The day of ערב ראש חודש חשוון represents the transition between the month of Tishrei and the month of Cheshvan, because this is the last day of the month of Tishrei when we start entering the month of Cheshvan. Concerning the transition between the month of Tishrei and the month of Cheshvan, it says in sefarim that there used to be a custom in certain קהילות, in certain communities years, years ago, that the shamash of the shul or the gabbai of the shul would make an announcement in shul at the end of the month of Tishrei saying that now starts the avodah of ויעקב הלך לדרכו. This is a pasuk that's written in פרשת ויצא, קפיטל ל\"ב, פסוק ב', after Yaakov spent many years in the house of Lavan, and then he ran away from Lavan, and Lavan chased him, and finally Lavan caught up to him. And after they made the deal as it says in pasuk, they made the Gilad etc., etc., so then the pasuk says: ויעקב הלך לדרכו, and Yaakov went on his way. So there used to be a custom in certain קהילות that they used to announce in shul that now, after the month of Tishrei, starts the avodah of ויעקב הלך לדרכו, that Yaakov is going on his way. And the reason for this was because during the month of Tishrei we all know Yidden are involved in spiritual matters. The month of Tishrei is called בחודש השביעי, the seventh month, and the Chazal say the word שביעי also here means from the לשון שובע, satisfy, it's a month that's satisfied with everything, it's full of everything, there's plenty of ruchniyus in this month. This month a yid is involved completely in spiritual matters, and in all קווים, all types of spiritual matters. First we have the Yamim Noraim, we have the fearful Days of Awe: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and in between that we have the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah. These are days that a Yid is involved completely in the קו היראה, in the concept of fear of Hashem, in יראת שמים, a time when a Yid is involved in teshuvah, beginning from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. Then comes the days of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and even those days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot are also full of ruchniyut, full of spiritual inyanim, because those are the days that a Yid prepares himself to the Yom Tov of Sukkot. It's a time when a Yid is completely involved in preparing the sukkah, in preparing the four kinds, the ד' מינים, the etrog, lulav, hadasim, and ערבות. It's a time when is known to be keneged the four letters of שם הויה. It is known that the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot are keneged, they're parallel to the four letters of the שם הויה, of the name of Hashem, which is יו\"ד-ק\"ה-וא\"ו-ק\"ה, as it is known in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that the day after Yom Kippur he used to call גאט'ס נאמען, which means God's name, that was a special holy day, and the same is with the other three days. So even these three days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, which seem to be secular days, kivyachol, nevertheless we know that they are all also days that are full of spiritual activity. Then comes Sukkot and Chol HaMoed Sukkot, and Shmini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, זמן שמחתנו, when a Yid is full of simchah, joy of Hashem, joy in fulfilling the mitzvot of Hashem, joy of Yom Tov, etc., etc. So these are all spiritual matters, and this is the majority of the month of Tishrei.

On the other hand, when we finish with the month of Tishrei and we come to the month of Cheshvan, that's when a Yid starts his regular, normal, ordinary סדר עבודה. That's when a Yid gets back to his regular cycle, regular schedule, when he goes back to work and he's involved in all the physical matters that a person is supposed to be involved. And this is why they used to make the announcement that now starts ויעקב הלך לדרכו. Now Yaakov, which represents every single Yid, is going on his way, because till then every Yid was involved not in דרכו, in his way, but in דרך השם. Torah and mitzvot and bichlal all the good deeds are referred to as דרך השם, they are the ways of Hashem. As the pasuk says in Parshat Vayeira, קפיטל י\"ח, פסוק י\"ט, as Hashem says that the reason I love Avraham Avinu is כי למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו, because he's going to command his children and his household after him, ושמרו דרך ה', and they will keep the דרך השם, the way of השם, לעשות צדקה ומשפט, to do צדקה ומשפט. So we see that צדקה ומשפט is referred to as דרך השם, the way of Hashem. So when the pasuk says here: ויעקב הלך לדרכו, that Yaakov went on his way, which is not the way way of Hashem, but his way, the way of the person, this refers to the way that a Yid is involved in secular, regular matters, not spiritual matters. And this is what starts at the time of the month of Cheshvan, after we're finished with the month of Tishrei. We're finished with being completely involved in ענינים רוחניים, in spiritual matters which are the דרך השם. Now starts the time of ויעקב הלך לדרכו. Now Yaakov, which refers to every single Yid, is going on his own way, is getting back to his own matters, the matters of gashmiyut, the physical things. And the purpose of this announcement was not only to tell the people, to tell the Yidden, that now you are going back to your ordinary way, because for that they wouldn't need the announcement. Everyone understood that now that all the ימים טובים are over and they're finished with the month of Tishrei, now they're going back to their own ordinary ways. But, it was to teach them how to go back to their ordinary ways.

Because in this פסוק, ויעקב הלך לדרכו, there is also a רמז of how a person is supposed to go back to his own ways. Because when the pasuk says לדרכו, to his way, and we said before this comes to tell us that it's not the דרך השם anymore, it's not Torah u'mitzvot, but it's ordinary ענינים, גשמיותדיקע ענינים. But at the same time, in the same word לדרכו, there is a hint for something else. It says ויעקב הלך לדרכו. Yaakov went on his way. His way means his own way. There are ways that the whole world goes on, and then there is the special way that Yaakov goes. Yaakov refers, as we said before, to every single Yid, and what we're trying to say is that when a Yid goes back to his own way, it is supposed to be his own special way, a unique way, different than the ways of other people in the world. And this is what we're telling every Yid after the month of Tishrei, that even though now is the point when you are leaving the ruchniyusdike level and you are going back to your gashmiyusdike physical inyanim, nevertheless, you have to remember that even when you're involved in your gashmiyusdike physical inyanim, they have to be a unique way, they have to be your way, which is different than the way of anybody else. Which means that even though you are going back to physical things in which it seems that a Yid and a non-Jew are equal, because the ordinary things are not Torah u'mitzvot, they are the person's eating and drinking and getting involved in parnasah, getting involved in making a livelihood in business and all other physical matters, and these are inyanim in which a Yid and a non-Yid להבדיל are the same, nevertheless, we're trying to say here that it has to be לדרכו, his way, it has to be a special way of a Yid. Which means, very simple, that when a Yid sits down to eat, it is not the same as lehavdil a goy eats. Because when a Yid eats, first of all he makes a berachah before he eats, he bentsht after he finishes eating, he makes sure that the food he eats is kasher, and while he is eating, he's eating l'shem shamayim. He has in mind that the reason he is eating is so he should be healthy, he should have koach, he should have strength in order to be able to serve Hashem. When a person goes to business, the purpose of his going to business is to make money. Why does he want to make money? So by a Yid the reason is because he wants to have money to be able to buy a good pair of tefillin, to be able to buy a מהודרדיקע טלית קטן and be mekayem the mitzvah of ציצית בהידור, he should have money to give tzedakah, he should have money to give his children a good Jewish education, and this is what he has in mind while he is involved in his business. So even though it would seem superficially that the way the Yid does these things and the way lehavdil a goy does these things it's the same, nevertheless, we're saying here לדרכו, it's a unique way of the Yid. Which is similar to what the Rambam says in Hilchos Deos in the beginning of פרק ה'. He says that a חכם is ניכר. You could tell a חכם, you could tell a scholar, not only while he's learning, but you could tell that he is a scholar even while he is doing many other things. He says במאכלו ובמשקהו, when he's eating and when he is drinking and when he's sleeping and when he's taking a walk, which are things that have nothing to do with חכמה. And therefore it would seem that in these ענינים a חכם and a non-חכם are the same. Nevertheless, a חכם is ניכר, you could tell that this is a חכם even while he is involved in these things which it seems to be the same as if a person who is not a חכם does it. And when the Rambam says a חכם, this is also a רמז for every single Yid, because we know that באמת all the Yidden are חכמים, as the פסוק says וכל בניך לימודי ה', all your children, meaning all the Yidden, are scholars of Hashem, so everyone is a חכם. So when it says here that every Yid is supposed to be ניכר, he is supposed to see the difference between him and non-Yidden also in these ענינים. And this is the hint in the announcement after Tishrei, in the beginning of the month of Cheshvan, that ויעקב הלך לדרכו. to tell us both things. On one hand, you should know that you are going לדרכו, you are going to your own way, you are leaving the month which was full of דרך השם, full of the דרך of Hashem. And now you are going to your own דרך, but you have to remember that this דרך you are going to has to be your special דרך, the special דרך of a Yid. It has to be the special דרך of Yaakov, that you should get involved in your ordinary, secular matters also the way a Yid is supposed to get involved, which means to do it all לשם שמים and to do it all properly.

Then there is another רמז, another hint, in the connection between this פסוק, ויעקב הלך לדרכו, to a Yid leaving the month of Tishrei and entering the month of Cheshvan. This was said in the Torah concerning Yaakov leaving Lavan and continuing on his way. The ענין of Lavan has a רמז to a very high ענין. As the Chazal say in Midrash Rabbah, in בראשית רבה, פרשת ויצא, פרשה ע', י', on the פסוק where the פסוק says that Yaakov asked, הידעתם את לבן, do you know Lavan? So the Chazal say there in Midrash that his question was, הידעתם את מי שהוא עתיד ללבן עונותיכם כשלג? Do you know the one that is going to whiten your עבירות like snow? Because you know עבירות are hinted in the color red, and מחילת עוונות, כפרת עוונות, when Hashem forgives, the hint is in the color white. And that's what the word Lavan represents, the concept of Hashem whitening the עבירות, forgiving on the עבירות. And Yaakov was leaving Lavan, continuing on his way. And this is actually what's happening when we leave the month of Tishrei and we continue our way onto, into the month of Cheshvan, Kislev, etc., etc. Because during the month of Tishrei, we get the ליבון of עוונותינו. Hashem whitens our עבירות, starting with עשרת ימי תשובה, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, and then the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and then Yom Kippur. These are all days of teshuvah, when a Yid prepares himself to get the כפרה of Hashem, when finally on Yom Kippur Hashem forgives us for all the aveirot, as the pasuk says, ביום הזה יכפר עליכם, Hashem forgives us for all the aveirot. And all this is connected to the inyan of libun, the inyan of white. As it was in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, that on Yom Kippur the string, the red string, would turn white. This is also the reason why the Kohen Gadol would do the avodah on Yom Kippur with בגדי לבן, with white בגדים. This is also the reason why every yid wears a kittel, a white kittel on Yom Kippur, to show this inyan of white, that Hashem whitens our aveirot. And in certain sefarim this is connected to the pasuk, כארז בלבנון ישגה, etc., etc. So on Yom Kippur we come to the climax of the inyan of lavan. And also later on, when it comes to Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, which superficially seems to be a different קו, there we celebrate the ימים טובים with simcha, and has nothing to do with forgiveness of the aveirot, it's זמן שמחתנו, but it is not so, as it is known that Sukkot is a continuation of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It says that the sechach of the sukkah is a continuation of the ענן הקטורת that took place in the Kodesh Hakodashim on Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol used to go into the Kodesh Hakodashim and bring ketoret, and it would make an anan, a cloud. So later on, this, in the רוחניותדיקע sense, turns into the sechach of the sukkah. And also it says that sechach, סמ\"ך כ\"ף כ\"ף, represents the hundred קולות that we used to blow on Rosh Hashanah. We know that on Rosh Hashanah we have to blow a hundred קולות with the shofar, which is sixty תקיעות, and twenty תרועות, and twenty שברים. And sechach is סמ\"ך כ\"ף כ\"ף, סמ\"ך is sixty, כ\"ף is twenty, and the other כ\"ף is twenty. So the sechach of the sukkah is a continuation of the תקיעות that we blow on Rosh Hashanah. So we see that Sukkot is a continuation to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And it also says that what a person did not accomplish during Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and עשרת ימי תשובה through the קו היראה, through doing things in the form of יראת השם, of fear of Hashem, he is able to make up and accomplish through Sukkot and Simchat Torah through the קו השמחה. And with that, we are also able to accomplish a כפרת עוונות, that Hashem should forgive us the aveirot. And it actually says in the Zohar that Hoshana Rabbah is the time when we receive the פתקין, the kvitlach of Hashem. So we see that even this זמן שמחתנו of the month of Tishrei is still connected to Hashem's forgiving the aveirot. And all this is hinted in the word לבן, which means the whitening of the aveirot. And this is another similarity between the time when we leave the month of Tishrei to enter into Cheshvan, etc., etc., to the פסוק ויעקב הלך לדרכו. Just like יעקב left לבן and he was going on his way, when we finish the month of Tishrei and we are continuing into Cheshvan, Kislev, etc., we are also going away from לבן, we are going away from the time when Hashem was מלבן עוונותינו, he whitened our עבירות, and we are going into our regular, ordinary way of life. And this is what we tell every Yid, that even though you are going לדרכו after you are leaving לבן, you have to remember that it should always be לדרכו, it should always be His way, meaning the special way of a Yid, that even though you are going to get involved in secular, physical matters, you have to remember that you should be different than the people of the world, that even in your secular matters it has to be all done as the פסוק says, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways. The same לדרכו as it says in ויעקב הלך לדרכו, here the פסוק also says בכל דרכיך, in all your ways, דעהו, you have to know Hashem, which means that you have to do it all in a unique way, it all has to be done לשם שמים.