old. Over the millennia, the twelve individual Jewish tribes coalesced into the nation of Israel, adopting, adapting, and ultimately developing their own religious calendar, which has withstood the vagaries of the ages. At one time an observational calendar based on the visual sighting of the New Moon, the Jewish calendar is now a sophisticated calculated calendar based on average lunation time, while remaining true to its ancient past.
A small council of rabbis guarded the secret instructions for constructing the calendar, until the mid-fourth century CE when, due to repressive acts and ultimate dissolution of the Jewish Court by Roman emperors, Hillel II, President of the Jewish Court in Babylonia, revealed those rules, so that Jews anywhere are able to construct their religious calendar.
Today, those rules and how to apply them are, in general, neither well known, nor well understood. In The Jewish Calendar: History and Inner Workings, author and award-winning teacher Fred Reiss leads the reader through the history of the Jewish calendar, presenting each of the rules, why they were developed, and what they mean. Reiss teaches how to apply those rules to make a Jewish calendar for any year, past, present, or future, as he simplifies the complex associations and linkages among the calendar’s various parts.
The Jewish Calendar: History and Inner Workings by Fred Reiss, who is a contributing writer for San Diego Jewish World, sells for $14.95 in paperback. Its ISBN Number is 978 154 472 3822
Dr. Fred Reiss is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Public Education in Camden, NJ: From Inception to Integration; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and a fiction book, Reclaiming the Messiah.
Books are offered through Amazon.com. Book inquiries to: Dr. Fred Reiss at info@fredreissbooks.com.