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After the intensity and excitement of Tishrei, we’re about to get a breather. Wednesday is Rosh Hodesh Cheshvan, the beginning of that rare Jewish month in which nothing happens. No major holidays, no fasts - just a long stretch of ordinary time (punctuated weekly by Shabbat, of course).

The humble month of Cheshvan is like a big empty chest waiting to be filled with gems of Jewish learning and mitzvot. Cheshvan is the ideal time to capitalize on your post-holiday buzz and translate your spiritual energy into action. Here are a few ideas:

Adopt a new mitzvah. Learn how to lay tefillin, commit to doing more bikkur cholim, say the Shemoneh Esrei every day or the Shema each night. 

Learn a new blessing. Each day, try to add another bracha to your repertoire. For example, start saying the Modeh Ani on 1 Cheshvan, the blessing over fruit on 2 Cheshvan and so forth. Or you could set one big goal for each week, like reciting the Birkat Hamazon after dinner.

Preview the parsha. Study each week’s Torah portion ahead of time. Artscroll puts out a terrific resource called A Daily Dose of Torah, with well-written, compact entries that give insights into Torah, Talmud, the siddur and specific aspects of halacha. It sounds like a lot of reading, but it takes only about 18 minutes to go through each day’s entry. Another excellent source of Torah commentary is Nechama Leibowitz’s New Studies series. Each volume covers one book of Torah.

Recite tehillim. Traditional Jews read the entire book of tehillim on a weekly or monthly basis. You might want to aim for something a little more manageable at first, like one or two psalms a day. As you get into the rhythm of it, you can add more. Start with 104, the psalm for rosh hodesh. 

Get involved in your community. Join a Torah study group or volunteer with an organization dedicated to gemilut chasidim. Participate in a Jewish book group or take a Hebrew class at your local Jewish community center. Become more active at your synagogue - if there’s a program you’d like to see and it doesn’t exist yet, round up some fellow congregants and make it happen.

Infuse each day with Jewish wisdom. In only a few minutes each morning, you can work your way through the Cheshvan section of The Jewish Book of Days by Jill Hammer. The daily entries contain a quote from the Tanach, a bite-sized nugget of midrash and her original commentary on the connection between the text and the season. 

Have a joyous, blessed Cheshvan!