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Is it permissible to write the secular/Christian date?
Example: On a letter (bad example but you get what I mean).
Some conceivable issues: We're told "this month (Nisan) shall be for you the head of the months", so calling the secular months "first", "second", etc., may be a violation of that. Secondly, the secular years are counted from Jesus's time, which may be inappropriate (like the rule against saying an idol's name). But those might bot be issues, or there may be others.
Dinonline has an extensive essay on this issue.
In short, the Tzitz Eliezer and Yabia Omer allow the writing of the secular date, but mention that the Jewish date is preferred when possible. They do have different ideas on how to write it out (see article for details). The Maharam Schik, on the other hand, was against such a practice (I remember learning that he was also against secular names and his last name which was שי"ק stood for Shem Yisrael Kodesh).
The Sefer Avnei Yashfei 1:153:3 goes through the sugya nicely. He seems to hold it to be okay to use on occasion for business or on other occasions on which one needs it, but not on a permanent basis. He gives a few examples where poskim used the secular date (see in tshuvah). One example is the Rama in his Shu"t Siman 51 where he mentions the year 1546 in December.
There’s a Rabbi Frand tape on it. It appears that in the Chasam Sofer’s world, the standard Jewish custom had been to write only the Hebrew date on a tombstone, and then some progressives wanted to include the Gregorian date — he railed against that change. But that was that particular application. Apparently there are documents and letters from the Chasam Sofer where he himself used the Gregorian date.
The Chosom Sofer to Shemos 12:2, after citing the Ramban there:
וזה תוכחת מוסר שנכתב בהמכתבים וכדומה יום ראשון בשבת וחודש ראשון להעיד על בריית שמים וארץ בששה ימים וינח ביום השביעי ועל יציאת מצרים ולא חס ושלום כמספרם של אומות העולם
And this is a rebuke that we should write in our letters and similar things "Day one of the Shabbos" and "First Month" to testify about the creation of Heaven and Earth in 6 days.. and on the exodus from Egypt, and not, Heaven forfend, [to count] with the numbers of the nations of the world.
And in Derashos Chosom Sofer Vol. 2 Drush L'Zayin Av 5570
נראה במנין שאנו מנין לבריאת עולם זוכרים אנחנו כי העולם מחודש וארץ ישראל ראוי לנו ואפילו הכי גלינו מארצינו, ולא כאותם חדשים מקרוב המונים שכותבים בריש מגילתא מנין לידת משיח הנוצרים וכותב וחותם עצמו שאין לו חלק באלקי ישראל אוי להם כי גמלו לנפשם רעה, בתורת ד' מאסו וחכמת מה להם
In the numbers that we count [of the years] from creation of the world we recall that the world was created from new... and not like those who have newly began to count at the top of their letters with the years since the Christian messiah, and they write and sign themselves as not having a portion with the G-d of Israel... and they have rejected the Torah of Hashem...
The Chosom Sofer himself wrote the secular date on occasion, but the Tzitz Eliezer explains that this was when there was some technical or official necessity to do so. In casual correspondence, however, he would not.
Get Poshut 127:30
ואפילו באגרות חול יראה דיש ליזהר שלא יכתבו אלא לבריאת עולם, לאפוקי מה שראיתי באגרות הבאות מהלועזים היושבים בארץ לועז דמונין כמנין הנוצרים בשמות החדשים ובמנין השנים ואין נכון לעשות כן
And even in secular letters, it seems appropriate to be careful to only write the years from creation, not like what I have seen that people write the months and years of the Christian count.
The Maharam Shik (Yoreh Deah 171) wrote that writing the Christian date violates a Biblical prohibition of ושם אלהים אחרים לא תזכירו (Shemos 23:13). The Tzitz Eliezer suggested that this is only when the date is explicitly identified as being the Christian date. The Be'er Moshe 19:7, however, strongly maintains that this is clearly not what the Maharam Shik meant.
There are opinions who allow it, but I have attempted to lay out that there is reason to refrain from doing so.
For many centuries (during the time of the Talmud), Jews used a secular calendar system. Dating based on the 'Creation of the World' only starting in the Medieval period.
From "Comparative Jewish Chronology" by Rabbi Simon Schwab:
In the spirit of the aforesaid, a new light is shed on the strange fact that - soon after Ezra and Nehemia - a new method of counting the years was introduced by our Sages, a method which was retained for well over 1200 years by our people. We are referring to the so called Greek Era. In Seder Olam 30 we are told that "in the exile" we are to write into our documents the date according to מנין שטרות אלפא. The term Minyan Sh'taroth means the "Era of Contracts" and refers to the so-called Seleucid era. This era, also sometimes called minyan yevanim, began on Rosh Hashanah 312-311 BCE after the battle of Gaza and the conquest of the Holy Land by Seleucus Nikator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great. The Seleucid era was in use until the Middle Ages when the familiar terms l'bri'as olam was introduced, or re-introduced, by the latter Gaonim, such as R. Sh'rira (cf Rambam hilchos Gerushin 1:27). There are numerous Gittin (divorce documents) still extant which carry the date according to minyan sh'taroth. We can very well understand the bewilderment of a Sadducee wondering why a non-Jewish date was admitted into the sacred documents (Yaddaim 4:8). For indeed minyan sh'taroth was not a Jewish date. It was employed by a majority of nations in the Near East and of the Mediterranean area for countless generations and still is in use in some Eastern groups.
Finally, the names of the months used by Jews (for many centuries) are based on the Babylonian calendar. They are not "the months that Hashem appointed," and are in fact based on pagan worship. (The Torah doesn't mention names for months; it just has numbers - first month, second month, etc.)
[ Talmudic era ] Jews in [ Babylon and Israel ] used Seleucid Era dating — also known as the Anno Graecorum (AG) or the Era of Contracts — as the primary method for calculating the calendar year. For example, the writings of Josephus and the Books of the Maccabees used Seleucid Era dating exclusively, and the Talmud tractate Avodah Zarah states :
Rav Aha b. Jacob then put this question : How do we know that our Era [of Documents] is connected with the Kingdom of Greece at all ? Why not say that it is reckoned from the Exodus from Egypt, omitting the first thousand years and giving the years of the next thousand ? In that case, the document is really post-dated !
Said Rav Nahman : In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used. He [the questioner] thought that Rav Nahman wanted to dispose of him anyhow, but when he went and studied it thoroughly he found that it is indeed taught [in a Baraita] : In the Diaspora the Greek Era alone is used.
— Anno Mundi.
