The Y6K Bug
It recently occurred to me that the representation of years in the Hebrew
calendar using gematria (aleph=1, bet=2, etc.) will be seriously challenged
by the next Hebrew millennium in 240 years. Using gematria, 5743, for
example, is tav (400) shin (300) mem (40) gimmel (3), forming the acronym
"tashmag." The thousands digit is not included, on the grounds that it
doesn't matter and would take up much more space (thirteen more letters,
since the maximum value in gematria is 400). This year, 5760, is tav shin
samech.
This system breaks down in the year 6000; there is no representation in
gematria for zero (at least, to the best of my knowledge). If we stick to
the convention that the thousands digit is excluded (let's assume that we
know that it's 6000 and not 5000 or 7000), we have no alphabetic
representation for the year at all. Our descendants will be forced to use
"Arabic" numerals (which are of Indian origin, and are not the way in which
numbers are written in traditional Arabic) such as 6000 to describe the
date.
Of course, since there is no year zero, the millennium actually begins in
6001.