The Jewish month of Iyar (Zif) - the second
month
The word ''iyar'' means ''or'' (the light). The word ''zif'' means '' brightness, splendour, glow''.
''Iyar usually falls in April–May on the Gregorian calendar.'' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyar)
The main events in Iyar
- The earth after the flood was dry
"And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried." (Gen 8:14)
- Manna
''And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which [is] between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.'' (Exod 16:1)
''And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it [was] like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it [was] like wafers [made] with honey.'' (Exod 16:31)
- Hashem told to Moshe to do the census of people
''And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first [day] of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of [their] names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.'' (Num 1:1-3)
- Pesakh sheni (the second Passover) (14 Iyar)
''And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: And those men said unto him, We [are] defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel? And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or [be] in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD. The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, [and] eat it with unleavened bread and bitter [herbs].'' (Num 9:6-11)
''And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing pleased the king and all the congregation.'' (2Chr 30:1-4)
- Shlomo (Solomon) began to build the Temple
''And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which [is] the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.'' (1Kings 6:1)
- the construction of the Second Temple
''Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.'' (Ezr 3:8)
- the establishment
of Israel state - Iyar 5, 5708 (May 14, 1948)
- Jerusalem Day (On Iyar 28 of 5727 the Old city Jerusalem were conquered during Six Day War of 1967 year)
During Iyar mitzva - sfirat ha-omer - is came true.
''And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.'' (Lev 23:15-16)