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This is a continuation of my attempt to make the actual contents of Jewish teachings known to members of this forum. I don't know if this is apropos for La"G Ba`Omer (tonight and tomorrow), but I hope it is!

Happy lag b'omer.

The word for year, shanah, adds up to the number 355, the precise number of days in a full common (non-leap) year.

Don't you mean 365?

Ping back to the top. Happy La"G Ba`Omer, everyone!

Build a bonfire tonight! Go on a picnic tomorrow!

Um, you did read this, right?

Ping for your interest.

I am sure this embarrasses you as well.

But names are not the only Hebrews words whose numeric values are full of meaning. The word for year, shanah, adds up to the number 355, the precise number of days in a full common (non-leap) year.

The head of the year - Adam’s "birthday"- is allocated to four days of the week (corresponding to the first four prime numbers: 2,3,5,7)

Rosh Hashanah postponement rules
Day of week Number of days
Monday 353 355 383 385
Tuesday 354 384
Thursday 354 355 383 385
Saturday 353 355 383 385

By applying the postponements to the moladot Tishrei at the beginning and end of any Hebrew year, a table of four gates (Hebrew: arba’ah sha’arim), which is also a table of limits, can be developed which uniquely identifies which of the fourteen types the year is (the day of the week of 1 Tishrei, the number of days in Cheshvan and Kislev, and whether common or leap (embolismic)).[1][2][3][4] “Four gates” refers to the four allowable days of the week with which the year can begin. The first table of four gates was developed by Saadiah Gaon (892–942).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Computer_Programming/Hebrew_calendar

The four gates are four days (day 2,3,5,7) and therefore are also four “heads” (being the head/first of the years), and from hence the civil calendar “flows” (along with the beginning of the rainy season).

8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed:

9. And out of the ground (adamah) made the Lord God every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil:

10. And a river went out from Eden to water the garden; and from there it was divided, and became four rivers: (lit. heads).

Is this river symbolic of the yearly calendar? At its head, Rosh Hashanah, it is allocated into four heads. It waters/nourishes/refreshes the land continually with its returning (cyclical*) ordinances and feasts and remembrance days.

* hashanah = 360 = a complete circle

The four possible heads are

Monday (day 2)
Tuesday (day 3)
Thursday (day 5)
Saturday (day 7)

abbreviated as

יום ב'
יום ג'
יום ה'
יום ש'

(Sorry, I can't seem to get the coding/display right for the last one.)

Looks like a diaspora dreidel נ ג ה ש

But instead of a nun/nes it's a bet... bayit. ב ג ה ש

Do the four heads thus revolve and say, "bayit gadol haya sham"?

A great house was there?

Where?

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed

the tree of life also in the midst of the garden

And a river went out from Eden to water the garden...

This stuff never ends, does it. :)