The Jewish Book of Days: a companion for all seasons

Understanding the Larger Picture

10 Understanding the Larger Picture As long as the days of the earth endure, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. —GENESIS 8:22 11 Genesis tells us that the year has different, interlocking parts: summer and winter, day and night. We learn in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer that there are many layers to the year: seasons and times and cycles and passages. The wheel of the year is complex, wealthy with distinctions and characteristics added over time by a variety of interpreters. Understanding the cycle’s different elements requires an overview of Jewish traditions related to the division of time. Following are a number of traditions related to the seasons of the year along with some new interpretations. The Months The 12 months of the Hebrew year are given in the table here. Locating the Months in Sacred and Secular Time Month Falls During Important Holidays Tishrei September–October High Holy Days, Sukkot Heshvan October–November Rachel’s yahrzeit Kislev November–December Hanukkah Tevet December–January Hanukkah, Fast of 10 Tevet Shevat January–February Tu b’Shevat Adar February–March Purim (Adar II)* March Purim Nisan March–April Passover Iyar April–May Lag b’Omer Sivan May–June Shavuot Tammuz June–July Fast of 17 Tammuz Av July–August Tisha b’Av/Tu b’ Av Elul August–September Preparation for New Year *Appears only in leap years. 12 Understanding the larger picture Tishrei, Heshvan, and Kislev are autumn months; Tevet, Shevat, and Adar are winter months; Nisan, Iyar, and Sivan are spring months; and Tammuz, Av, and Elul are summer months (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 7; Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 94b). Most months contain a holiday or some form of sacred time (even Heshvan, the most notable exception to this rule, has significant days within it). In Sefer Yetzirah and other mystical traditions, each month has an Israelite tribe associated with it as well as a sensory experience of the body, as shown in the table here.1 Tribes and Senses of the Hebrew Months Month Tribe Sense Tishrei Ephraim Sexuality Heshvan Manasseh Smell Kislev Benjamin Sleep Tevet Dan Anger Shevat Asher Taste Adar Naphtali Laughter (Adar II) Dinah Intuition Nisan Judah Speech Iyar Issachar Thought Sivan Zebulun Movement Tammuz Reuben Sight Av Simeon Hearing Elul Gad Action *Appears only in leap years. The Halves of the Year The most basic division of the year is into halves: the six months from Tishrei to Adar (autumn and winter) and the six months from Nisan to Elul (spring and summer). The Talmud refers to the autumn and winter months as yemot hageshamim, “days of rain,” and the spring and summer months as yemot hachamah, “days of sun” (cf. Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 70b, Bava Metzi’a 101b). These phrases are used in regard to calendrical dating and even in regard to laws of renting homes. Aside from the practical consideration that the Middle Eastern summer months are sunny and winter months are rainy, we could read these halves of the year as two modes of human spiritual action. In the days of rain, when the days are shorter and the outward holidays fewer and when we spend more time inside, we turn inward to work on our spiritual growth. In the days of sun, when the festivals and the weather draw us outside, we turn outward to use that spiritual growth in the world, for repair and celebration. In the days of rain, which correspond to the planting season in the Land of Israel, we plant new seeds within ourselves . In the days of sun, we harvest the fruit of those seeds. The days of rain contain the festivals of the inner life: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are holidays of introspection; Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, holidays of gratitude for the harvest; Hanukkah and Purim, holidays of individual faith and courage. The days of sun contain the festivals of communal life: Passover, holiday of national freedom; Shavuot, holiday of revelation to the whole people at Sinai; and Tisha b’Av, holiday of national mourning. The holidays of each half of the year remind us of that half cycle’s innate qualities. 13 14 The Three Gates of the World The Jewish year is punctuated by three pilgrimage festivals: Passover or Pesach (the spring freedom festival and barley harvest), Shavuot (first...