The anniversary (Jahrzeit) tablet of the death of Sámuel Abelesz.

The Orthodox formed their own community within the rapidly modernizing Jewish community of Pest in 1870. One of the founders was Sámuel Abelesz, an elder of the Chevrah Kadisha, the holy association for the burying of the dead. When he died in 1898, the community commemorated the day of his death by placing an ornate memorial plaque in the synagogue. As there is no All Souls Day in the Jewish tradition, the dead is remembered every year on the anniversary of their death (Jahrzeit). According to the plaque, Sámuel Abelesz died on the seventh day of the month of Kislev in the year of 5658 of the Jewish calendar. This day fell on 23 November 1898 in the Christian calendar. Hebrew letters possess numeric values and therefore dates are also recorded with letters. In order to learn the date, the numeric values of the individual letters are to be added together. If 1240/42 is added to the result, we get the date as per the Christian calendar. Following the year stands the abbreviation of ‘According to the Minor Calendar’. This means that 5,000 is to be added to the number expressed in the letters to get the Jewish date counted from the creation of the world. Jewish months are lunar months, from new moon to new moon, while the length of the year is equivalent to that of a solar year. Due to this system, days of the Jewish and the Christian calendar may “shift” relative to one another and the Jahrzeit may fall on different dates in the different years. The Jahrzeit of Sámuel Abelesz will fall on 10 November in 2013 and 29 November in 2014.