The Month of Iyar
Iyar is the month of healing — its name spells 'Ani Hashem Rofecha,' I am G-d your Healer. It is the month of counting the Omer, refining the animal soul, and the joy of Lag B'Omer.
1 July 2026 Audio
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Series
A journey through the Jewish year, month by month — the letter, mazal, tribe, sense, and inner avodah of each chodesh.
10 shiurim
Iyar is the month of healing — its name spells 'Ani Hashem Rofecha,' I am G-d your Healer. It is the month of counting the Omer, refining the animal soul, and the joy of Lag B'Omer.
Sivan is the month of the giving of the Torah on Shavuos — a wedding of G-d and Israel, marked by unity, the number three, and the humility of a low mountain.
Av holds both the deepest descent — the Three Weeks and the churban of the Beis HaMikdash on Tisha b'Av — and the seed of the greatest ascent, the comfort of Nachamu and the promise of the final redemption.
Elul is the month of Teshuvah, when 'the King is in the field' and closeness is made easy. It is a time of cheshbon hanefesh — taking stock of the soul — in preparation for the Yamim Noraim.
Tishrei, the head of the year, is satiated with holy days — Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkos and Simchas Torah. Its sign is the scale of Divine judgment, and its inner theme is Teshuvah, the soul's return to its Source.
Cheshvan, the only month with no holidays, is the month of bringing Tishrei's light into ordinary life. As the eighth month it is the month of the supernatural — the month of Moshiach and the future third Temple.
Kislev is the month of trust and of light — of Chanukah and the 19th of Kislev, the New Year of Chassidus. It reveals the inner, mystical dimension of Torah, like oil that lights up the darkness.
Tevet begins with the last lights of Chanukah, whose glow helps reveal the hidden good (Tov) in the cold and in life's challenges. Its avodah is to heal the 'evil eye' and to learn to see the good in others and in ourselves.
Shevat joins service and leadership — drawing Divine wisdom down into the world like water from a well. On Tu biShvat, the New Year of the Trees, we learn that we grow, like palms, only when our roots intertwine with others.
'When Adar enters, we increase in joy.' Adar is the month of Purim — of the hidden face of G-d in nature, of miracles disguised as chance, and of a joy that breaks past every limit.