by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
Eighth Month
Two of the most significant events in World History were said to have happened in the month of Marcheshvan: Firstly, when Hashem brought a mabul (“flood”) to wipe out humanity in the time of Noah, this calamity began in the eighth month from Nissan — what we call Marcheshvan (see Rosh Hashanah 11b, Rashi to Gen. 7:11–12; 8:4–5, and Targum Jonathan to Gen. 7:11), sometimes abbreviated as just Cheshvan. Secondly, the Bible reports that the construction of the first Holy Temple in Jerusalem was completed in the eighth month, which the Bible explicitly calls the month of Bul (I Kgs. 6:38). Thus, we have two names for the same month, Marcheshvan and Bul. Elsewhere in the Bible, this month is referred to generically as chodesh ha’shemini (I Kings 12:32-33, Zech. 1:1), which literally means “the eighth month.” In this essay, we explore the possible origins and meaning of these different terms for the same month.
In most of the Bible, the months are named ordinally — that is, the “first month,” the “second month,” the “third month,” etc. – with the first month starting from the spring month that we now call Nissan. The Jerusalem Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 1:2) explains that the names of the months in the Jewish Calendar as we know it are of Babylonian origin, but that before the Jews were exiled, a different nomenclature was in use (see also Nachmanides to Ex. 12:2). One example of this is the aforementioned verse that refers to the completion of the Solomonic Temple in the month of Bul. It seems that the original names of the months in the Jewish Calendar mirrored the names of the months that the Canaanites used. Indeed, in the inscription found on the sarcophagus of the Tyrian (Canaanite) King Ashmunezer II, the king refers to the month Bul.
Nonetheless, the Jerusalem Talmud (there) expounds on the name Bul to explain that it refers to the month when the leaves are falling (novel), the earth is made into wet clumps (bul) because of the onset of rainfall, and one must mix (bolel) feed for animals indoors because the grass has already disappeared from the field (see also Targum Yonatan to I Kings 6:38).
Similarly, Rabbi Yeshayah of Trani (to I Kgs. 6:38) likewise connects the month-name Bul to the Hebrew word yevul (“produce”), alluding to the idea that in the month of Bul, once has already gathered all of one’s produce indoors. Menachem Ibn Saruk (in Machberet Menachem) likewise traces Bul to the biliteral root BET-LAMMED, explicitly connecting it to yevul. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (1740–1814) elaborates on that biliteral root, offering a whole slew of derivatives and declensions. When it comes to the month-name Bul in particular, he connects it to the term bilui (“wearing out”) because the eighth month always occurs in the autumn/fall, when the various plants and leaves begin to get “worn out” and withered.
The prophet Isaiah criticizes those idolaters who bow to the bul of a tree (Isa. 44:19), which the Radak (there) explains as referring to a tree’s “branch.” Based on this, Rabbi Yosef Teomim-Frankel (1727–1792), author of the Pri Megadim, writes that the eighth month is called Bul because it “branches off” from the previous month of Tishrei, which is the first month of the Jewish calendar (and is called rosh Hashanah in ezek. 40:1).
Rabbi Aharon Marcus (1843–1916) takes a different approach, explaining the “bul of a tree” as referring to an extraordinarily thick tree. In line with this, he argues that bul in general refers to “extraordinary increases,” thus explaining mabul (“flood”) as an excessive increase in water. Consequently, he explains the month-name Bul as referring to the surplus in the amount of grain and produce in one's house and storage facilities after the harvest season.
*For more about the name Bul for the eighth month and the etymology of its more common name Marcheshvan, check out the complete version of this article, available online at: http://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/
