The 11th of the month of Mar-Cheshvan comes at the height of autumn, when leaves fall, rain pours, and animals and plants slow down for the winter. It is a time when the world appears to die, yet the root of life remains, ready to sprout forth when the spring comes again. In Jewish legend, this date marks the death of Rachel, the mother of Israel — Rachel dies in childbirth as her son Benjamin is born.

A rabbinic legend tells that when God exiled Israel from its land for the sin of worshipping other gods, all the patriarchs tried to convince God to relent, without success. Yet Rachel pleaded before God that she had not been jealous of her sister when Leah married Jacob. If Rachel could manage not to be jealous of her flesh and blood sister, Rachel argued, why should God be jealous of statues and pillars, which did not threaten God in any way? God redeemed the people because of Rachel’s plea. Rachel represents the truth that the Divine within us is loving, compassionate and unselfish. She transforms severity into compassion and despair into hope.

For centuries, Jews have celebrated the 11th of Cheshvan with pilgrimages to Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem.

In modern times, because it is no longer safe, most women no longer go to Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem to pray for relief of barrenness or for safe childbirth. Those that do, wind red threads around the stone that is Rachel’s grave marker, and bring them home to wear or tie around the belly, as a charm. The red threads associated with Rachel are symbolic of the thread of life.

Schoolchildren in Israel celebrate the 11th of Cheshvan as a kind of Mother’s Day, celebrating their own mothers as they honor Rachel, the mother of Israel. In fact, the 11th of Cheshvan falls forty-one days after Rosh Hashanah (the new year) — In Hebrew, the letters that add up to forty-one (aleph and mem) spell out "eim" or mother.

In Israel, Cheshvan is the rainy season, and the month of Cheshvan is associated with the story of the Flood. According to Jewish legend, it was on the 27th of Cheshvan that Noah, Naamah, and their children exited the ark. Like the transition of three of the seasons the flood began in Fall, Noah’s family hid in the ark in the dark of Winter in order to replant and repopulate the world, just as this season is a time of cold and retreat, but leads to new life in the spring.

Mystically, Rachel represents the Shekhinah — the motherly presence of God that exists within all things. Rachel’s death symbolizes the descent of the Shekhinah into the underworld — the deep internal places of the spirit similar to the Mesopotamian story of Innana and her sister, Ereshkigal – which explains the changing of the seasons.

So too, at this time of year, we should piece together our spiritual selves in the darkness of the coming winter by study in preparation for the hard work and increased mitzvot that will come later.