How to format today's year per the Hebrew calendar with polyglossia?

Question

The following piece of code typesets today's date according to the Hebrew calendar:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{hebrew}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Arial}
\setmonofont{Arial}
\setsansfont{Arial}
\usepackage[useregional]{datetime2}
\begin{document}
\today
\end{document}

When compiled with XeLaTeX, this code produced:

The part of this line that represents the year is . There are other formats for the Hebrew year that are in common use:

• Without the apostrophe: . This format is used e.g. by ynet:

• Without the initial letter as well as the following apostrophe: . This format is used e.g. by Ha'aretz:

How can I specify these alternative year formats? I'm particularly interested in the most succinct version, the one used by Ha'aretz.

Answer 1

This answer is exclusively based on hebrewcal.sty (Hebrew calendar for polyglossia).

The current hebrew year is 5781. The abbreviated format (as used by Ha'aretz) is to quote only 781.

The code can deliver the full year or the short year format using the fullyear key.

In hebrewcal.sty the fullyear key is set to false by default, but the corresponding branch in the macro \HebrewYearName was not fully executed. (line #53 of hebrewcal.sty). I added a \relax to correct the problem.

Tested with xelatex with Arial fonts and lualatex with the New Computer Modern fonts.

This is what a normal \today looked like:

 %!TeX TS-program = xelatex

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{hebrew}
\setotherlanguage{english}

\usepackage{fontspec}

\setmainfont{Arial}
\setmonofont{Arial}
\setsansfont{Arial}
 %\usepackage[useregional]{datetime2}

\makeatletter   
\hebrewsetreg
\def\HebrewYearName#1{{%
        \@tempcnta=#1\divide\@tempcnta by 1000\multiply\@tempcnta by 1000
        \ifnum#1=\@tempcnta\relax % divisible by 1000: disambiguate
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}\ (לפ"ג)%
        \else % not divisible by 1000
        \ifnum#1<1000\relax     % first millennium: disambiguate
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}\ (לפ"ג)%
        \else%
        \ifnum#1<5000
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}%
        \else%
        \ifnum#1<6000 % current millenium, print without thousands
        \@tempcnta=#1\relax
        \if@hebrew@fullyear\else\advance\@tempcnta by -5000\relax\fi % changed <<<<<<
        \Hebrewnumeral{\@tempcnta}%
        \else % #1>6000
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}%
        \fi
        \fi
        \fi
        \fi}}

\makeatother

\newcommand{\ThisHebrewMonth}{%
\HebrewMonthName{\hebrewmonth}{\hebrewday}
}

\newcommand{\ThisHebrewYear}{%
\HebrewYearName{\hebrewyear}
}

\newcommand{\ThisHebrewDay}{%
\Hebrewnumeral{\hebrewday}
}

\newcommand{\HaToday}{%
\ThisHebrewDay\ThisHebrewMonth\ThisHebrewYear
}

\begin{document}
    
    \begin{english}     
        \bigskip    \hfill This day  
    \end{english}   
    
    \ThisHebrewDay
    
    \begin{english}     
        \bigskip    \hfill This month    
    \end{english}
    
    \ThisHebrewMonth
    
    \begin{english}     
        \bigskip    \hfill This year    
    \end{english}   
    
    \ThisHebrewYear
    
    \begin{english} 
        \bigskip  \hfill Today,  Ha'aretz way   
    \end{english}   
    
    \HaToday
    
\end{document}

Expanded answer

To cover some of the common formats for the Hebrew year I added 2 keys:

(1) fullyear = false/true. True= displays the present millennium (5). False: suppress the 5, but display the millennium if it is less than 5000.

(default=false => \setkeys{hebrew}{fullyear=false})

(2) firstapos = false/true. False= suppress the first apostrophe in a full year display.

(default=false => \setkeys{hebrew}{firstapost=false} )

The global default is \setkeys{hebrew}{firstapost=false, fullyear=false}

Keys can be placed anywhere and will affect the document from that point onwards.

The macro \HebrewYearName{<year>} accepts a numeric value for a year or \hebrewyear the current year.

Notes

The macro \@hebrew@@numeral controlling the first apostrophe is from babel-hebrewalph.def

The macro \HebrewYearName controlling the full or short format is from hebrewcal.sty

 %!TeX TS-program = xelatex

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{hebrew}
\setotherlanguage{english}

\usepackage{fontspec}

\setmainfont{Arial}
\setmonofont{Arial}
\setsansfont{Arial}
 %\usepackage[useregional]{datetime2}   

\makeatletter   
\hebrewsetreg

\define@boolkey{hebrew}[@hebrew@]{firstapost}[true]{}
\setkeys{hebrew}{firstapost=false}

\renewcommand*{\@hebrew@@numeral}[1]{%{% first apostrophe, from babel-hebrewalph.def
    \ifnum#1<\z@\space\xpg@warning{Illegal value (#1) for Hebrew numeral}%
    \else
    \@tempcnta=#1\@tempcntb=#1\relax
    \divide\@tempcntb by 1000
    \ifnum\@tempcntb=0\gim@nomil\@tempcnta\relax
    \else%
    \if@hebrew@firstapost%  
    {\@gim@apostfalse\@gim@finalfalse\@hebrew@numeral\@tempcntb}׳% 
    \else%
    \@gim@aposttrue\@gim@finalfalse\@hebrew@numeral\@tempcntb\relax% <<<<<<<<<<<
    \fi
    \multiply\@tempcntb by 1000\relax
    \advance\@tempcnta by -\@tempcntb\relax
    \gim@nomil\@tempcnta\relax
    \fi
    \fi
}
    
\def\HebrewYearName#1{{%{% full or short format, from hebrewcal.sty
        \@tempcnta=#1\divide\@tempcnta by 1000\multiply\@tempcnta by 1000
        \ifnum#1=\@tempcnta\relax % divisible by 1000: disambiguate
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}\ (לפ"ג)%
        \else % not divisible by 1000
        \ifnum#1<1000\relax     % first millennium: disambiguate
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}\ (לפ"ג)%
        \else%
        \ifnum#1<5000
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}%
        \else%
        \ifnum#1<6000 % current millenium, print without thousands
        \@tempcnta=#1\relax
        \if@hebrew@fullyear\else\advance\@tempcnta by -5000\relax\fi % changed <<<<<<
        \Hebrewnumeral{\@tempcnta}%
        \else % #1>6000
        \Hebrewnumeral{#1}%
        \fi
        \fi
        \fi
        \fi}}   

\makeatother
    
\begin{document}    
        
\begin{english} 
    \bigskip  \hfill \small This year,  full format
\end{english}

\setkeys{hebrew}{firstapost=true, fullyear=true} 
\HebrewYearName{\hebrewyear} 

\begin{english} 
    \bigskip  \hfill \small 5781,  without apostrophe   
\end{english}

\setkeys{hebrew}{firstapost=false, fullyear=true} 
\HebrewYearName{5781} 

\begin{english} 
    \bigskip  \hfill \small Common usage (omitting thousands)
\end{english}

\setkeys{hebrew}{firstapost=false, fullyear=false} % default
\HebrewYearName{5781} \\

\end{document}