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The Cantor's Voice November 2005 
After the high-spiritedness and joy of Sukkot and Simchat Torah depart, we
are left with bitterness. So says the tradition.
The month of Heshvan is referred to as Mar (bitter) Heshvan. This has always troubled me. Why is lack of a holiday or holidays bitter? For many of us, it is a relief to get back to normal. No more rushing back and forth to shul or to our Sukkot. No more craziness trying to get home in order to be present at our Sukkah or another's. No more dancing all night and morning long with a Sefer Torah. There is a cessation of the extra-ordinary. There is nothing bitter about the regular or ordinary. However, it is our responsibility, our Jewish responsibility, to take the ordinary month of Heshvan, absent of Jewish holidays, and make it sweet and joy-filled and fun. Perhaps this is what our tradition is trying to teach us. That without effort, the ordinary can become mundane and bitter, but we can help change that. It requires effort to make the ordinary sweet. But we can do it. Chodesh Tov -- have a wonderful month of Heshvan. Keith Miller Hazzan Director of Education |
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