The Prayers of Cheshvan

(an excerpt from Orchard of Delights)

Cheshvan is the only Hebrew month containing no holiday, commemorative event, or fast day. Following the month of Tishrei, which has the major holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret, this lack is particularly noticeable. For this reason some call it ‘Mar Cheshvan’ (Bitter Heshvan). Yet, tradition teaches that in Messianic times, Heshvan will be “rewarded,” for the Third Temple will be inaugurated during it. For this reason some people already refer to this month as ‘Ram Cheshvan’ (Exalted Cheshvan). Alluding to this, the word ‘ram’ is actually the inverted form of the word ‘mar.’

     Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach teaches that this month’s enormous spiritual potential is created by the nature of our Heshvan prayers: prayers that reflect how we pray when it seems as if our task has been completed, the verdict for the year finalized. During Tishrei, when we are surrounded by the holiness of all the holidays, it is easy to find the incentive and inspiration to pray. But what happens when the holidays are over and we return to our ordinary routines? If we fall back into our old ways as well, then the prayers and spiritual service of Tishrei failed to touch us deeply enough. If we can actually bring to fruition those changes we strived for and keep praying with the same commitment and intensity, then we have the ability to transform a potentially bitter month into an exalted one.

     The importance of not letting go of the achievements we have attained in Tishrei is also reflected in the portion of Va’eira, which always occurs in the middle of Cheshvan. In this portion, the first recorded prayer in the Torah takes place as Abraham prays to save the wicked people of Sodom. His prayer seems to go virtually unanswered – God will save the city if there are ten righteous men, which there are not – and the verse states that Abraham “returned to his place” (Genesis 18:33). But what should interest us is the following: what does Abraham do after he has reached the heights of prayer and seen his prayers essentially rejected? A literal or peshat reading of the verse would teach us that Abraham gave up, leaving the place where he had been talking to God, but a deeper reading taught by Rabbi Carlebach sheds further light on the matter: Abraham, despite his seeming failure, returned to his original stance, “his place,” and continued to pray. Though the text seems to indicate that Abraham’s prayers go unanswered, Abraham’s prayers not only helped save his nephew Lot, but even the eventual spark of the Mashiach, who is descended from Lot through Ruth. Furthermore, in this first recorded prayer, Abraham modeled for all time what prayer means to us as individuals and Jews: Abraham implanted in the Jewish people the importance of praying for the rectification of the world, even when it appears to be so far away.

     Indeed, even though God sent angels to save Lot before Abraham prayed, it was Abraham’s prayers that saved the spark of Mashiach within Lot. For Abraham wanted to believe that nothing was beyond redemption, nothing was so broken that it could not be repaired, even the evil Sodom. This core optimism and faith that good will ultimately triumph is the very energy of Mashiach. 

Yom Kippur and the Four Letter Name of God

As part of the religious decorations in many synagogues around the world there is found the following verse from Psalms ( 16:8 ): “I put God before me at all times.” In Kabbalah this verse is interpreted to mean that the essential four letter name of God appears in the form and process of every aspect of reality and is used as a model through which we understand the Divine, as it manifests itself in all areas of life.

     For example, the four letters of God’s name - yod, heh, and vav, heh - form the words we use in Hebrew for the passage of time: past (heh, yod, heh,) present (heh, vav, heh) and future (yod, heh, yod, heh.) The aspect of time when added to the three coordinates of space make up the four dimensions of perceptible reality as taught by Einstein. Many other aspects of time, space and material reality are based on the number four as well, such as the four seasons (autumn, winter, spring and summer,) the four cardinal directions (north, south, east and west), the four basic elements (fire, earth, water and air), the four basic forces of the universe (gravity, electromagnetic, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force,) the four states of matter (solid, liquid, gas and active combustion) the four aspects of creation (inanimate, vegetable, animal and human) etc…

    In addition to the physical universe, the four letters of God’s name manifest throughout the spiritual worlds as well. In Kabbalah we are taught that there are four worlds encompassing all levels of created reality, from the spiritual to the physical: Atzilut - the world of emanation; Briah - the world of creation; Yetzirah - the world of formation and Assiyah - the world of action.

     A beautiful allusion to the four letters of God’s name is found in four major components of the holiday of Yom Kippur. The yod, the first letter of God’s name, numerically equals ten, corresponding to the date of Yom Kippur, the tenth of Tishrei, and the culmination of the ten days of repentance. An additional correspondence relates to Moses bringing down from Mt. Sinai the second tablets of the law with the ten commandments on Yom Kippur.

     The first heh of God’s name numerically equals five, corresponding to the five prayer services of Yom Kippur. We pray three prayer services daily and four times on Shabbat and holidays. The only time of the year we pray five prayer services is on Yom Kippur. This further relates to the five levels of soul (nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya and yechida,) of which the fifth one, yechida, the super-conscious level of soul, is more accessible on Yom Kippur than any other time of the year.

     The third letter of God’s name, the vav, numerically equals six, corresponding to the six divisions of the Torah reading of the day. This is also an unique aspect of Yom Kippur, as it is the only time of the year there is such a division. The number six in Kabbalah relates to the six cardinal emotional characteristics within a person. On Yom Kippur we attempt to rectify and seek forgiveness, especially for the mistakes and shortcomings we have in these areas of our lives. The letter vav in Kabbalah also symbolizes sexual energy. This is reflected by the fact that the Torah reading of the afternoon service of Yom Kippur deals exclusively with this topic.

     The final letter in God’s four letter name, the final heh, numerically equals five, corresponding to the five prohibitions of the day: eating and drinking, bathing, anointing with oil, wearing leather shoes and marital relations.

     The above example is but one of an almost infinite number of ways we can see the four letter name of God reflected in creation. The more we learn of these correspondences, the more we come to appreciate the deeper meaning of “I place God before me at all times.”

Inside Out - Outside In

Of all the mitzvot, rituals and customs of Rosh Hashanah, blowing the shofar stands out as the most potent of all its symbols. The physical action of blowing the shofar entails breathing deeply in and then blowing out. This action is reminiscent of the description of the formation of man in Genesis: “and God blew into his nostrils the soul of life” (Genesis 2:7). It is explained in Kabbalah and Chassidic thought that God blowing into man the soul of life mirrors in an allegorical manner the way a person first gathers air into his lungs from the diaphragm, the deepest recesses of his inside, in order to after words blow out fully. It is thus understood that the soul of man emanates, as it were, from the deepest essence of God. This idea is an essential foundation of Chassidism and is expressed in the teaching that the soul of man is “a portion of God Above” (paraphrased from Job 31:2 as taught in the second chapter of Tanya). When Rosh Hashanah is called in the prayers the “birthday of the world,” it means the creation of the physical universe in general, but more specifically, the anniversary of the creation of man. In this light we can understand the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah as the remembrance of God blowing into man the soul of life.

     While the physical action of blowing the shofar is from inside-out, the action most associated with Yom Kippur is just the opposite - from the outside-in. Throughout the night and day of the Yom Kippur fast we continually take our clenched fist and tap our hearts, hoping to arouse repentance and remorse for our actions. The prayers of Rosh Hashanah begin the ten day period of repentance in a general fashion, while the prayers of Yom Kippur hone in on the details. The thoughts, speech and actions of the previous year, all of which began within us and moved outside us to affect the world around us, are all brought back inside, to be reviewed, rectified and atoned for.

     The holiday of Succot, following the contemplative days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are in essence a continuation of the same repentive process, but with a special emphasis on joy and integration. What begins on Rosh Hashanah as ethereal and idealistic longings and promises of the heart must now be actualized and brought into practical reality. Shaking the four species (palm, citron, myrtle and willow) represents the integration of the inside-out action of Rosh Hashanah with the outside-in action of Yom Kippur. This is accomplished by shaking the four species  to the six directions of space, by first holding them close to the heart and then shaking outwards, followed by bringing them back to the heart. All the most inner, deep felt prayers of the previous holidays born in the heart and mind must now find practical ways to manifest themselves in the outside world. The in-out, out-in, motion of shaking the four species is a potent symbol of unification and actualizing our goals and hopes for the new year.

     The integration which takes place during Succot is further represented by circling the synagogue once each day of Succot and then seven times on the seventh and last day of Succot called Hoshanah Rabbah. The holiday cycle, now drawing  to a culmination, is symbolized by these seven circuits  of the synagogue. Some Chassidim have the beautiful custom of blowing the shofar after each  circuit, in order to emphasize the entire process beginning on Rosh HaShanah is now coming to a close. Just as the Jews marched around Jericho seven times and then blew the shofar, causing the walls to come down, this is our chance to break down any last psychological walls still standing between us and God.

     An element of Yom Kippur is added to Hoshanah Rabbah by those who have the custom to wear their special holiday robe, a kittel, as they did on Yom Kippur. Though we usually think of Neila, the last prayer of Yom Kippur as representing the “closing of the gates” of the ten day period of repentance and atonement, we are taught that the final seal is actually on Hoshanah Rabbah. This is symbolized by hitting five willow branches on the ground five times, reminiscent of the hitting of the heart on Yom Kippur. Additionally, many of the prayers and the way they are chanted during the ten days of repentance are repeated on this day. Hoshanah Rabbah thus takes many of the elements of Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and Succot and weaves them inside-out and outside-in.

     Whereas during Succot we shake the four species and make one circle of the synagogue daily, on Simchat Torah we “shake” ourselves by dancing joyously with the Torah scrolls. The dancing of this day is the true integration of all the previous holidays and their various inner and outer actions and symbols. The constant circling brings us to a place where inside-out and outside-in weave together in perfect harmony and unity. As we finish the Torah on this day we immediately roll it back to the very beginning and start again - the epitome of the statement in the Sefer Yetzira - “Their end is enwedged in their beginning and their beginning in the end.”