The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-09-19
jewish new YEAR today
Opening Of the Year 5656,Which Dates
from the Day OF Creation.
BEGAN AT SUNSET YESTERDAY
Social Intercourse and Religious Obscrva
tiOn Will Feature the DOings Of the
Festival bay Services Held In
,thc Linden Street Temple.

Festival Day-ScrvtccS ucIu IN
,thc Linden Street Temple.
At sunset last night began the Jew
ish New Year, 1855. which Is from the
beginning of creation. Sociab!litV ana
religious observation on "A scale greater
than is observed by Christians and
their churches will be the order OF
things until sunset tonight, when ter
inmates the greatest of Jewish holl-
days. Ten days from yesterday. or,
on Saturday. Sept. ~. will occur the
Day q! Atonement. the daylight hours
of which will mostly be spent In wor-
ship In the Linden Street temple ana
other Jewish churches in the city. The
New Year and the Day of Atonement
are called fearful days" but the latter
rather than the former is given up eN-
Clusvely To religious function,
The New Year was begun at $50
o'clock last night by special service In
the Linden Street temple, where was
used FOR the first time in Scranton the
new reform ritual. lately adopted by
the Central Conference of American
rabbis, 1t contains new music con
gregational singing and responsive
readings, and is mostly in the English
tongue. whereas the old ritual was
book will be permanently used. dating
from yesterday.
Last Evenings Services
Usually the New Years eve service
begins at 80 O'clock but owing to the
special music and an unusual elabor-
atencss OF detail in the service the time
was set one hour earlier. Rev. j.
Feuerlcht's sermon dealt with the sig
nificanCe and Importance of the 'eStl-
val and the duty which comes with the
New Wear. Another service will he
held at 10 O'Clock this morning. when
the lecture topic will be Belief and
Disbelief"
During today nearly all the places of
business owned by Jews will be closed.
many of them being tight shut at &
O'clock last night New Years calls,
family dinners and social intercourse
will he the order of thugs until this
evening. or to be exact. at the hour ot
sunset. when the festival ends As ov-
cry New Years day is most pro-
pitiOus time for the exchange OF civil
ties and the compliments of the season.
so is the Jewish. In the ritual of the
sVrag0Cun. the prayer is on thit day
that all men, without distinction of race
or creed. be recorded in the book OF life
for n year of happiness and good
works. and as the friends meet they
repeat. in Hebrew, the wish For
good year may you be recorded
Opinion of ralnndic Doctors.
That on this day the world was Great
ed is the opinion of some of the Tai
mudic doctors Hence its annual oc-
curenca adds another year to the num-
bar elapsed since God commander
chaos to range itself into his designed
order. But. nevertheless. the habit of
counting. according to the era from
the creation of the world is.
compare lively speaking, very recent
among the Jews. The first indications
of it's employment are found in docu-
ments of the latter half of the tenth
Christian century. The number of the
year opening last night. 1856. Is based
on the following figures. computed
partly from biblical data. and partly
from traditional calculations.
From the creation to the exodus from
Cgypt were reckoned 244S years: from
exodus to the destruction of the sec
ond temple, 13S0 years. This year cor
responds to the year IS of the Christian
era. So. to know which year the new
one of the era Ammo Mundi is. we must
subtract 6S from 1886. which leaves
1,S2S, and add thereto 2.4iS and l,380-
3.S2S To recapitulate, 1,S2S and 3,S2S-
5.656
The years of this era are not Of equal
lengths. The Jewish year is a lunar
one But. as the solar years and the
lunar do not correspond, and the seq
sons of the festivals are fixed by biblical
ordinance, the Jewish year is in contra
disdiction f. /. with the Mohammedan
lunar year-not movable, but fixed
Cvclc Of Nineteen Lunar Years.
The Jewish calendar has cycle of
nineteen lunar years in which seven
intercalary months occur. equal
Though not qute) to nineteen solar
years. The intercalary year consists
Of thirteen months, the twelfth Adar
being doubled: while the other has
twelve months Of thirty and twenty
nine days respectively. Two months.
the eighth and ninth, may have either
twenty or thirty days. while the
intercalary month. and in leap years
also. his namesake have thirty days.
The fact that the eighth and ninth
months may be Increased or decreased
is due to certain astronomical-arith
metical considerations. and ritual ne
cessities. Fragments of days are neg
lected each year until they amount to
n full day. when it Is added to the
eighth month. making 1t thirty days.
For certain ritual reasons. New Years
day can only fall on n Monday, Tues
day Thursday or Saturday. In conse-
pnence we have six different kinds Of
years--n ordinary: (a) defective. of 2I2
days: fb regular of 3JA days: (c)
abundant. of 3jj days: and the three
corresponding kinds in the intercalated
class. of .%S3, 3A and 385 years respec-
lively. The year now beginning will