D’var Torah: How to Make a Bitter Month Sweet

This month, Heshvan, is often referred to as Mar Heshvan, or Bitter Heshvan. The reasoning behind this particular seasoning of the month is that it comes right after Tishrei, a month full of holidays, and is itself devoid of any real celebrations. In addition, many Torah commentators and Jewish historians have noted that Heshvan has contained much pain and suffering for the Jewish people throughout the ages. Among other things. Heshvan contains the anniversaries of the deaths of Rachel Imeinu, Nachmanides, and Yitzchak Rabin.

This could easily be a D’var Torah about any of those people, or about any of the other travesties that have occurred in Heshvan (Kristallnacht, for instance). But I am not going to write that D’var Torah, precisely because I’m sure that someone out there is. And this is an alarming trend among modern Jews.

Recently, I’ve begun to notice that my friends and I hardly ever talk about anything Jewish without complaining about it, or bemoaning our situation. We worry about the situation in Israel. We complain about Hebrew classes, long services, boring rabbis, and restrictive rules. It seems that now we have become especially adept at finding the worst in every situation. The truth is, we have much to be thankful for.

Heshvan, coming right after Tishrei, is actually the month of new beginnings. We have admitted to and atoned for our sins. We have begun the cycle of reading the Torah again. We go into the month with a clean spirit and a rejoicing heart. The rainy season begins, and in Israel they begin to pray for water. We read action-packed parshiot with strong positive messages, such as the reward for acting righteously (Noach), the holiness of Israel, and it’s bond to the Jewish people (Lech Lecha), the need to treat guests well (VaYera) and the reward that comes with treating strangers with kindness (Chaye Sara). Maybe Heshvan is empty of holidays because we need all the time we can get to show that we really meant our New Year’s resolutions. We need an uninterrupted period of time in which we can concentrate on all of the ideas that we’ve been bombarded with during Elul and Tishrei.

In fact, it turns out that the term Mar Heshvan was made up well after the Torah was canonized. In the actual Tanach, Heshvan is referred to as Yerach Bul, the month of Bul. Bul, many commentators think, comes from the word yevul (produce) because it is during this month that plowing and planting begin in Israel. Others see a reference to Mabul, flood, because Midrash tells us that more rain falls in this month since it marks the beginning of the great Flood during the time of Noach.

A month of production and moisture? That sounds pretty good to me.

Maybe this Heshvan I’ll concentrate on all the great things that have happened in history during this same time. Red Auerbach was born, the Balfour Declaration was Issued, Zeev Jabotinsky was born, 11 Israeli towns were started in one night….

[Posted 9/30/02]