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The bitter month?
Now that the High Holy Days have ended, we have officially entered the month of Cheshvan. Traditionally, this month is referred to as Mar Cheshvan or Bitter Cheshvan – a name given to the month because, other than Shabbat, it has no festivals or holy days. The next special event in the Jewish calendar is Chanukah – which comes on the 25th day of the month of Kislev. It is a long stretch of time between Simchat Torah and Chanukah - about 9 weeks.
This is the longest period in our calendar where there is nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Nine weeks to get back into routine, 9 weeks to live our daily lives before the next celebration. It’s understandable that many would consider this to be a sad time, a bitter time.
But, this is actually a very narrow way of viewing our calendar. There is, in fact, a holiday that falls during the month of Cheshvan – it’s just not one that many of us whose families originated in Eastern Europe, or even in Spain, know about. It’s an Ethiopian Jewish Holy Day called Sigd.
Sigd is a festival that is held 50 days after Yom Kippur, on the 29th day of Cheshvan which is traditionally thought to be the date in the Torah on which God appeared to Moses. On this holy day, the Ethiopian Jewish community expresses their longing for Jerusalem. It is both a solemn and joyous occasion, with both fasting and feasting. In recent years, since Operations Moses and Solomon, Ethiopian Jewish communities in Israel have celebrated Sigd, and in 2008 it was declared a national holiday for all of Israel. To read a summary of the significance of this holiday, please click on this link.
My Jewish Self, My Community, The World
This year in our B’mitzvah class, we will be learning about some of the holidays that are celebrated in Jewish communities around the world.
We have 15 students enrolled in our class, and together we have begun to explore their Jewish identities and the myriad ways that Judaism can play a role in their lives.
Our first unit is “My Jewish Self” which will be followed in a few weeks by “My Jewish Community.” In this unit we will be learning about when Jews first came to Toronto, how the Jewish community here has grown and evolved, and about our neighbours in the downtown area. Our final unit will be “My Jewish World,” during which we will learn about Jewish communities in India, China, The Caribbean, and many other locations, as well as wonderful holidays like Sigd.
I’m looking forward to keeping all of you up-to-date on our class and celebrating these wonderful students with all of you at their simchas in the next couple of years.
B’ahavah,
Cantor C. Wunch
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