Those familiar with plotting and plot structures know Joseph Campbell's work on the Hero's Journey and the monomyth. That story is ingrained within humanity itself, manifesting throughout our narratives. The application of this monomyth speaks directly to our unconscious mind in a way that creates excellent story structure.
This thought has rolled around my brain for quite some time, but on Rosh Hashanah I was considering the holiday and received a brainwave: the holidays could be mapped to a plot structure. After considerable thought, I came to the conclusion I'll explain below. This is the full monomyth as derived from the holidays.
The story begins with a problem: where to begin. There are two natural beginnings, Pesach or Rosh Hashanah, as both mark beginnings of the year. However, I advance a different beginning: Hannukah.
Hannukah is the festival of lights, the rekindling of the light of Torah. The neshamah is likewise compared to a candle. We can make the connection to birth where the neshamah is kindled and enters the body. This is the beginning of the story, where fire pierces through darkness.
This doesn't have to be literal birth. Rather, it refers to the beginning of the story. A story must begin with this light. The light is the spark of difference within our hero. An excellent example is Luke Skywalker. We see he is different somehow. He looks to the sky, yet the cry has not yet echoed. The spark is the difference within our hero that sets him apart from the environment. Why are we telling his story instead of following another character.
The next holiday is Purim. Purim is the holiday of gashmiyus. It is the day where we eat and drink and imbibe in the pleasures of this world. While on a hidden level this is to uplift the gashmiyus into ruchniyus, on the plain level, Purim is the holiday of physicality and thus where we start our story. Our character is in the physical world with the glorious neshamah ready to be unfurled. But it is clouded by character flaws and failures within his ability. As an example, while we open the story of the Hobbit with Hannukah as we see the spark of a Took within Bilbo, we quickly move into Purim with Bilbo happy in his state of safety and physicality. He is in denial of the heroic side of his lineage, preferring to remain at his home. The hero can be unsatisfied with his environment or perfectly happy, but either way he is fully steeped within it.
Esther is unique amongst all of the Tanakh in that the Holy Name is never mentioned and the Almighty is hidden. He is cloaked within gashmiyus. It is no accident that feasting takes such a prominent role. To deny the spirituality within the physical is to deny the physical, but with our eyes clouded we can only see the physical. The flaws of the hero clouding himself from the unknown spiritual reality partially creates Purim, which is the physicality of home. For example, when Bilbo returns home we're told of how he continues to speak to Elves and Dwarves even though he is still at Bag End. The adventure was always present, he just had to pierce the physicality to find it. Likewise, Luke comes back to Tatooine to save Han Solo, informing us that his goal of becoming a Jedi was always present. Obi Wan Kenobi was always there, just disguised as Ben. But the adventure is necessary for our hero to have his eyes unclouded. And so the Holy One remains disguised.
Then we get to the next event: the cry to heaven. As we approach Passover, we reach Shabbos hagadol and are reminded of the beginning of our redemption. This beginning was the simple cry that the Bnei Yisrael screamed forth in Egypt. Our hero is unsatisfied with his current gashmiyusdic state, thus he sets up a cry. To continue our Star Wars example, Luke Skywalker is dissatisfied with his state of being on Tatooine and lets up a cry of wanting to leave this planet. The cry can take many forms, but the point is that the nonverbal spark is verbalized and made concrete. The cry can even be external such as the Dwarves appearing to Bilbo. He feels something different hearing the song of Kazadum, but as the character flaw itself is the dislike of adventures, the cry goes unverbalized internally and remains external.
Thus there are two separate cries, one internal and one external. They can even appear within the same story, however usually the internal cry is screamed out first with the external cry being like Moses appearing in Egypt. Deliverance has not yet began, just the call to leave Egypt and to experience ruchniyus.
The next step is of course Passover. Deliverance is at hand and our hero begins his journey out of gashmiyus and into the realm of ruchniyus. However, this journey is not yet complete, for then we have the seven days of unleavened bread and at the end of this is the splitting of the red sea where the final escape is made. But the escape starts at Passover. In the Matrix we see this with Neo beginning his escape, but he is pursued by Agent Smith until he finally makes it out of the Matrix.
Next is the days of Omer. With the escape through the Red Sea, our hero goes from the realm of gashmiyus into the realm of ruchniyus. But he has yet to achieve victory, all he has achieved now is the freedom to achieve the goal. The omer sees him start his ascent and through conflict and struggle move forwards in his journey until he reaches shavuos.
At Shavuos we received the Torah which is our weapon against the yetzer harah in our endless struggle for good against the evils of the yetzer harah. Likewise, this is when the hero receives the primary tool which will enable him to defeat the evil within and without. It is often where the hero will be granted some tools earlier usually between the cry and Passover. For example, we have Luke Skywalker's cry which is followed by the gift of his father's lightsaber then Passover with him leaving Tatooine. However, this is not the tool. The tool is actually the force which he receives after the red sea of the shoot out by the Millennium Falcon and the escape to hyperspace.
At Shavuos, the primary tool used to achieve victory is granted but our battle isn't over. Our hero flush with victory forges ahead but he has yet to defeat the evil and thus fails. Therefore, we enter into Tish Ba'av. The hero has some fatal flaw within himself such as arrogance, naivete, or anger to name a few which he usually denies or ignores until it brings him to the brink. His temple is burned down, those he loves dies, and the fires of defeat licks around him. The fellowship is scattered. Cypher begins killing those outside of the Matrix. Luke has no hand. Our hero is cast low, but he is not yet out for next come Elul.
In Elul, our hero is fully cognizant of his failures and the reason for them. As such he fully repents from his failures and seeks to correct the flaw within himself that lead to the failure. He picks himself back up and continues right back into the fray. Luke Skywalker heads to Tatooine and returns to Yoda, atoning for his sin and confessing that he shouldn't have left Yoda. Our hero is thus prepared for the final conflict.
As our hero enters Mount Doom, we see the final test, that is Rosh Hashanah. The character flaw and abilities of the hero are tested and pushed to the breaking point. For ten days our hero fights and struggles against the ultimate evil both within and without until he reaches Yom Kippur. Here the test is the strongest and the hero is given the ultimate choice, to deactivate the computer or not. Dark clouds completely around him and it seems that the light will be snuffed out. The holy Neshamah will die.
At the end of Yom Kippur is the beginning of the triumph. When Luke deactivates the computer thus passing the test, the first triumph comes of Han Solo also passing his test with a triumphant entry. The victory is at hand and we begin the first stage of catharsis. Finally our hero achieves victory both over the evil within and without.
Sukkos is the reward of the hero in this world. With no roof, he has fully recognized the character flaws within and rectified him. He need not fear the rain that previous pelted upon him. Sukkos is the physical reward. It is the freedom of Gondor. It is the final escape from the Terminator. However, we still have one more holiday, that is Shemini Etzeres.
While Sukkos represents the time of Moshiach and the physical reward of being able to live in this world fully rectified serving the Almighty, the true reward is that of the world to come. Just as there is no mitzvah of the day for Shemini Etzeres so too there will be no mitzvos in the world come. It will only be us, Hashem Blessed is He and His Holy Torah forever. This is the spiritual victory. After Gondor is freed and the ring is destroyed, the stain of Sauron is still upon the soul of Frodo. It is only later as he journeys to the undying lands where we see his smile return and we know that he has achieved victory over the final stench of the one ring.
The spiritual boon must always come after the physical boon. After the Death Star is destroyed thus granting the physical boon of the celebration on Endor do we receive the spiritual boon of seeing that Luke succeeded and redeemed his father from darkness. The spiritual boon is the new level of spirituality that our character has achieved such as Luke Skywalker becoming better in the force in A New Hope as displayed by him using telekinesis in Empire. The physical boon on the other hand is a physical reward which is given.
This reward can be the victory itself as seen within the negative as opposed to the positive quest. When the quest is negative, meaning that the hero sets out to defeat the villain and, in a sense, maintain the status quo, the victory itself where the threat against the world and the hero is removed is the physical reward. Meanwhile in a positive quest the physical reward is the achievement.
And thus our hero returns back into gashmiyus. He has entered into ruchniyus and succeeded in the test. He is flush with both physical gifts as well as spiritual gifts. Some stories end here with our hero enjoying his world to come like Frodo entering the undying lands. Still others are like Bilbo where they return home to the shire and thus into Cheshvan. With no holidays, Hashem says to us in Cheshvan that we have just spent all this time fighting and ascending spiritually. Can we keep the levels that we have attained?
And thus, our story ends with our hero having returned to the realm of gashmiyus and gone back to his physical existence, but he is forever changed.
This is the story that is ingrained within our psyche because it is the story of us. Every human being goes through this plot, but whether we succeed or fail is up to us. Perhaps we will deny the call to adventure and remain in Egypt. Or perhaps after our Tish Ba'av we are overwhelmed by our failure and don't ever choose to leave our exile. Still more people don't pass their Rosh Hashanah and die. Boromir was tested and failed, and though he repented it was too late and Rosh Hashanah closed with his death. We ourselves live this story every year as we fight against the yetzer harah to ascend further. Our entire life is but one giant cycle. The story of the world itself follows this path. And so by understanding this story we may not only become better writers but also learn better how we may become the heroes of our own story. As our Sages may they be remembered for good say, "Everything is written in a book." This should not be a source of anxiety, rather, an inspiration. The book isn't there to be opened in order to condemn us, rather, we are the heroes of this book and this story outlined above should be our story. We have been given the tools to succeed; do we cast the ring into the fire? Do we turn off the targeting computer and have faith? If so, then we will be the hero, else, it will be a tragic story of failure. But the choice of which story is written is in our hands. After every Tish Ba'av comes an Elul.
Published 2025-10-29