The Jewish Year Seen Through Its Months
TheSeasonsSeasons Month of Tevet ofof thetheTevet / 5757 DecemberMoonMoon 11,1996 - January 8, 1997 THIS MONTHS SIGN GDEE / CAPRICORN THE SEEDS OFDOOM
he Philistines are the nation associated with the nly one fast in the Jewish year can ever fall on sign of the Goat (gdee). As the books of Joshua Friday. That fast is the Tenth of Tevet. When the and Judges remind us, the Philistines were Jewish calendar was fixed by Hillel II in 4110 CE, always a problem for the Jewish People. When OheO set down a rule that none of the five Rabbinic fasts could TIsrael forgot Who pro- ever fall on a Friday or T Shabbat. The reason tects them, they were delivered into the hands was that the pleasure of the Philistines. of Shabbat would be Samson gave his compromised if people Philistine wife a goat as a were to enter Shabbat gift, symbolically in a state of hunger, attempting to purify the and all the more if negative influence of the they were to fast on Philistine at its root. Shabbat itself. Even though Tevet However the has always seen events of exception to that rule hardship and evil for the is the Tenth of Tevet. People of Israel (Joseph In rare circumstances, Stalin was born in Tevet), such as this year, we nevertheless the planet fast all day Friday and that influences Tevet, break our fasts with Shabbtai (Saturn), sym- the wine of Kiddush bolizes the power of con- on Friday night. templation which characterizes the Shabbat experience: Why, of all the fasts, did our sages allow only the Tenth Refraining from the mundane, the world of the transcendent of Tevet to fall on a Friday? is revealed... When we look at the Tenth of Tevet itself, we would be Continued over
ake a look at any secular horoscope and youll first of months. see that the astrological year always begins with It is for this reason that Aries is the first sign of the Aries. Why? Jewish Year, because the month of Nissan was the first TTLogically, shouldnt Capricorn the sign in which month when there was a Jewish People. the first of January falls be But why does the secu- the first sign of the year in the THE RETURN OF THE SUN lar world also start their secular horoscope? lunar calendar in Aries? From the Jewish perspective, the answer is simple: What does the sign of Taleh/Aries signify for them? The Jewish People were born as a nation under the sign The world was created for the Torah to be learned. of Aries/Taleh. The first mitzvah that was given to the It follows, therefore, that if there would ever be one Jewish People while we were still in Egypt was the moment where the Torah was not being learned by Sanctification of the Moon. Hashem showed Moshe the someone, somewhere, then the entire Creation would New Moon and told him This month will be to you the lose its raison dêtre; it would literally lose its reason Continued over seasons of the moon THE SEEDS OF DOOM hard pushed to discern why this fast is exceptional. For the in reality, everything that is needed for the tree exists now in fast of the Tenth of Tevet commemorates the surrounding of the seed. What follows afterwards is no more than the Jerusalem by the armies of the Babylonian king dénouement of a reality which already exists now. Its not Nevuchadnetzar. No-one was killed. Nothing was burned. that the seed holds the potential for the tree to grow, but that Not even the most serious of the Rabbinic fasts the the tree is really here now. Ninth of Av is allowed to fall on a Friday, even though Now we can understand why it should be that the Tenth that day commemorates the greatest tragedies in Jewish his- of Tevet is so important; why it is an event that is allowed to tory. infringe on the pleasure of Shabbat itself. What is so special about the Tenth of Tevet? For although the Tenth of Tevet was only the beginning of When you look at a seed, what do the siege of Jerusalem, in reality, it was you see? Do you see the tree that will as though the two Batei Mikdash eventually grow? When you look at the (Holy Temples) and the other disasters seed of a plant, youre really looking at that were to grow from that seed had a movie thats being played out in front ...IF THERE already happened on the tenth of Tevet of your eyes right now. WOULD EVER BE what followed was merely the play- For its not so much that the seed ing out of a scenario that was already a hints to what may be in the future, but ONE MOMENT fully-fledged reality. WHERE THE THE RETURN OF THE SUN TORAH WAS to be and would return to a vast actuality, he had infected the envi- untrammeled emptiness as at the NOT BEING ronment, he had brought death to dawn of Creation. the world, and the world itself was A frightening thought! LEARNED BY slowly, slowly dying... Could it be that this subliminal SOMEONE, Thus for eight days he sat in fasting awareness of the importance of the and prayer... Then he saw a day Torah is what gears even the secular SOMEWHERE, which was longer that the previous horoscope to begin in Nissan, with THEN THE one. The light was coming back the creation of the Jewish People into the world! the receivers of the Torah? ENTIRE With this first winter solstice, But even if this were to be the CREATION Adam realized then that the short- case, the question still remains, ening of the days was no more than Why does the secular solar calen- WOULD LOSE a natural occurrence the way of dar begin with January at all? IT S RAISON the world. He then made a Yom Surely if the Astrological Calendar Tov celebration which lasted for a begins in March/April, then the DÊTRE... further eight days. In subsequent solar calendar should also start years he observed a festival for both from that time, and not, as it does, his eight days of fasting and prayer from the first of January. and the eight days of celebration. When the First Man walked the Earth, there was no- Could it be that this celebration that Adam made is one but him. When he saw the days beginning to short- the reason that the secular calendar begins with en, he thought that night was gradually conquering day. January? Could it be that the mid-Winter celebrations That the night was eating up the day, consuming it. But of the non-Jewish world are no more than an ancient why was this happening? memory of a festival created by the First Man when he Adam surmised that because he had brought sin into walked from darkness into light at the dawn of Time?
Sources: THE SEEDS OF DOOM - Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Dov Schwartzman, Rabbi Mendel Weinbach; THE RETURN OF THE SUN - Talmud Avoda Zara 8a, Maharal, Chidushei Haggadot; THIS MONTHS SIGN - Above the Zodiac by Rabbi Mattisyahu Glazerson
SEASONS OF THE MOON is written by Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair and edited by Rabbi Moshe Newman. Designed and Produced by the Office of Communications - Rabbi Eliezer Shapiro, Director Published by OHR SOMAYACH/TANENBAUM COLLEGE, 22 Shimon HaTzadik Street, Jerusalem, Israel. tel: 972-2-581-0315; fax: 972-2-581-2890; E-mail: [email protected] WWW: http://www.ohr.org.il This publication contains words of Torah. Please treat it with due respect.