SHEVAT

SHEVAT (Heb. שְׁבָט), the post-Exilic name of the 11^th month of the Jewish year. Occurring in Assyrian and other early Semitic inscriptions, in biblical and apocryphal records (Zech. 1:7; i Macc. 16:14), and frequent in rabbinic literature (e.g., Megillat Ta'anit), the name is held to be etymologically connected with the root sbt from which terms are derived for instruments used in "beating" and "striking" in Semitic and in some Indo-European languages. The zodiacal sign of Shevat is Aquarius. In the present fixed Jewish calendar it invariably consists of 30 days, the 1^st of Shevat never falling on Sunday or Friday (see *Calendar). In the 20^th century, Shevat in its earliest occurrence extended from January 1^st to 30^th and in its latest from January 31^st to March 1^st. Historic days in Shevat are feasts; (1) Second of Shevat, the anniversary of the death of *Alexander Yannai (Meg. Ta'an. 11); (2) 15^th of Shevat, the New Year for trees (see *Tu bi-Shevat; rh 1:1); (3) 22^nd of Shevat, the anniversary of the assassination of the emperor *Caligula and the abolition of his blasphemous decree to erect his statue in the Temple in Jerusalem (Meg. Ta'an. 11; January 24^th, 41 c.e.); (4) 28^th of Shevat, the anniversary of the death of *Antiochus iv Epiphanes (Meg. Ta'an., ibid.); fasts: 5^th (or 8^th) and 23rd of Shevat, once observed in memory of the death of righteous men in the generation of Joshua the son of Nun (ibid., 13; Jud. 2:10), and of Israel's battle against Benjamin and the idol of Micah (ibid., 17–21).

[Ephraim Jehudah Wiesenberg]