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NOAH’S ARK A newspaper for Jewish eliililren Vol. IX, No. 1 Supplement to The Southern Israelite September, 1986/Av-Elul, 5746 Save each New Year card and letter. They'll make your Sukkah walls look better! Just hang them up along each wall - Use them all, both large and small! innnn (Ta-cha-root) - Contest! Enter this High Holiday contest and win a copy of The Great Jewish Quiz Book by Barbara Spector. First, work the rebus below to find the true answer to this question (from The Great Jewish Quiz Book): According to Jewish tradition, what important event oc curred in the year 1? + - B + - B = t Now, send in the completed form below. (You must be 6-12 years old to enter.) The winning entry will be picked in a drawing of all correct entries received. Deadline: October 10, 1986. Clip and Mail Your Name: Address: _ City: State: Age: Zip: Answer to Rebus: Mail to: NOAH’S ARK, Quiz Contest, 7726 Portal, Houston, Texas 77071. Why Is It 5747 And Not 1986? Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins Friday night, October 3, 1986. On that evening, the new year will become 5747! Where did we get that number? Why is the year 5747 instead of 1986 on the Jewish calendar? Actually, the Hebrew words “Rosh Hashanah” really mean “head of the year”. On Rosh Hashanah, we are celebrating a birth day - the birthday of the world! In the evening of October 3rd, we *tfill celebrate the 5747th birthday of the world! But scientists tell us the world is older than that! They say the world is at least 4% billion years old! How did the Jewish people get the number 5747? For hundreds of years, Jews used to count the years beginning with the exodus from Egypt. In other words, the first year after leaving Egypt was the year one. After the Holy Temple in Jeru salem was destroyed, the Rabbis decided to use the creation of the world as year number one. But how did they figure out when the world began? The Rabbis studied all of the information they had, especially the Bible. They counted all of the periods of time mentioned in the Bible, such as the ages of Noah and Abraham, and the seven days of creation. They counted the days and years as we do today. For example, they counted a day as 24 hours, just as we do now. Of course, the Rabbis knew that the time mentioned in the Bible was not the same as it is today. But they added up the number of years anyway, knowing that the numbers were not exact. The total number of years was meant to be a symbol, just a way to help us count. The number of years we celebrate is not important. The im portant part is that on Rosh Hashanah we remember to celebrate the birthday of the world! (Primary source: To Be A Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin; Basic Books, Inc. Publishers; Copyright, 1972.) PAGE 1NA THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 3, 1986