Your Personal Support System

The letter associated with the month of Cheshvan is nun, a letter that appears to be bent. Our sages explain that it alludes to getting up persevering despite sustaining a shock or fall, since the letter nun is the initial of the word noflim—“the fallen.” King David said, “G-d supports all of the fallen”—the embracing letter samech of the word for “supports” (somayach) is already there, waiting to pick up the bent-over nun of the fallen before they even hit the ground.

The tribe associated with Cheshvan is Menasheh, which literally means to forget. Rebbe Nachman says that we must capitalize on our capacity to forget—a capacity that often handicaps us—and instead allow our failings to slip our mind. If not for our ability to gloss things over, we can remain paralyzed by our shortcomings and falls. Forgetting empowers us to move on as if nothing happened and to begin fresh, like a child. Usually, this is the first step in fixing a fall so that it doesn’t turn into a fail.

Beloved G-d, I implore you! Help me hold on no matter what. Let me forget the past when it threatens to disable me. I want to face my failings when I have the spiritual stamina to fix them and not be discouraged by them. Until then, help me patiently persevere through whatever mistakes I make, patiently carrying on with any good possible while waiting for the right moment for positive spiritual inventory.