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Parshas Bo - Shovavim Tat

By Avraham Cohen

Posted on 01/14/16

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

Before discussing Shovavim Tat – what it is and its import – we first need to understand the workings of the Jewish calendar. Could be that you already know how the Jewish calendar works; if so, then you might be able to use the following overview as a way of explaining it to our less knowledgeable brothers and sisters:


All the Hebrew months of the Jewish year are based on the lunar cycle: each Hebrew month follows the moon’s waxing and waning. The first day of every Hebrew month coincides with the New Moon; the middle of the month coincides with the Full Moon; and the end of every month coincides with the waning moon’s disappearance from the sky. Immediately afterwards, the cycle begins again with a New Month – a Rosh Chodesh celebration with the recitation of special additions to our Prayers and the festive reading of Hallel.


Every lunar month is approximately 29½ days long. The Jewish year is comprised of 12 months and the twelve months of the Jewish year therefore add up to 354 days [12 months x 29½ days/month = 354 days]. However, the time it takes for the earth to make one rotation around the sun (a solar year) is approximately 365 days. If you do the math, this means that every lunar year (of twelve months, 354 days) will always be 11 days short of the number of days in the solar year (365 days).


This is perfectly fine if you don’t mind when the months of your lunar year fall out in relationship to the seasons of the solar year. For instance (without adjustments) before you can say “l’shannah tova”, you will find that the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashannah is no longer in the fall (when it’s ‘supposed’ to be), but now has fallen back into the good ol’ summertime – and then into the springtime, etc. etc. This is exactly the situation with the Moslem calendar: They observe a twelve month cycle of lunar months, but do not make any adjustments for the 11 day shortage of the lunar year respective to the solar year. Therefore, their holidays can fall out at any time and in any season of the solar year. 


However, this does not work well for the Jews: the Torah mandates that the holydays which are so critical to our marking of time and tradition must fall out within a given seasonal time period – i.e. it is essential that the yom tov of Pesach come during “chodesh ha’aviv” (“a springtime month”). The question is: How will we ensure that our yom tovim fall out during the proper seasons of the year?


This is accomplished through the addition of an entire extra month within specified Jewish leap years – also known as an Intercalated Year (in English) or as a shanna m’ubar (in Hebrew; literally, a pregnant year). The extra month which is added is always between the months of Adar and Nissan (which are springtime months) and is known as Adar Sheini, or the Second Adar. Intercalated Years do not come all that often: only seven times interspersed within a period of nineteen years do we have an Intercalated Year in the Jewish calendar, and this is enough to set things straight regarding our holydays and the seasons of the solar year. Although during the time when the Sanhedrin existed, these years were proclaimed by the High Court, nowadays the seven years (within the nineteen year cycle) are predetermined, thanks to the astronomical calculations of Hillel the Elder.


What with the Jewish holidays ‘falling back’ (seasonally) and then ‘jumping forward’ (during an Intercalated Year), the Jewish holydays seem to ‘skip around’ – being either ‘early’ or ‘late’ with regards to the English calendar and/or the yearly seasons. But, in reality, the Jewish holydays don’t skip around at all! – they always come out exactly at the same ‘time’ every year, intimately tied to its particular lunar month.


Here’s one last interesting footnote to the fascinating interplay between the Jewish-lunar/solar-calendar and the English-solar-calendar: Every nineteen years, the two cycles will have been fully adjusted and are re-set back to square one. It is for this reason that your Hebrew birthday and your English birthday will most likely fall out on the same day every nineteen years – i.e. on your 19th, 38th, 57th, 76th, 95th etc. birthdays (ahd meah v’esrim shanna). However, sometimes the birthdays are a day ‘off’ due to other astronomical considerations.


Having got that squared away, we must now return to the question of: What is Shovavim Tat and what does it have to do with the Jewish calendar? 


Shovavim Tat is an acrostic whose Hebrew letters comprise the first letters of each of the following weekly Torah portions (parshiyos) – being the first 8 parshiyos in the Book of Exodus:  Shemos, Vaera, Bo (Vo when spelled with a vais), Beshalach (Veshalach when spelled with a vais), Yisro, Mishpatim, Terumah, Tetzaveh. [Note that we are now in the 3rd week of the Shovavim Tat cycle, Parshas Bo].


There is an observance associated with the weeks of Shovavim Tat which is observed only during an Intercalated Year [Note: This year on the Hebrew calendar - 5776 - is an Intercalated Year, and come the springtime, we will be inserting an Adar Sheini into this year’s calendar. All the holydays will ‘jump ahead’, with the result that Passover and all the subsequent holidays of the year will be ‘late’, perhaps resulting in a warmer Pesach and a colder Succos!].   Here is how R’ Eliyahu Kitov zt”l explains the observance of Shovavim Tat in his essential Sefer HaToda’ah (The Book of Our Heritage): 


 “During an Intercalated Year, whose winter is longer by one month than the winters of other years, it is the custom of the pious to voluntarily fast eight days: namely, on the eight Thursdays of the weeks when the above parshiyos are read…


“What is the reason for these eight fast days during the weeks of Shovavim Tat? Because there is an interruption of more than half a year between the BaHaB fast days of Cheshvan and the BaHaB fast days of Iyar…”


Hold the phone – what’s the “BaHaB fast days of Cheshvan and the BaHaB fast days of Iyar”? Once again, R’ Kitov explains:


“The first Monday [the second day of the week, yom beis = ‘Ba’), the following Thursday [the fifth day of the week, yom heh = ‘Ha’], and the following Monday [= ‘B’; thus BaHaB] which follow Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan (and Rosh Chodesh Iyar) are days of voluntary prayer and fasting. The reason for the designation of these days as days of fasting and prayer is that since the weeklong festival days which preceded them were days of feasting and rejoicing [i.e. the holydays of Succos in Tishrei and Pesach in Nissan, respectively], the pious fear lest the joyous celebration of those festivals caused excess levity and wrongdoing – therefore, the pious fast in atonement. This idea is expressed by David Hamelech when he writes, “Serve the L-rd in joy and rejoice in trembling” [Psalms 2:11] i.e. where there is rejoicing, there should also be trembling (fasting and repentance).


“Therefore, these fasts and prayer were designated after Succos and Pesach, in both of which there were many days of rejoicing without work – perhaps the people might have fallen into levity and sin. In the case of Shavuos, however (which consists of only one day), there is no such fear.”


Getting back to the story of Shovavim Tat:


“What is the reason for these eight fast days during the weeks of Shovavim Tat? Because there is an interruption of more than half a year between the BaHaB fast days of Cheshvan and the BaHaB fast days of Iyar. And since the pious fast BaHaB in order to attain forgiveness for the entire community for a period of half a year, the fast days of Shovavim Tat are intended to atone for Israel’s transgressions during the Intercalated Year and the extra month which is added to that Year.


“The essential aim of the fasts is to pray for Israel’s fruitfulness and well-being. In the first of these eight parshiyos [Parshas Shemos] it is written, “And for all that [the Egyptians] afflicted [the Jews], so did they increase and so did they multiply…” [Exodus 1:12]. And, in the last of these eight parshiyos [Parshas Tetzaveh] we find the commandment concerning the erection of the Mishkan [the desert Tabernacle], through which G-d’s presence dwells in the midst of the children of Israel”


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What is the message for us after learning about the pious and the fasts of BaHaB as well as the fasts and prayers of Shovavim Tat? I think it is safe to assume to most of us are not among the ‘very pious’ who take upon themselves to fast and pray with these voluntary offerings. However, can we not appreciate that the ‘gedolim’ amongst us care so much for every Jew that they are willing to take upon themselves personal deprivation, pleading for the well-being and fruitfulness of Klal Yisrael as well as for a reconciliation between the Jewish people and their Father in Heaven? G-d forbid that more than a half a year should go by without an opportunity to bridge any possible breach between G-d and His People! Even without fasting, all of us can concentrate more on repairing any breaches that may have developed between us and our Creator.


In addition, the eight parshiyos in questions begin with our enslavement in Egypt and end with our emancipation and the building of the Tabernacle in the desert – a harbinger of the Holy Temple that would one day stand in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Just as in those days, today we need prayers that will protect us from harm; to make us ‘fruitful’ and ensure our well-being – and that will culminate IY”H in the Final Redemption.