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A Month of Healing, Practice, and Wisdom
This Hebrew year we began a new column with Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz, who is offering a 12-part column exploring the spiritual and psychological wisdom of each Hebrew month. Drawing from Torah, Kabbalah, Mussar, and seasonal awareness, each installment will highlight core themes, practices, and reflections to help ground us in sacred time. Join us on this monthly journey through the Jewish calendar.
The Hebrew month of Iyar sits between two great moments in the Jewish calendar. Nissan brings us out of Egypt. Sivan brings us to Sinai. Iyar is the month in between. We are no longer in bondage. We have not yet received Torah. We are on the way.
That in-between quality gives Iyar its particular power. Jewish life does not happen only in moments of breakthrough. Much of it happens on the road between them. Iyar teaches that spiritual life is shaped not only by dramatic events, also by steady practice, honest reflection, and the slow work of becoming ready.
This is the month of Counting the Omer, the seven-week period linking Passover and Shavuot. Each evening we count another day: one day, two days, ten days, twenty-five days. It is a simple ritual. It also carries deep wisdom. Counting reminds us that freedom is only a beginning. Leaving Egypt is not the same as knowing how to live as a free person. Redemption opens a door. Growth asks something of us after we walk through it.
In that sense, Iyar is a month of preparation. We move from liberation toward responsibility, from release toward relationship, from escape toward covenant. The journey from Egypt to Sinai is not only a story about the past. It is also a map of inner life. Many of us know what it means to leave something behind and still not know exactly who we are becoming. Iyar gives dignity to that stage of the journey.
Jewish tradition also links Iyar with healing. Some teachers point to the letters of the month as hinting at the phrase Ani Adonai rof’echa — “I am the Eternal your healer” (Exodus 15:26). Whether we understand healing physically, emotionally, or spiritually, the association feels right. Healing rarely happens all at once. It comes through attention, patience, repetition, and care. Iyar is a month that honors process.
The Hebrew letter associated with Iyar is vav (וּ). In Hebrew grammar, vav often means “and.” It joins one thing to another. That makes it a fitting symbol for this month. Iyar is about connection: between freedom and obligation, body and spirit, aspiration and daily life. The work of Judaism is not to live only in lofty moments. It is to learn how to bring what is holy into ordinary time. Vav is the small letter that links worlds.
The tribe connected with Iyar is Issachar, often remembered as the tribe of study and discernment. In the book of Chronicles, the men of Issachar are described as those “who had understanding of the times” (I Chronicles 12:33). That is a striking phrase. Wisdom in Jewish tradition is not only intelligence. It is the capacity to understand the moment one is living in and to respond faithfully. Issachar’s roots in Torah are earthy, not abstract. Leah names him after sachar, reward or recompense, in the complicated family story in Genesis. Later traditions remembered Issachar as devoted to Torah study, often paired with Zebulun, the tribe associated with commerce and worldly engagement. One held the tent of study. The other moved in the marketplace and on the sea. Together they suggest a truth that Judaism knows well: wisdom needs both contemplation and practical support. Study is sacred, and it must also be grounded in life.
That makes Issachar a meaningful guide for Iyar. This month asks us to become students of our own lives. What patterns are shaping us? What needs healing? What requires more discipline? What kind of wisdom is this season asking of us? The Omer encourages that sort of inner accounting. In later Jewish thought, the forty-nine days came to be associated with the refinement of seven core emotional qualities: love, discipline, compassion, endurance, humility, connection, and dignity. Whether or not one uses that language formally, the basic idea is accessible to anyone. Growth happens through attention to character.
There is also a tenderness to Iyar. The Torah’s wilderness stories remind us that people do not become mature overnight. Newly freed slaves carry anxiety, memory, and habit. So do we. The journey asks for trust, and trust often grows slowly. Iyar does not demand perfection. It asks for participation. Count the day. Take the next step. Learn something. Repair something. Strengthen what is weak. That is holy work.
Midway through the month comes Lag BaOmer, the thirty-third day of the Omer. The somber mood that marks part of this season lifts for a day. Bonfires, outings, music, and celebration enter the calendar. Jewish memory is realistic about sorrow, and it also insists on joy. Even in a season of discipline and refinement, there is room for lightness, community, and delight.
For many people today, Iyar may be one of the less familiar Hebrew months. It does not carry the immediate visibility of Passover or the High Holy Days. Still, it offers something deeply useful. It teaches us how to live in the middle. Not at the beginning, when everything is dramatic. Not at the culmination, when revelation arrives. In the middle, where most of life is actually lived.
That is not a lesser spiritual place. It may be the place where the deepest work occurs.
Iyar invites us to honor the quiet labor of becoming wiser, steadier, and more whole. It reminds us that revelation is prepared for in the small faithfulness of daily life. One day counted. One conversation repaired. One insight practiced. One more step across the wilderness.
Chodesh tov. May this month bring healing where healing is needed, strength for the road, and the kind of wisdom that helps us understand the times we are living in.
Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz
Check out Shulchan.net for more information about R’Charna’s offerings
Rabbi Charna is offering a Counting the Omer class, beginning April 5th, 2026.
Here is a list of Rabbi Charna’s monthly columns in the series:
