JoelNothman.com

Last Sunday night, we entered a new month on the Hebrew calendar. Throughout our childhoods it was often related to us:

The month of Cheshvan (חשון) is the only month in the Jewish calendar that has no special days. Some say this is why we call it Mar-Cheshvan (מרחשון), or Bitter Cheshvan. According to another legend, all the months got together to cheer up Cheshvan by giving it the title, Mar (Mister.)

Even a more adult-focused web site insists: “Cheshvan, the eighth month of the Jewish calendar, is often referred to as Mar Cheshvan (”Bitter Cheshvan”) because it has no holidays.” And many young Jews grow up feeling very compassionate and sorry for the month.

Adding titles to a month’s name is not unheard of in Judaism, and we entitle the month of “Av” as “Menachem Av” (comforting Av) for reason of the tragedies that are commemorated in that month. But it turns out this “mar” isn’t quite the same.

The Jerusalem Talmud (Rosh Hashana 1:2) sets out discussing the months of the year and there Rabbi Hanina claims that “שמות חדשים עלו בידם מבבל”, i.e. the names of the months for the Hebrew calendar were adopted during the Babylonian exile. It goes on to explain the non-Babylonian month names that are found in the bible: Ziv (זיו; the second month; in 1 Kings 6:1), Bul (בול; the eigth month; in 1 Kings 6:38) and Ethanim (אתנים; the seventh month; 1 Kings 8:2), and potentially Aviv (אביב; first month; in Exodus 34:18). This source claims that the Kings months are Phoenician in origin, being mentioned in the context of the building of the temple with Phoenician assistance. Post-exilic books of the bible make mention of some of the Babylonian names, but these, as well as the Kings references, are glossed with “which is the nth month”, possibly due to some unfamiliarity with the names or because this was how the months were historically referred to (it’s quite a sensible system, if you ask me).

So as we see, “Bul” mentioned in Kings is certainly not the origin of the eighth month’s name as it bitterly stands. The Akkadians called this month “waraħsamnu” (or something of the kind), which, if we split it into “waraħ” and “samnu”, we see it is quite an intuitive name: “ירח שמנה” or “the eighth moon”. As it turns out, when month names were adopted from Akkadian to Hebrew, “m” replaced “w” and “w” replaced “m”. So Du’uzu became Tamuz, and Kislimu became Kislev. And waraħsamnu became maraħshawn, or just marcheshvan.

“Mar”, then, is no appendix or title. Ignoring the legal implications, I’d rather focus on the linguistic implications: this month has for most intents and purposes changed its name based on a false folk etymology! That is, a month once “Marcheshvan” was found to be bitter (for one reason or another), and hence became “the bitter Cheshvan”, and later merely “Cheshvan”. And now primary school tales abound to explain the “mar” and few children question what it’s doing there in the first place. (There is another very nice article on this month’s name, which looks at historical Rabbinic uses, and some other understandings of the “mar”.)

It reminds me a little of the false etymologies that have at some stage influenced English spelling, like when it was assumed that “iland”, a nice Germanic word, was obtained from Latin “insula”, so an s was introduced to reflect this and troubles unquestioning but frustrated English learners till today.

It’s a wonder how much a myth (repeated enough times, and by respected people) can convince us.