This coming Thursday is Rosh Chodesh Sh’vat, the beginning of the Hebrew lunar month. This week, we’ll explore the history behind the month and the questions it poses for the modern Jew.
We discover the first recorded mention of the month of Sh’vat in the post-exilic Book of Zechariah, as the prophet identifies the date of his first revelation during the reign of the Persian monarch, Darius.
However, scholars suggest that the name for the month, like the rest of the Hebrew calendar, is borrowed from the eleventh month in the Assyro-Babylonian calendar, Araḫ Šabaṭu. Sabatu means “the destroying one,” which refers to the furious rains that reached their highest pitch during this month. The month was also closely associated with the god of rain, and later, the astrological sign of Aquarius.
According to the medieval scholar, Rashi, though the month represents the peak of the rain season in Babylon, it coincides with the denouement of the rain season in Israel, as well as the blossoming of almond trees. Thus, while the Assyro-Babylonian nomenclature for the month focuses upon the potential dangers of the rain season, the Jewish calendar, instead, emphasizes the life-giving nature of rain and the beginning of spring.
Often, our lives bestow upon us forces that, like rain, portend both danger and blessing. When should we focus upon the dangers these forces present, like the Babylonian calendar, and when, instead, should we emphasize their potential blessings, like the Hebrew calendar?
— Rabbi Josh Knobel