The Twelve Tribes and the Twelve Months

In the ancient text of Sefer Yetzirah, the twelve months of the year are connected to a specific letter, a constellation, a part of the body and a certain “sense.” Later Kabbalistic texts further connected the twelve months to a permutation of God’s four-letter name, a planet, an element (fire, earth, air and water) and the twelve tribes of Israel.
According to the Zohar, the correspondence of the twelve months to the twelve tribes is achieved by beginning with the month of Nisan, the first of the months in a Jewish calendar. This is due to the fact that this month is the New Year of Months, whereas the month of Tishrei when Rosh Hashanah occurs is the New Year of Years. Since the Jewish calendar is basically a lunar one, Sefer Yetzirah and later Kabbalists begin their series of connections from the month of Nisan and the twelve tribes according to their order of birth, Later the Arizal, the great Kabbalist of Tsfat taught that a more rectified correspondence is achieved by using the order of the tribes as they camped in the desert as described in the Torah portion of Bamidbar.
Similar to when many different opinions are given on a subject we apply the Talmudic dictum to our present discussion: “These and these are the words of the Living God.” In other words, there is a point of truth in each opinion even when one opinion if decided upon to be the law or preferred point of view.
One of the ways to understand the different views of the Zohar and the Arizal could be explained by comparing it to what his referred to as teva rishon, a person’s innate nature ingrained at birth and further influenced by factors of nurture, and teva sheni, a person’s second nature, those characteristics acquired through long and hard spiritual and psychological work. There are certainly advantages to the innate qualities of teva rishon but teva sheni is considered a more mature, rectified state of consciousness due to an emotional, intellectual and spiritual refining process that occurs. A hint to the more rectified charecteristics of one’s second aquired nature is found in the numerical value of teva sheni (441) equaling the word emet, truth.
The Zohar chose the more natural sequence of corresponding the first of the months to the first of the tribes by birth, whereas the Arizal considered the order of the encampments in the desert ordained by God as a more rectified set of correspondences to the months. When making the comparisons between the months and all their many correspondences as discussed above, a host of amazing connections are revealed according to both systems, but in most cases the opinion of the Arizal takes precedent and is used primarily.
As stated above this is also true when comparing teva rishon and teva sheni. A person is born with a certain natural temperament which is then affected by the many factors of nurture such as upbringing, societal and peer pressure, as well as the circumstances of birth such as race, religion of parents, economic realities etc. Yet ultimately it is through choice and will power that people become who they are. Some people do not develop much more beyond a combination of nature and nurture, whereas others through hard work, determined will and prolonged effort can refine, improve, rectify, change and overcome the circumstances of nature and nurture.
A further comparison to the above ideas can be seen in how people’s names are frequently either permanently changed in the Torah or in certain places are written differently depending on the circumstance or context. There are also many examples as well in the Midrash of people having multiple names, each one representing a different quality or aspect of that person. The name change represents a qualitative transformation or essential rectification in a person’s essential being.
The Arizal who was privileged to receive from Above many new and revealing insights, must have apprehended that the order in which the tribes camped in the desert as described in this portion was revealing a more rectified and mature order of relating to the tribes. He also saw how this order corresponded more fully to the twelve months of the year and helped reveal both the months basic energy but also each of the tribe’s full potential. It is beyond the scope of this book to delve into these correspondences but it is well worth the readers time and effort to learn about each month’s energy in order to more fully understand how much spiritual growth can be achieved by “living with the times,” living with the essential energy and associations of each month.