Cheshvan is the eighth of the twelve months on the Jewish “lunar” sacred calendar and second in the civil calendar. This month has 29 days, sometimes 30. In a “complete” year (shlemah year), which has 355 or 385 days long, both Cheshvan and Kislev have 30 days. This year Cheshvan has 30 days. This year it begins at sundown October 8th to sundown November 7, 2010.
Cheshvan (hesvan) is call the month of bool, a name that stems from the word for “flood”. The flood began on the 17th of Cheshvan, and ended the following year on the 27th of Cheshvan. On the following day, the 28th of Cheshvan, Noah brought his sacrifice to God and God swore never again to bring a flood upon the earth to destroy all mankind, and then revealed the sign of His covenant with the world, the rainbow. For this reason, it is called “MarCheshvan” or ‘bitter Cheshvan’.
I Kings 6:38 calls this month Bul. “And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which [is] the eighth month” Bul means ‘increase, produce’ from the root meaning ‘rain, showers’, referring to this being a month of showers.
Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass of 1938, falls on the 15th of Cheshvan (October 23, 2010). This commemorates when the Nazis youth gangs roamed through Jewish neighborhoods breaking windows of business and homes and burning synagogues. The began the violence against the Jewish people in Germany. 75,000 businesses were destroyed, 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps for defending themselves & property. 91 Jews died and this began the Holocaust.
Letter- nun, (noon) the 14th letter in the Aleph-Bet and has a numerical value of 50 (representing freedom and fullness of life). The pictograph of this letter is a fish and in ancient symbols it is seen as a fish darting through water. Nun is also seen as a sprout of vegetation. Both of these pictographs denote action and life. The word “please” is made up of the letter aleph & nun, aleph representing an ox and nun representing action. Asking please is an “sign of strength”.
- 7– “Deliver Dew and Rain” prayers are added for rain in Israel
- 11– Jewish Mother’s Day commemorating the death of Rachel, wife of Jacob (Israel)
- 12– Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1955), not a national memorial day
- 15– Kristallnacht, Night of the Broken Glass 1938
- 17– If no rain has fallen yet in the month, special prayers are prayed this day for rain
- 17– Great flood began 1656 (2105 BC) and Noah and his family were the only survivors
- 17– 960 BC Solomon’s Temple completed, but dedicated the following year in Tishri, the month of Isaac’s birth. This month is believed to be the future dedication of the Third Temple
- 18– 1990, Assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, Jewish leader, founder of the American Jewish Defense League and former Knesset member, was assassinated in New York by an Egyptian terrorist
- 23– 127 BC, according to Talmudic tradition, this was the date the stone of the altar was defiled by the Greeks and removed from the Holy Temple
- 27– 2104 BC, in the Jewish year 1657 the ‘earth dried’ (Genesis 8:14) after the great flood of Noah’s family 365 days on the Ark. On this day, God is said to have commanded Noah to “Come out of the ark” and repopulate, settle and civilize the earth.
