Shevat 5779 שבט

Monday, January 7, 2019.  It was cold and bitter out at the lake again, icy on the sidewalks – it must be winter in Cleveland!  If you look up the word “Shevat” online, you will find several interpretations, all invoking the Akkadian origin “sabatu”, variously translated as “conquest”, “destruction”, “strike”.  I prefer Chabad’s translation, “lashing”, as in the lashing of the rain on the land as winter comes to a close in the Middle East.

Shevat is a water month, its sign Aquarius, the water bearer.  I was in Arizona last week in a driving, cold rainstorm, one of many this winter, and all the naturalists in my circle were rejoicing at the likely spectacular desert bloom to come.  So much rain brings so much growth in a month or two, especially in arid lands.  So, too, in biblical Israel, the month of Shevat was a month of lashing cold rain, a blessing to be celebrated nonetheless, for it soaked tree roots and soil and established the foundation for a summer of growth, a good harvest.

How many cold rains have each of us endured in our lifetimes?  How many of us can say we celebrated them as necessary foundations for growth? How many of those rains have nourished our gardens, our families, our relationships? — May we grow into the coming month, as we celebrate Tu B’Shvat and honor the trees, and the rain that sustains them. — Kirby