Cheshvan

Friday October 4th, we finally say goodbye to Tishrei.  Tishrei, a month of celebrations and festivals, the holiest days of the year, and the month where our destiny and identities are confirmed, comes to a close at sundown on Friday.  And so begins the month of Cheshvan.

Cheshvan is the 8th month of the year.  Historically, the flood began on the 17th of Cheshvan, and ended the following year on the 27th of this month.  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.  The first temple was also completed on the 17th of Cheshvan. 

After all the festivals and Holy days of Tishrei, it seems odd that Cheshvan has no festivals.  It is in fact, the only month in the year with no holidays or special events.  In Tishrei, we were flooded with divinely appointed days to embrace God and prepare our selves for the new year.  Tishrei is the 'head' of the year and all the functions of the head are engaged during the month.  Intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually we are filled during Tishrei.  All of our senses are engaged as we feast, dance, sing, blow shofars, worship with abandon, and embrace our God as He embraces us.   

In fact many compare Tishrei with a wedding, where we accept the proposal of our Lord (given during Elul when the King comes to our field), and culminating in the wedding of Yom Kippur and the wedding celebration, or honeymoon, of Sukkots.

Tishrei effectively fills our heads and hearts, and prepares us for the year, by engaging all the senses.   It is quite the contrast that Cheshvan, a month that has no festivals, is often associated with the heel of the foot.  The heel is the least sensitive part of the body.

Cheshvan, being the 8th month of the year, is a month of new beginnings.  It is traditionally considered to be a month set aside for the Messiah.  It is said that the Messiah will inaugurate the 3rd temple during the month of Cheshvan.  

So, what is so special about this month?  

We are fully packed and prepared for the year ahead thanks to last month.  So, this month, we reach out and take the hand of our new (or renewed) Husband (our Messiah) and begin our walk (on our heels) into the new places He has set destined and prepared for us.  Now we begin our walk with Him to our promised lands of this year.  It may seem mundane after the festivals to simply walk hand in hand with someone, but there is a powerful romance at work here.  As anyone who has a sweetheart can tell you, sometimes there is nothing better than just walking together holding hands.

So, this month, don't be discouraged as you walk though a quiet 'mundane' month with no festivals.  Instead enjoy the quiet time of just being with your beloved as you walk together toward your destiny.  Search for those moments you can share with Him, and let him share His moments with you.  And most of all…. enjoy the romance.  

The Month of Tishrei

The Month of Tishrei

During the month of Elul, we spent our days preparing ourselves to re-align ourselves with God.  God joins us in the field to help us align during that month, but now, as we enter Tishrei, God seals us in our destiny as we reconnect with Him.

Tishrei is the 7th month of the year, and within Tishrei we have the holiest days of the Hebraic calendar.  This is the month where we are restored, renewed, and reconnected with ourselves, our destiny, and our relationships.  It is linked with the tribe of Ephraim whose name mean to be fruitful and multiply.

The first of Tishrei (Sept 5, 2013)  is Rosh Hashanah, which means "Head of the Year".  It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve and also the anniversary of the binding of Isaac.  Rosh Hashanah thus emphasizes the special relationship between God and man: our dependence upon God as our creator and sustainer and His place as our absolute sovereign God.   Each year on Rosh Hashanah, the work we did in Elul to prepare us for what God wants for us is submitted before the throne when “all inhabitants of the world pass before God like a flock of sheep,” and it is decreed in the heavenly court “who shall live and who shall die . . . who shall be impoverished, and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise”   But this is also the day we proclaim God the "King of the Universe".  It is Coronation Day and we recognize and re-emphasize God's sovereignty over us and the world.  During this time, we recognize our own personal creation, and our personal creator.  And so, on Rosh Hashanah, God does a work in us and we reaffirm our God is our God, and we receive God's identity and destiny for ourselves for the coming year.

Having re-established God's sovereignty on Rosh Hashanah, we have 10 days of awe as we recognize His absolute sovereign power.  We walk in trembling faith during these days as we move towards the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur (Sept 14, 2013).  This is the day it is said we are closest to both God and the quintessence of our own souls.  Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, "For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins before God" (Leviticus 16:30).  This day is a solemn fasting day, yet an undertone of joy is evident throughout this day.  We have joy because we can express confidence that God will accept our repentance, forgive our sins, and seal us for a year of prosperity and life in Him.  During the Hebrew day, there are 5 prayer services, a confession of sins 8 times, and a recitation of Psalms throughout the day as well as several other solemn services, all focused on recognizing our need for forgiveness, and God's willingness to forgive us.  The closing service climaxes with the resounding cries of "Hear O Israel.. GOD IS ONE!" and then we break into song and dance. The evening after Yom Kippur is a joyous festival, celebrating God's forgiveness of us.  On Yom Kippur, we are reconnected and realigned fully with God as we should be and as He desires.

5 days later (Sept 19, 2013), we enter into perhaps the largest feast of the year.  The Feast of Sukkots.  Sukkots is known by many names: The Feast of Sukkots, Feast of Tabernacles,  The Feast of Ingathering, (Ex. 23:16, 34:22) "The festival of the seventh month" (Ezek. 45:25; Neh. 8:14) "At the end of the year when you gather in your labors out of the field" (Ex. 23:16), it is also designated as "the Feast of the Lord" (Lev. 23:39; Judges 21:19) or simply "the Feast" (1 Kings 8:2, 8:65; 12:32; 2 Chron. 5:3; 7:8).  The festival of Sukkot is the most joyous of the three biblically mandated festivals. In the holiday prayers, each festival is given its own descriptive name: Passover is the "Season of our Liberation," Shavuot is the "Season of the Giving of our Torah," but Sukkot is described simply as the "Season of our Rejoicing"!

During Sukkots we remember God's kindness and reaffirm our trust in His providence by dwelling in a sukkah, a temporary shelter.  For 7 days, all hebrews live, and feast, and celebrate in Sukkahs.  This is in remembrance of the 40 years in the Sinai Desert prior to the Hebrew's entry into the Holy Land, when miraculous "clouds of glory" surrounded and hovered over them, shielding them from the dangers and discomforts of the desert.  The talmud says "The sukkahs were the clouds of glory that surrounded and protected us."

In the times when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, there was a grand Water Drawing Celebration. Unique to the holiday of Sukkot is the mitzvah to offer a water libation on the altar. This water was drawn on the evening beforehand, amidst great fanfare, singing, reveling, and even acrobatic stunts performed by the time's greatest sages.  If the sages were engaging in acrobatic stunts, you can begin to imagine the level of joy and laughter surrounding this feast.  The talmud says "one who has not witnessed the Festival of the Water Drawing has not seen joy in his lifetime!"  It is God's commandment for us to enjoy this feast, and we should take that commandment seriously!  

For these 7 days, we feast with friends and family in the Sukkah, and we enjoy and re-establishing our relationships and the heritage we come from.  Families discuss the ancestors of their faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and others, and reaffirm their relationship with their heritage and with each other.  

There is a theme throughout the month of Tishrei, and that theme is the theme of reconnecting with our root sources.  First we reconnect with ourselves as we recognize our creation and receive God's identity and destiny for us at Rosh Hashanah, then God reconnects us with Him as He cleanses and re-unites us with Him during Yom Kippur.  Then we reconnect with our family and heritage and affirm our worldly relationships during Sukkots, as well as reveling in the love of God.  The joy of them all spills out into our lives with joy and celebration.  This month is not unlike the woman in Mt 9, who reached out to touch the hem of Jesus.  Because of her bleeding, she was unable to walk in her destiny, she needed a touch from her God for healing.  Because she was bleeding she was considered unclean and unable to connect with her family as she should.  She reached out to God and touched Him, and in so doing she reconnected with her identity with herself and became hale and whole, and her relationship with God was firmly established, and her relationships with family were restored because she was no longer unclean.  And so, this month, we have a the opportunity to reach out and restore ourselves, to be the people God ordained us to be.  Reach out to your God and receive all that He has for you this month, and let him seal you in Him for this coming year.