Ibur Year - 9 months - Significance of Shvat

In my Moshiach Podcast 17, I spoke about the concept of 9 months of 'pregnancy' of the ibur year (leap year) and how they correspond to the 10 sefiros - 9 months of pregnancy from Av >> Adar Sheni and then the tenth month is Nissan.

Thus: 

Av-Elul-Tishrei are the 'mochin' or hidden sefiros of Keser-Chochma-Binah - here the process was hidden and taking place behind the scenes, only coming out in the open at the end of Tishrei.

Cheshvan-Kislev-Teves are the sefiros of Chesed-Gevurah-Tiferes - Chesed was Cheshvan where the war began and - significantly - in the middle of the month - our troops went into Gaza. The middle of the month is always when the month is at its strongest in spiritual terms. Hence we have Pesach on the 15th and Succos on the 15th (and Purim on the 14th-15th). Gevurah is a holding back and we had the ceasefire in the very middle of the month of Kislev. Tiferes is the month we just finished, Teves, where these two came into a certain balance and the full expression of the the first three months.

As we enter the last trimester, we encounter Shvat-Adar I-Adar II which correspond to Netsach-Hod-Yesod. I don't want to get into all the current events but you can see what's happening and where we are headed if you open your eyes. Netsach-Shvat is the fourth sefirah and corresponds to the fourth day of creation, which is when the Nesirah took place. I won't speak about this here at length, but you can see a lengthy discussion of this in a different context at this blog post. Basically Nesirah is the painful separation of the female aspect from the male aspect, which start off back to back, in order to bring them into a face to face relationship. This process begins today, Rosh Chodesh, and peaks at Tu B'shvat - the middle of the month. The ramifications of it echo through the months of Adar I and Adar II (Hod and Yesod) until we reach the birth at the very end of Adar, around 25th of Adar and leading into Rosh Chodesh Nissan.

There is a lot to be said and understood based on the Sefiros and the way they play out in the months of the ibur year, but an important detail to take into account is that the first three sefiros of the revealed sefiros - chesed-gevurah-tiferes - these are each represented in the upper part of the body - the right hand, left hand and torso. These three are simpler expressions which parallel the individual's ability to do kindness or withhold kindness, etc. The final three - netsach-hod-yesod - are represented by the lower part of the body - netsach and hod are the 'two legs' and they interact with earth that they walk upon. This is indicative of a deeper manifestation of the previous three, and is also indicative of the expansion of what has gone on now from being a localized incident that seems to only affect the Land of Israel, to being an expanded manifestation, which expresses the deeper truth that Israel is a microcosm of the whole world, and whatever happens here in Israel affects the entire globe.