We’ve mentioned in the past that every one of the 12 months of the year has a special pasuk. Each pasuk includes four words spelled with the letters of Hashem’s name ( yud, heh, vav and heh,) and each pasuk has these letters of Hashem’s name in a different order. There are 12 ways to scramble Hashem’s name, and each month’s pasuk has a corresponding, spelling.
Nissan, which is the most powerful month, has the pasuk:
ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ
The heavens will be happy and the earth will rejoice.
Each word starts with a letter of Hashem’s name and it’s spelled in order, in the month of Nissan, where everything is clear.
Iyar’s pasuk includes the words
יִתהלל הַמתהלל הַשכל וְידוע
The one who is praising himself should be praised with knowledge and intellect- Me.
In other words,
“The person should pride himself in knowing Me.” This is the pasuk of Iyar
Looking at the full pasuk will reveal its relevance to us:
(כב) כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה אַל יִתְהַלֵּל חָכָם בְּחָכְמָתוֹ
So says G-d, the wiseman should not pride himself on his wisdom,
וְאַל יִתְהַלֵּל הַגִּבּוֹר בִּגְבוּרָתוֹ אַל יִתְהַלֵּל עָשִׁיר בְּעָשְׁרוֹ:
And a strong man shouldn’t pride himself on his strength, Nor a wealthy man for his wealth
The three things that people tend to pride themselves on:
Smarts, power, and wealth- you didn’t earn these things. They’re all from G-d, so don’t pride yourself on these things.
What should you be proud of?
(כג) כִּי אִם בְּזֹאת יִתְהַלֵּל הַמִּתְהַלֵּל הַשְׂכֵּל וְיָדֹעַ אוֹתִי
Know me and know my ways,
(which are,)
כִּי אֲנִי ה' עֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה בָּאָרֶץ
I am G-d; I do kindness, I do justice and I do charity. (These are two of the three pillars of the world - Avodah is omitted)
כִּי בְאֵלֶּה חָפַצְתִּי נְאֻם יְהֹוָה:
This is what I want.
Kindness, justice and charity
Know that and pride yourself for knowing My ways.
That is the pasuk of Iyar.
The Sefer Zichron Yisrael points out two major events that happened in Iyar.
The first one was the Mabul
(Everyone agrees with, that the mabul happened in the second month. There’s a question in the Gemarah about what the “second month” means. Does it mean second from Nissan or second from Tishre? We are going with the opinion that the Mabul occurred on the 17th is Iyar)
Another major event that happened in the month of Iyar is that the manna came down from heaven. G-d opened the heavens and the manna came down.
It’s interesting. In both cases the heavens opened up, but there were two choices of what came down; either the manna or the mabul.
Rabbi Taubenfeld, from Monsey, says that there are certain opportune times when the heavens are open. It’s up to the people to determine whether they are the recipients of either “Door Number One” which is the manna, a wellspring of spirituality, or “Door Number Two”, which is the mabul.
On the same pasuk, where it says, “Open up the windows of heaven,” the Zohar tells us that in the year תר(about 180 years ago),
“the windows of the heaven will open and there will be an abundance of wisdom.” The rabbis of the time were waiting for that abundance of Torah wisdom to come down, but what actually happened was that there was no tremendous surge of Torah wisdom then. What happened was that the Industrial Revolution began. The countries all became more westernized, and western civilization spread throughout the world. There were many different revolutions then, and that was the surge that the Zohar was speaking about.
The rabbis said that there had been an opportunity to be had. We could’ve used it for the spreading of Torah wisdom, but instead, it was taken over and directed to a different place. This is a principal: there are times when it is opportune for something to occur, and it’s up to us to properly receive it. We are definitely in a time where something is going on in the heavens. I’m not in a position to say what is going on, but something is going on. Things are coming from a very high place.
I read an essay by a rabbi from Israel, Rabbi Lauchter, which was too deep for me to understand, but he explains that a plague comes from a very high place in Shamayim. It comes down in a way that we can’t understand. So, things are definitely going on. We must accept them in the proper way.
This is the significance specifically connected to the month of Iyar.
The month of Iyar is a time that you can either pride yourself on your wisdom, your strength, and your wealth, or you can pride yourself on knowing G-d.
We should take advantage of the month of Iyar.
It’s interesting that this Haftara, hfrom Yirmiyah, is read in Parashat Tzav. Because we aren’t in shul, I read it in my house. It hit me that the ending was familiar. In that same pasuk, in Yirmiya, he’s warning the people because they aren’t following orders. G-d is sending profits but the people aren’t listening. They keep talking and talking and no one listens.
It says לא לקחו מוסר
They don’t take my rebuke.
They’ve lost their emunah.
And what does G-d say?
When I read this a few weeks ago, the weddings had just stopped. So, it was scary to read....
וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי מֵעָרֵי יְהוּדָה וּמֵחֻצוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַם
I will stop, in the cities of Yehuda, in the outskirts of Yerushalayim,
קוֹל שָׂשׂוֹן וְקוֹל שִׂמְחָה קוֹל חָתָן וְקוֹל כַּלָּה
Which is to say, there won’t be weddings anymore.
The pasuk continues and ends with the words: but what should you do? Know Me. Understand Me. Appreciate Me.
The weddings stopped around Nissan, but now we’re coming into Iyar, which is the end of this Haftara. Hopefully we will take the opportunities of these times, and learn the lessons of these times, and it will truly be an opportune time to bring all the Yeshuot that should be.
Have a great month of Iyar.
Lastly, Iyar, אייר stands for
אני י-ה-ו-ה רפאך
I am Hashem, your Healer
May this be fulfilled on everybody soon.