The construction of the first Beis Hamikdash was completed in the eighth month (Cheshvan), called “Bul.” What is the meaning of this name?

T

his week, we read parshas Noach and turn the calendar from Tishrei to Cheshvan. In addition, most readers will change their clocks this Motzaei Shabbos or the following one. As there are no calendrical coincidences, what lesson can we take from this confluence?

The month of Cheshvan is referred to in Tanach by a different name. We are told in sefer Melachim I (6:38) that the construction of the first Beis Hamikdash was completed in the eighth month (Cheshvan), which is called “Bul.” What is the meaning of this name?

The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni Melachim I 184) explains that the name Bul refers to Noach’s flood, which began in this month and lasted for 40 days. We see a hint to this in the Hebrew word for flood, mabul; it can be split into the letter mem, with a numerical value of 40, and the word bul. What does the term bul mean, and what is its connection to Noach’s flood?

In modern Hebrew, bul means a stamp, but Rav Dovid Orlofsky explains that the term is more accurately translated to mean transforming an object to give it a new appearance, the way souvenir machines impress a new picture onto a penny. The word bul conveys that one image has been erased to make room for the creation of a new one. This is precisely what happened during the Mabul, when Hashem flooded the antediluvian world for 40 days to eradicate its corruption so that it could be replaced by a new, more moral civilization.

The Torah is also a bul. It begins with the letter beis in Bereishis and ends with the lamed in Yisrael. The Gemara (Kiddushin 30a) says that the middle letter in the Torah is the vav in the word gachon (Vayikra 11:42). Together, these three letters spell bul, hinting that the Torah, which was given over 40 days — the duration of the Mabul — has the same power to transform us.

The tribe of Zevulun engaged in business and shared their profits with the tribe of Yissachar to enable them to spend their time learning Torah. The outermost letters in Zevulun’s name spell zan — to feed. To whom does Zevulun provide this support? The middle letters in his name spell bul, indicating that Zevulun sustains those scholars who are knowledgeable in the entire Torah, from the beginning through the middle to the very end.

The Beis Hamikdash also had the ability to change us completely. The Navi Yechezkel says (46:9) that a person who goes to the Beis Hamikdash should leave by a different gate than the one through which he entered. The kedushah of the Beis Hamikdash has uplifted and transfigured him. As a symbolic illustration of this change, he exits through a different gate than the one his former self came through. For this reason, the construction of the first Beis Hamikdash concluded in the month of Bul, as it produced the same total transformation as the Mabul.

Now that we understand more deeply the connection between the Mabul and the month of Cheshvan, when parshas Noach is read, what is its message for us? And what should we focus on during this month?

Cheshvan follows the emotion-laden months of Elul and Tishrei, when we spend so much time promising to improve our ways and entreating Hashem to judge us with mercy. As we flip the calendar to Cheshvan, does anything remain of those tefillos, or have they all been left in the past?

The Gemara says (Megillah 27b) that after a person finishes Shemoneh Esreh, he may not relieve himself immediately and must wait the amount of time required to walk four amos (six to eight feet). What is the reason for this halachah? The Gemara explains that rachushei merachashan sifvasei — his lips are still considered to be moving in prayer during this time, so it would be inappropriate to relieve himself.

Rav Simcha Bunim of Peshis’cha points out that if we change the nekudos, the Gemara’s word for the movement of his lips — merachashan — can also be read as Marcheshvan. Thus, the message of this month is that even though the holy days of Tishrei have passed, we should not make the mistake of thinking that all the tefillos and closeness to Hashem that we experienced during that time have been left behind.

The name Marcheshvan hints to us that throughout the month, we are still connected to the sparks of spiritual growth that we felt during the Yamim Noraim and Succos. Until now, our efforts have been focused on promising to be better in the future. In the month of Bul, we get the chance to actually implement all the changes that we committed to.

Along these lines, Rav Pam once said that people traditionally attribute the tremendous joy of Simchas Torah to our siyum on completing the entire Torah and all the special mitzvos of the month of Tishrei. Rav Pam added another reason for our rejoicing.

The last Mishnah in Taanis says that Tu B’Av was one of the happiest days of the year. One of the reasons the Gemara gives for this simchah is that it was the last day when wood was chopped for burning korbanos on the Altar in the Beis Hamikdash. Why was that such a cause for celebration?

Rabbeinu Gershom (Bava Basra 121b) explains that when people were busy cutting wood for the Beis Hamikdash, they didn’t have as much time to study Torah. When Tu B’Av came, they rejoiced because they were done with this mitzvah for the rest of the year, and now they were free to spend that extra time learning.

Similarly, Rav Pam suggested that as lofty as the mitzvos of shofar, Yom Kippur, succah, and arba minim are, they take us away from our regular learning sedorim. Like Tu B’Av, Simchas Torah is a day when we celebrate the fact that we have finished our other mitzvos and can now return to our daily learning schedules without any interruptions.

Cheshvan is unusual in that it lacks any Yamim Tovim or fast days. Why did Hashem arrange for the month after Tishrei to be completely void of special occasions? Perhaps as the new year starts to unfold, He wanted us to set the tone with an entire month solely focused on being the best version of ourselves, with nothing to distract us from living in the way we envisioned during Ne’ilah.

This Motzaei Shabbos, readers in Israel and the UK move their clocks back an hour, and those in the US and Canada do so a week later. What do we do with this free block of time that we are gifted every year in the fall? Since the official clock change takes place in the middle of the night, most people view it as a way to get an extra hour of sleep.

Just a few short weeks ago, we beseeched Hashem to inscribe and seal us in the Book of Life. For what purpose did we beg Him to grant us another year of life? To learn more Torah and do more mitzvos. Yet when we receive a present of extra time, the conventional wisdom is to sleep right through it. Is this the life that we just implored Hashem to give us?

When I was a bochur in the Mir, the yeshivah didn’t change its clocks on Motzaei Shabbos or early Sunday morning. They understood that there is only one appropriate use for the time that we just asked for — ki heim chayeinu. The yeshivah therefore waited to change its clocks until the middle of first seder on Sunday, thereby creating an extra hour of limud haTorah and teaching the talmidim a valuable lesson about the true purpose of life.

In parshas Noach, we read about the power of the Mabul that began in this month to destroy the world so that it could start anew from a pristine foundation. Through the bul of Torah, we can also bring about the personal revolution that we yearned for and resolved to achieve during the recent Yamim Noraim. In that merit, may we celebrate the month of Bul with the speedy rebuilding of the ultimate bul.

Originally from Kansas City, Rabbi Ozer Alport graduated from Harvard, learned in Mir Yerushalayim and Beis Yosef Novardok, and lives in Flatbush, where he writes the weekly Parsha Potpourri series and is a popular speaker.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1083)