Iyar Newsletter 5783

During Passover, a number of activities took place in Jerusalem, the Holy City: over 15,000 people participated in the blessing of the priests that took place in the plaza of the Western Wall. The highlight was the Passover Sacrifice practice ceremony, which took place in the Shaar “Hashepot” Square at the foot of the Temple Mount. Many people gathered to practice bringing a Passover Sacrifice to the temple as it appears in the Torah verses. During the days of the holiday, about half a million people chose to commemorate the "Pilgrimage" and visited the Western Wall.
In just 4 days, 3,430 Jews ascended the Temple Mount.

In 2023, 8160 Israeli Jews and 136,675 tourists ascended the Temple Mount.
What about you?
(Credit Journal Makor Richon)

(Credit journalist in Maariv Ofira Alevi)

The month of Iyar in the Bible is called the month of Ziv (radiance) (Kings 1, 6). What is the special radiance of the month? It is not only the radiance of the sun, which shines during this month when spring is gradually revealed, but it is also the glow of revelation and spiritual blossoming. In this month both the building of the first and second Temples began.

In our generation we have been blessed with two huge revelations in the month of Iyar:
Independence Day, and Jerusalem Day. Independence Day expresses the liberation from the yoke of the Gentiles over the Jewish people, and the resurrection of the people of Israel after the terrible holocaust that consumed such a large part of the nation. The nation of Israel rose from the ashes,from the smoky vapors, in the sense that "I knelt down like a lion and a lion who would stand” (Kings1:6).

Later in our generation, the people of Israel merited in the month of Iyar the liberation of our Temple Mount during the Six Day War. The call “The Temple Mount in our hands”which made hearts skip a beat, was a landmark moment in the history of the people of Israel in its land. However,unfortunately, this call had no practical follow-up. The month of Iyar, in which the construction of the first and second Temples began, missed an historic opportunity to also become the month of the beginning of the construction of the third Temple. However, by virtue of being a month of awakening, this is the appropriate time to renew the expectation for the fulfillment of the vision of building the Temple and the return to Zion.
(Rabbi Menachem Makover)