The Month of Iyar 5766 Miriam Ben-Yaacov

Rosh Chodesh Iyar is two days--30 Nisan–1 Iyar, April 28-29, 2006. IDF Memorial Day is 4 Iyar, May 2, 2006. Israeli Independence Day is 5 Iyar, May 3, 2006. Pesach Sheini is 14 Iyar, May 12, 2006. Lag BaOmer is 18 Iyar, May 16, 2006. Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) is 23 Iyar, May 21, 2006. Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) is 28 Iyar, May 26, 2006.

He made the letter Vav king over thought
And He bound a crown to it
And He combined one with another
And with them He formed
Taurus in the Universe
Iyar in the Year
And the right kidney in the Soul
male and female.
--Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation)

On the breastplate of the Cohen Gadol, the High Priest, the stone of the tribe of Yissachar was the sapphire in the middle of the second row. Being the tribe famed for their Torah study, they were worthy of being represented by the stone from which the luchot, the tablets of the Torah, were made. We are also told that the Throne of glory is sapphire… They saw the Gd of Israel, and under His feet was the likeness of sapphire brickwork, and it was like the essence of heaven in purity. (Exodus 24:10)

“Yissachar is a stron ass
Couching down between the sheepfolds
And he saw that the rest was good
And the land was pleasant.
And he bowed his shoulder to bear
And became a servant to tribute.
--Bereshith 49:14-15

In the month of Iyar the nation of Israel is in the midst of counting the Omer. This is the fifty-day period, after the Exodus from Egypt on Passover, in which the people prepare to receive the Torah. All the readings of the Torah during this month are concerned with purification and repentence. Yissachar was the tribe of Torah scholars. Like the donkey, who bears the burden for his master without complaint, the Torah scholar gladly takes upon himself the burden of Heaven in this world, carrying the Torah to the people. This scholarship brings him to a personal purity and thus to a depth of understanding—being able to see one thing from another, which is the essence of the message of the Torah to the people in this world.

I Chronicles speaks of Yissachar having “knowledge of understanding the times.” During this period of counting the Omer, the Jewish People are especially conscious of time, a dimension that only exists in our realm. Throughout the year, however, there is a rhythm of time connected with the Torah that draws on understanding of the orchestration of events by the hand of Hashem.

The city of Tiberias, on the southwest shore of the Kinneret, is located in the tribal territory of Yissachar, (although it may be difficult to see on this map). After the destruction of the Temple, the Romans would not allow Jews to freely live in Jerusalem, so the Torah centers moved—many to the north. In Tiberias the sages codified the Mishneh. It was here that the last session of the Sanhedrin took place, and the new Sanhedrin would be re-established…which we saw happen last year. The great Sages of the generations have drawn from the gift of Yissachar to discern one thing from another in deciding halacha—how we fulfill the details of the Torah. Many of these were laid to rest in Tiberias—such as the great commentator on the Mishneh, Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, also known as Maimonedes. Of him is the saying: “From Moses to Moses, there was none like Moses.”

The Sages write that Avraham and Sarah learned Torah directly through their kidneys. How do we understand this? The kidneys are associated with conscience. The right kidney is our thought processes. Through the Torah we refine our thoughts in a similar way in which the kidneys filter out impurities from our bodily system. The Torah helps us filter out influences of past experiences so we can truly walk in tshuva (repentence), sincerely changing our lives. We can then see even the hardest lessons in a positive way, rather than letting the experiences imbitter our lives. We can learn to live a balanced life, choosing faith and love rather than being driven by fear and anger. This was the lesson Leah came to with the birth of Yissachar. With this lesson, she engendered unity in the tribes and was blessed with the birth of the son whose tribe would embody the balance of Torah.

Taurus is an earth sign. Many people erroneously think that to be spiritual they must renounce everything associated with this world. As the one takes up the Torah, he comes to see the application to this world, to perfect it rather than reject it. For each mundane practice, such as eating, there is a specific blessing, reminding us of our Creator. This is the refining of our thoughts, our perceptions of what it means to live in this physical realm.

The Hebrew letter Vav is connection, grammatically acting as the conjunction “and” in front of a word. In this same way, the Torah connects us to Hashem, to each other, and even to ourselves, in a proper manner. Numerically, Vav is six, the number most associated with this realm—bringing to mind the six days of Creation, the six millennium of our world, the six directions of the physical world, the six orders of the Mishneh, the six points of the Magen David. Only through the Torah we are able to fulfill our mission of connecting this realm with the Heaven. This is the true path to the joy that Yissachar represents.

Chodesh tov (Have a good month)
Miriam Ben-Yaacov

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