Iyar – Calling on the Heart, the Soul and the Eyes
As long as a Jewish heart beats,
The Jewish soul longs,
And Jewish eyes look eastward to Zion,
Our two thousand year old
hope to be a free people
in Zion and Jerusalem
is not lost. (Translation by Rabbi Arthur Waskow)
We are beginning the month of Iyar; a month that seeks to turn us eastward, toward the home we love, toward Israel. On Yom HaZikaron (Remembrance Day, Iyar 4), we honor those who have lost their lives defending Israeli independence. 'The Jewish heart beats' – the beating heart is the heart that needs to remember. It is the heart that cannot and will not forget those who gave their lives, in order that we might have a Jewish home.
Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day, Iyar 5) is the 'soul that longs.' As we celebrate the anniversary of Israel's independence in 1948, we long for true freedom. Longing for the truest kind of freedom, we dream of a time when we are free from the fear of terror and free from religious intolerance towards Jews and non-Jews alike.
Finally, Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day, Iyar 28) represents the ability to see. It is the symbol for true, exalted vision. With our eyes looking eastward, our vision first reaches the land of Israel and then Jerusalem. Celebrating the 1967 unification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule, and the right for all Jews to visit the Western Wall, we seek the vision of a world repaired, a world made whole – ir shalem – the city of wholeness, Yerushalayim. We seek the vision that will enable Jews and Palestinians to live together in wholeness, in peace.
Iyar is the primary month of the counting of the omer, when we seek to spiritually prepare ourselves for a reenactment of revelation on Mt. Sinai. To be prepared for matan Torah, the 'gift of Torah,' requires a beating heart, a longing soul and the most penetrating vision. May we travel through this month of Iyar, attending to our beating hearts, tending to the longing in our souls and with intention, expanding the depth and love of our vision.
–
Rabbi Rachel Gartner,
Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow
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