The most powerful day of the year,
and the month that turns bitter into sweet
Chodesh Tov, beloved friends. This is the month of Cheshvan, the month of Bul, the month of Scorpio. It has no biblical holidays, and that is exactly why the work is entirely yours: to reveal Light without waiting for a special date.
The window of this new moon
from Sunday, October 11, at 9:43
to Tuesday, October 13, at 9:43Jerusalem time
Kabbalists call this month Mar Cheshvan, bitter Cheshvan. But the Kabbalah Centre teaches that it can become Ram Cheshvan, elevated Cheshvan. Bitterness and elevation are made of the same material. What changes is what we do with it.
Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan has two days. Rav Berg teaches that, according to the Zohar, the first of these two days is the day of the greatest energy and intelligence of the entire year. There is no single day more powerful.
The Zohar also calls this month Bul and says that its first day is a day of singular security. That matters: when the day is secure, you do not need to begin in fear. You can simply begin.
Karen Berg writes, independently, that the first day of Scorpio is considered the most powerful day of the whole year.
And because it is the strongest day, it is also the most fitting day of the whole year to start new things. A project, a conversation, a change of habit, an intention you have been postponing.
Sources: Rav Berg, video "New Moon of Scorpio"; Karen Berg, The Winds of Change (originally published in 2018).
Rav Berg asks for nothing difficult. He says the methods are simple and that the day is positivity. All that is required is that you connect with it. That is all. Nothing more.
We make this connection with the cosmos through two letters: the Dalet, of Mars, and the Nun, of Scorpio. Give a few minutes to meditating on these two letters, and let them be the bridge between you and the day.
Source: Rav Berg, video "New Moon of Scorpio".
Karen Berg reminds us that every new moon is a fresh start: a new cycle, a new perspective and new opportunities for growth. The Kabbalah Centre defines Rosh Chodesh as a window and as a seed that holds the DNA of the entire month.
If the previous month was a time of gaining awareness, of noticing and deciding in thought, Scorpio is the month of putting that intention into practice. Karen Berg links this energy to Mars and invites us to see it as a positive confrontation.
That is why the intention you set today counts so much. It is the seed. The rest of the month is the watering.
Sources: Karen Berg, The Winds of Change (originally published in 2018); Kabbalah Centre, New Moon/Rosh Chodesh (glossary).
Karen Berg explains the principle behind this month's transformation, polarity: where there is potential for darkness, there is an equal potential for Light. That is why Cheshvan, the month of the greatest possible bitterness, is also the month of the greatest potential for sweetness.
The work of the month, in the words of the Kabbalah Centre, is to transform what is bitter into sweet and what is low into lofty. Scorpio is a Left Column sign, a water sign, ruled by Mars. Intensity and emotion are its working material. The tikkun is to learn to master the urge to take revenge and to let go.
Whoever hurt me owes me. The past has the last word. I must control, defend myself, pay back.
This too is raw material. I can let go, forgive, choose what to do now. The past informs, but it does not decide.
Sources: Kabbalah Centre, Scorpio (Mar-Cheshvan), 2012; Karen Berg, Transforming Bitter to Sweet (originally published in 2019).
Karen Berg uses two images for this month. The first is nature: the leaves that fall in autumn are not a loss, they are a necessary letting go so that new life can arrive. What do you need to let fall to make room?
The second is the Flood, which began on the 17th of Cheshvan. She invites us to read the Flood not only as destruction, but as purification and blessing. And she points to a clue in the word itself: tov, "good", has a numerical value of 17. The day the waters began is, numerically, the day of the good. In 2026, the 17th of Cheshvan falls on October 28.
Karen Berg also compares life's challenges to the amniotic fluid that protects and nourishes a baby in the womb. What feels like pressure may in truth be nourishing something that has not yet been born.
Source: Karen Berg, The Winds of Change (originally published in 2018).
The traditional symbol of Scorpio is the scorpion. Karen Berg reminds us that the sign is also associated with the eagle, a symbol of truth, freedom and strength. The same energy can sting or soar.
Out of balance, this energy shows up as jealousy, resentment and fear. Transformed, it becomes creativity, charisma and perception. For anyone who lives with someone strongly marked by Scorpio, Karen Berg's advice is to speak plainly, because this energy cannot bear falsehood and values the truth.
She ties this to Hillel's teaching: do not do to others what is hateful to you. We may not love everyone, because we differ in culture and belief. But every person carries a spark of the Creator and deserves respect. And what we give tends to come back.
Source: Karen Berg, Transforming Bitter to Sweet (originally published in 2019).
The Nun is the letter of Scorpio, the very one Rav Berg asked us to meditate on. The Talmud speaks of her as the letter that falls: in the Ashrei (Psalm 145), the verse that would begin with the Nun is missing, associated with the fall (Amos 5:2). The next verse begins with the Samech, and the Talmud teaches that Davidd held up the fallen Nun with that verse.
The Zohar, in its Introduction, returns to the image: the Samech comes back to support the one who fell, and the Nun is called to return to her place because the Samech holds her up.
In the Hasidic tradition, the sum of Nun (50) and Samech (60) is 110, the value of Nes, "miracle". This reading comes from Bnei Yissachar, a classic work, and the Kabbalah Centre also teaches the Samech that holds up the Nun and the word Nes in its Kislev (Sagittarius) article. It fits the month: the supported fall becomes a miracle. That application to the month is this page's interpretation.
The question that remains: who or what is your Samech this month?
Sources: Berachot 4b; Zohar, Introduction; Bnei Yissachar, Cheshvan (classic); Kabbalah Centre, Sagittarius (Kislev), 2012.
Cheshvan has few special connection days besides Rosh Chodesh, and someone might conclude that this is a month of little Light. Michael Berg says that conclusion is a mistake: Scorpio is the month when each person can reveal more Light than in any other, and transform the world one action at a time.
He draws on a teaching of Rav Ashlag, about Rav Elazar: the world and each person are balanced between the positive and the negative, and each action shifts that scale. To illustrate, Michael Berg uses the image of sesame seeds that, one by one, end up tipping the scale.
Sharing is already valuable. But sharing purely, with no personal benefit, has a greater effect on the collective consciousness. The purpose of Kabbalah, in this view, is to change the world by making people care more about others than about themselves.
The Kabbalah Centre article on Scorpio recalls a line from Rav Berg: the war against the darkness is not fought with guns and artillery, but by lighting as many candles as possible.
And Michael Berg tells us that the lesson he learned from Rav Berg was this: the outcome will be positive. When was the last time you made a pure act of sharing? Today is a good day to restart that count.
Sources: Michael Berg, Bringing About Global Change, One Action at a Time; Kabbalah Centre, Scorpio (Mar-Cheshvan), 2012 (Rav Berg's line about the candles); Michael Berg, The Outcome Will Be Positive (originally published in 2020).
| October 11 and 12 | Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, two days. The first is the day Rav Berg refers to. |
| October 22 | 11 Cheshvan. Tradition records this date as the yahrzeit of Rachel. |
| October 23 | The Sun enters Scorpio in the zodiac. |
| October 28 | 17 Cheshvan, the day the Flood began (Genesis 7:11). |
| November 10 and 11 | Rosh Chodesh Kislev, two days. |
If this bitterness could become elevation, what would it teach me?
In the video, Rav Berg says we know how to make connections with the cosmos through the Dalet of Mars and the Nun of Scorpio. Meditate on these two letters throughout the month. Print them, keep them in sight, carry them with you.
The Nun represents falling (nefilah) and miracle (nes), two extremes of the same energy: falling and rising, dying to the old and being reborn into the new. The Dalet symbolizes a door, the passage from judgment to mercy, from ego to giving; it comes from dal, "poor", the state of one who empties themselves to receive the Light.
Sources: the video "New Moon of Scorpio" by Rav Berg (with Portuguese and English subtitles); Karen Berg, The Winds of Change (originally published in 2018) and Transforming Bitter to Sweet (originally published in 2019); Michael Berg, Bringing About Global Change, One Action at a Time; Kabbalah Centre, Scorpio (Mar-Cheshvan), 2012, and the New Moon/Rosh Chodesh glossary. This page is a synthesis in the author's own voice by Thiago Moshe, not a transcript. Lines in quotation marks are literal quotations, from the video (per the subtitles) and from Michael Berg's article; everything else is paraphrase.
Classical textual sources: Berachot 4b and the Zohar, Introduction (the Nun and the Samech); Genesis 7:11 (the Flood). The sum of Nes is a reading from Bnei Yissachar, a Hasidic classic, also taught in the Kabbalah Centre's Kislev article. The date of Rachel is a received tradition.
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