I love getting things like this in my inbox:

Hey everyone, here is an update report from Brian in Israel on the state of the Barley crop. The Barley crop must be ripe for harvest in order to call the upcoming month the new year.  It appears that the crops are at that stage and so the next New Moon will begin the Hebrew new year.

There is something comforting and soothing to me about the idea of tying the marking of time to the land. The Gregorian calendar is not something I resonate with. It feel artificial, imposed, dogmatic. I think we each have our own point in time where the year starts, whether it’s spring equinox, or the end of October, or our birthday. Regardless of where it is, the idea that it starts in the dead of winter, not tied to any astrological, earthbound, or personal event, is just weird to me.

So I read things like that, and I get the warm fuzzies.