57 - Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

Summer has slipped to autumn, with unseasonable warmth during the day belying the colored and falling leaves that are accumulating all around. Cheshvan is a holding time. It is the time to begin to make manifest all the dreams and hopes we have just made during the cycle of holy days.

Fifty-Seven

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

O Eternal Timekeeper,
You number our days,
You set out the moments and months,
The years and ages of our lives.

Past the scurry and hunger of Tishri
The honeyed nights and prayerful days,
The hymns and gatherings
To celebrate, to contemplate, to turn.

Before us the dark of Kislev,
The cold sleep of winter
Illuminated briefly by our gladness,
By the telling of tales.

But here Cheshvan,
Empty like world after flood,
Cheshvan, after and before,
An empty sack waiting to be filled.

Like the sky of new moon,
Cheshvan is time aside,
Far yontiff, erev yontiff,
Space to dream, time to sigh.

Empty sky for us to fill with dreams,
To fill with songs of courage
For the time to come,
To fill with songs of praise.