We raised a few questions last week and received provocative answers which we will in turn share. The general theme we are looking at is the aspect of the Nun as " fallen".

The Hebrew word for falling starts with a Nun ( Nofel- Nun, Peh, Lamed). We also saw a connection between a name for the Moshiach- Yinon- ( two Nuns) and the historical thread of the "ongoing" birth of the Moshiach emerging from "fallen" circumstances ( the story of Lot and his daughters,Tamar and Yehuda, Ruth and Boaz and King David as a soul that was destined not to be born until Adam granted him 70 years of his life).

Scott Esserman shares that ," how we deal with the fallen sparks in our lives is what defines us as Jews. Perhaps this relates to the question about the Moshiach as well, in that only as we deal with fallen sparks in a caring ,compassionate, yet non-enabling manner do we pursue Tikkun Olam. Only as we seek peace and pursue it by healing the fallen do we ready ourselves and encourage the coming of Moshiach".

In this statement there are many teachings. One which can be elaborated upon is the sensitivity of the Jew to the experience of the fallen, from reaching out to the poor, the grief stricken, or the sinner, and in so doing, emulating G-d's attribute of supporting the fallen. In addition, we can take a spiritaul perspective of the soul ( Neshama- Nun, Shin, Mem, Heh) as having fallen (or descended) into a body that by its nature will stumble and fall. Perhaps when we look for perfection , we fall into error, a mistake that in its mildest form can lead to self-righteousness and in its ugliest form can lead to a philosophy of " purifying" the world from imperfection through racism and intolerance.

The month of Cheshvan, which is created through the energy of the letter Nun is "bereft" of holidays, and is even called, Mar (bitter) Cheshvan. Following the months of Elul and Tishrei, in which we have sought to rectify and reclaim any fallen aspects of our relationship with G-d, we could easily enter the next month with a sense of self-righteousness. Cheshvan is here to remind us- we are not perfect. We are thankful as we are renewed by the symbol of our forgiveness, the receiving of the second tablets on Yom Kippur. We are mindful that in the Holy Ark, along with the second tablets, Moshe placed the broken pieces of the first tablets. The Ark , that vessel that is our most central spiritual focus, not only contains G-d's gift and symbol of our forgiveness, it also contains the humbling lesson of sensitivity to those fallen sparks. Thus the Talmud teaches us: from where do we learn of the obligation to show utmost respect for the scholar who is now demented and has "lost" his or her learning; from the placement of the broken tablets in the Holy Ark. May we be blessed with the coming of Moshiach who will lead us to the hidden Ark and return to us our whole and broken tablets.

We add two powerful pieces from our readers and look forward to continuing our dialogue on the letter Nun for the month of Cheshvan and linking this to the month(s) to come. A fascinating addition: the name Nachshon, the son of Aminadav, the Prince of the tribe of Yehudah and the man who jump started the splitting of the waters at Yam Suf can be read: Nachshon- Nun, Cheshvan!

From Yehudis Fishman:

'V'ruach elokim mirachefet [the spirit of G-d]..zeh rucho shel Mashiach. [this is the spirit of Moshiach]. So if moshiach is the original machshava techila [thought] of creation, it also has to be the sof maaseh, [the end result] which implies: Everything in between is a nefilah [falling] from the original thought and the final implementation. At the same time, the power of the original thought is connected to the principle of Refuah kodem le'makah, [the cure is anticipates the illness] which is the idea conveyed by the samech coming first in the pasuk, Somech..Noflim. Also, Mashiach is connected to the word 'Lashuach, to bend down, since a building (history, world) can only be elevated completely by bending down to the lowest level (concept also
of Dirah batachtonim) Mar-bitter, reversed becomes Ram, elevated, according to the Zohar where highest level of righteous accomplishment is to turn bitter to sweet.. Mar also means drop-as in flood occuring in Cheshvan, and was originally gishmay bracha..[rain of blessing] and with its reverse, Ram, becomes Miriam, in whose merit sweet waters came...Third Beit Hamikdash [Temple] to be built in Cheshvan...from where waters will flow to whole world and sweeten the salt waters and clean pollution...
Power of samech is spiraling circle, which, ala Ishbitz is expanding makif [surrounding spiritaulity] which continues to encompass the ribuah, the square of human action which threatens to go beyond the borders of Divine Ratzon [Will] but ultimately becomes re-surrounded...

and from Miriam Cope

The idea of the nun representing the "fallen" irked me a bit. Instead of viewing the omitance in Tehillim (of nun)as protection from falling, I look at it as a concealment. The nun is "buried" in the sentence with the samech. So the question is, what is being concealed? In terms of nun, I thought of Yehoshua bin Nun. In Shemot, perek 33, pasuk 11, we read that Yehoshua, Moshe's youthful attendant, didn't leave the tent. So Ramban asks, why is Yehoshua described as youthful if he is 56 years old? Ramban cites many places where "youth" is used in conjunction with one who is a servant. (To be fair, in the first half of the pasuk, Moshe is described as "Ish".) So, when we have the ba'al/ish--servant relationship, the servant is noted as a "youth." Anyway, the places Ramban cites are: Melachim Beit, 4:12, Shmuel bet, 2:14.

In the above example, the master-servant relationship is one of teacher-student. Yehoshua was the constant student, as he doen't leave the tent. Furthemore, the use of youth refers to an indication of where Yehoshua was in his learning process. From here, Ramban asks why is Yehoshua refered to as bin-nun(with a chirik) and not as ben-nun as w/a segol, as it should literally be? He answers, that if read continuously as bin-nun, it's as if you say Navon (nun bet vav nun-sofit) which means understanding. Like l'havin, or as in binah. Ramban continues and says that none of Moshe's students surpassed or was as great as Yehoshua in his learning.

So the challenge of Cheshvan, I think, is very much connected to this point of the Ramban's. Can we go from "the son of Nun" to the one who understands? Can we go from Naar, youth, (again, the nun) to HaNavon, the one who understands? In addition to fallen, we can read the Tehillim you cited as a concealment of Hashem and of Torah. The missing nun becomes the "Missing," or absent holidays of Cheshvan, and our challenge is whether we can become the eternal student in trying times, whether we see G-d or not.