This month is associated with the eighth son of Jacob, Asher. In the Bible, the month of Shvat appears in two contexts. “And it happened in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel after all that God had commanded them.”
After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses prepares the people for entry into the Promised Land. In his final speech, Moses highlights the most important laws, commandments and principles of God’s Torah so that Israel might achieve all that has been laid before it. In the eleventh month, Shvat, Moses connects past and future, renewing the covenant between God and Israel in this critical transitional phase.
At the beginning of the Second Temple period in Jerusalem, the people of Israel returned to their homeland and reestablished their seat of power in Eretz Yisrael. During this time, Zechariah (1:7) prophesied: “On the twentieth day of the eleventh month, that is Shvat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah.”...
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