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From: R. Feldman
Subject: Gregorian bridge
Date: 21 Adar 5780
The chair would note that this question was anticipated during drafting.
The specification deliberately excludes conversion for several reasons:
1. The Gregorian calendar has changed over history. Before 1582, the Julian calendar was in use. Before that, other systems. A "complete" conversion algorithm would need to handle historical dates differently.
2. Our calendar calculation involves disputed details. Different communities resolve the molad calculation with different precision. Some observational aspects remain contested.
3. Conversion implies equivalence. To say "15 Shevat 5784 equals January 25, 2024" is to make a claim about how the calendars relate. This committee is not positioned to make that claim.
We leave conversion to implementations because implementations know their context.
—Yaakov Feldman, Chair
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