Iyar: Month of Healing

Iyar: Month of Healing

July 9, 2020 - In: Monthly Energy

Purification is a major theme reflected in the Torah portions for this month of Iyar. The Torah instructs us through the portions for this month that it is in the sanctification of the basic physical things of life that we experience holiness and become holy people.

Greetings!

Chodesh Tov! We welcome the new month of Iyar on Friday April 24th and Saturday April 25th, the time of the new moon. May this be month of healing and blessing for me, for you, all of Israel, and the entire world! This month hosts the holiday of Lag B' Omer beginning on sunset May 11th to sunset May 12th. The holiday of the month epitomizes the spiritual energy of the month. Lag B' Omer commemorates the end of the plague that killed twenty four thousand students of Rabbi Akiva, a great kabbalist and commentator on the Talmud. May we see a meaningful diminishment of our modern day plague by then. Lag B' Omer is also the yahrzeit celebration of Rebbi Shimeon Bar Yochai. Because of his spiritual radiance, having realized the soul's unification with the limitless light of God Rabbi Shimeon Bar Yochai was called the Holy Candle. This awesome holiday inspires each of us to experience our own soul's highest connection to the Divine as well.

The Hebrew letters for the name of the month Iyar spell out the initials of the verse, "Ani Yud Yud Rofecha" - "I am God your healer." What a powerful mantra to meditate upon. Try it. Take a moment, even right now, be with your breath as you take a few slow and deep breaths. Repeat this mantra to yourself with each breath. Know this as the truth. God is your healer. God is healing you right now! All healing comes from the experience of our connection to God, the Creator of all life, the Source of all blessing and love.

In order to heal, to become more whole, we must go beyond our habitual ways of thinking, feeling, and living. We must change our thinking and create new and wonderful habits for ourselves. How can we expect to facilitate healing and growth in our lives if we keep doing the same things we always do over and over? Being sheltered in place has given us opportunities to nurture ourselves in new ways.

Healing begins with a careful discernment between ego states masquerading as the self and the soul, our true essence and identity. To the extent we are identified with the ego, we will lack objectivity and not see the spiritual opportunity present in life challenges. Know that if and when you are in a blaming mode or victim mode, you are not in touch with the truth of who you are.

Healing requires a deep listening to oneself in the most honoring respectful way. Ask yourself, Can I open and listen to the deep knowing inside myself that is coming from inner stillness, the voice of the soul or do I listen to the chatter and hysteria of the ego mind, which is loud and clamoring for my attention? Be with your feelings without blaming anyone. The common tendency to judge and be overly critical of oneself or others weakens self-esteem and limits the flow of healing energy. Blaming keeps you stuck as a victim. Let go of blame, breathe it out with the breath and take responsibility for your own healing. Be compassionate with yourself. Cultivate and heighten your appreciation and gratitude for all that you do have right now.

Iyar is the connection between the previous month of Nissan, which hosts Passover and the following month of Sivan, which hosts the holiday of Shavuous. Healing, purification and refinement of our character traits is now needed to internalize the spiritual gifts we have been given as well as open ourselves to future blessings at the time of Shavuous. Many Jews participate in a spiritual practice of Counting the Omer that encompasses the entire month of Iyar as recorded in the Bible. "You shall count seven perfect Sabbaths from the day following the Passover holiday when you brought the Omer as a wave offering until the day after the seventh Sabbath, when there will be fifty days." (Lev. 23:15-16)

The Counting of the Omer is a spiritual meditative practice that helps people become more aware of the preciousness of each day as well as help refine our character traits. Each week of the Counting of the Omer is devoted to reflection and meditation on a particular sephira (divine attribute) in relation to the other sephirot . The sephirot are explained in depth in my book New Age Judaism . The sephiro t constitute what is called the Tree of Life. When the Bible says that the human being was made in the image and likeness of God, these words are actually referring to the sephirot. When the sephirot were first created, they appeared in the form of a man. The sephirot are not separate from the Creator, but they are not the same either.

The sephirot are the ways we experience and know God. The sephirot are considered vessels and lights- vessels because they delineate and limit Ain So f at the same time and lights because they reveal Ain Sof in ways that can be received directly. Meditating and experiencing the sephirot in our own bodies is a very powerful, holy, and profound spiritual experience (see New Age Judaism for guided meditation on the sephirot in the body). Each day when Jews count the Omer during the month of Iyar, they meditate on the qualities of the sephirot in relation to the others sephirot so as to expand their capacity to experience and embody the divine attributes within themselves.

Meditating of the sephirot gives us an opportunity to call forth various emotional energies for different situations. For example, at times we have to be strong and set definitive boundaries; at other times we have to be unconditionally loving and have no boundaries. Not having the capacity to express what is appropriate in any given situation is limiting and detrimental to ourselves and others. Though we have a propensity in one direction, for example, some of us are more kind than strong. We need to cultivate the whole spectrum of emotional capacities as presented in the Tree of Life.

By way of example, Abraham, known to embody the quality ofhesed, loving kindness, was constantly challenged to demonstrategevurah, strength. It was not his nature nor his desire to send his son Ishmael away and yet he did. He had to rise above his nature. In this way, he gained the capacity to choose what was needed and appropriate for a situation, rather than be limited by the feeling of "this is the way I am". Let's be mindful of when we limit ourselves in this way this month. How can we move out of our comfort zone and show up in our life in new and more loving ways?

Purification is a major theme reflected in the Torah portions for this month of Iyar. The Torah instructs us through the portions for this month that it is in the sanctification of the basic physical things of life that we experience holiness and become holy people. It is not enough to simply meditate to be holy. Through the mundane world and its myriad of physical activities like food, sex, love, money, and business, we have an opportunity to experience God. In this way we purify ourselves and the world. It is through the connections (mitzvot) we make between the spiritual and physical aspects of our life that allow us to bring Godliness more into our very being.

So may this month be one of healing, a month of becoming more whole, more open, vital and alive, no matter what is taking place around us.

Love and Blessings,
-MMM (Miriam Mindy Melinda)