Name of the month: SHEVAT
Other names of the month:
Mazal of the month: DILI (BUCKET)
Tribe of the month (according to the Arizal): OSHER
Tribe of the month (according to the Zohar): YOSEF
The nature of the month
The month of Shevat contains in it the Rosh Hashana for the trees, known as Tu Bishvat, meaning the 15th of Shevat. It is celebrated with having new fruits as well as many fruits from the tree. It is a winter month of 30 days. The mazal, astrological sign, for Shevat is Dli, the bucket (to draw water). The tribe that this month parallels is Yosef, according to the order of birth, or Osher, according to the Degolim, camps. Most of this month, (if not all in a leap year), is part of the period known as Shovavim (Tat). On the first of Shevat, Moshe started saying over Sefer Devorim, known as Mishna Torah, in the fortieth year in the Midbar, shortly before he died. The special Shabbos Shira of Parshas Beshalach usually falls during Shevat.
Tradition about Shevat
Rav Hai Gaon relates the following Arabic tradition about Shevat:
In the month of Shevat, God throws down three burning coals to warm the earth. On the seventh of Shevat the first coal falls, to warm the air. On the fourteenth of the month the second falls, to warm the water in the trees. On that day the Arabs say: Today water has entered the trees. On the twenty-third of Shevat, the third coal is thrown, to warm the soil.