A compilation of significant events in Jewish history during the month of Iyar gathered from reputable sources such as Chabad.org and ou.org.
1 Iyar, 5784
Passing of R. Menachem Mendel of Horodok (1788)
Chassidic master Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok (1730? -1788), also known as Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, was one of the leading disciples of the second leader of the Chassidic Movement, Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch. Upon the latter's passing in 1772, R. Menachem Mendel was regarded by his colleagues as the leader of the Chassidic community in Russia, and Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi considered him his rebbe and mentor. In 1777, R. Menachem Mendel led a group of 300 Chassidim to the Holy Land and established Chassidic communities in Safed and Tiberias. Rabbi Menachem Mendel died on the 1st of Iyar of 1788 and is buried in Tiberias.
Jews Counted in Desert (1312 BCE)
"G‑d spoke to Moses in the Sinai Desert…on the first day of the second month [Iyar] during the second year from their departure from Egypt, saying: 'Count the number of the nation of Israel, according to their families and their fathers' households.… Those who are twenty years old and older…." (Numbers 1:1-3)
The passing of R. Yaakov Beirav (1546)
A native of Spain, R. Yaakov Beirav was among those expelled in 1492. He went to North Africa to the Land of Israel, where he established a Torah academy, first in Jerusalem and then Safed.
R. Yaakov is famous for his efforts to reinstitute semichah—the classical rabbinical ordination that had ceased to exist due to Roman persecution in the fourth century CE. His attempts were met with opposition, particularly from R. Levi Ibn Chaviv of Jerusalem, and ultimately did not bear lasting results.
The passing of R. Tzvi Ashkenazi (1718)
R. Tzvi Ashkenazi was one of the leading rabbis of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, serving as rabbi in numerous European communities. He is known as the Chacham Tzvi, which is also the title of his work of halachic responsa.
3 Iyar, 5784
Yahrtzeit: Rabbi Yeshayah Steiner of Kerestir
Grand Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir (1851 – Iyar 3, 1925) founded the Kerestirer Hasidic dynasty.
4 Iyar, 5784
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Joseph Baer Soloveichik, head of Yeshivah of Volozhin, author of responsa Bet ha-Levi, 1892.
5 Iyar, 5784
State of Israel Proclaimed (1948)
The British mandate to govern the Holy Land expired on Friday, May 14, 1948. A United Nations resolution passed six months earlier endorsed the establishment of a Jewish state in the biblical homeland of the Jewish people. That afternoon, the state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv. Four neighboring Arab countries launched a brutal war on Israel's Jewish inhabitants but were unable to realize their full, bloodthirsty intent in circumstances describable only as miraculous. The date--Iyar 5 on the Jewish calendar--is celebrated in Israel as the Israeli "Independence Day."
Preparation for Shavuot Begins
"The Sages of old instituted, yet in the times of the Holy Temple, that thirty days before the onset of a holiday, the teachers should begin publicly instructing the masses regarding the laws of the holiday, e.g., from Purim and onwards to teach the laws of Passover, and from the 5th of Iyar and onwards to teach the laws of Shavuot" (Shulchan Aruch Harav 429:1).
8 Iyar, 5784
Yahrtzeit: Rabbi Isaiah Berlin also known as Yeshaye Pick (c. October 1725 in Eisenstadt, Kingdom of Hungary – May 13, 1799 in Breslau), was a German Talmudist
10 Iyar, 5784
Passing of Rif (1103)
Rabbi Isaac Al-Fasi (1013-1103), known by the acronym "Rif," was one of the earliest codifiers of the Talmud. In 1088, he was forced to flee his hometown of Fez, Morocco, to Spain, where he assumed the position of rabbi in Alusina (Lucene).
11 Iyar, 5784
Purim of Angora, a private communal Purim.
The first printed edition of Mishnayot with Rambam's commentary was published in Naples in 1492.
13 Iyar, 5784
Yahrtzeit: Rabbi Yechiel Michel Feinstein (1906-2003) was a great Lithuanian Rosh Yeshiva who, after World War II, lived in the United States and later in Israel.
14 Iyar, 5784
"Second Passover" (1312 BCE)
A year after the Exodus, G-d instructed the people of Israel to bring the Passover offering on the afternoon of Nissan 14 and to eat it that evening, roasted over the fire, together with matzah and bitter herbs, as they had done on the previous year just before they left Egypt. "There were, however, certain persons who had become ritually impure through contact with a dead body and could not, therefore, prepare the Passover offering on that day. They approached Moses and Aaron ... and they said: '...Why should we be deprived and not be able to present G-d's offering in its time, amongst the children of Israel?'" (Numbers 9).
In response to their plea, G-d established the 14th of Iyar as a "second Passover" (pesach sheini) for anyone unable to bring the offering at its appointed time in the previous month. The day thus represents the "second chance" achieved by teshuvah, the power of repentance and "return." In the words of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch, "The Second Passover means that it's never a 'lost case.'"
Eichmann Captured (1960)
Adolf Eichmann, a key party in implementing Hitler's "final solution," was captured by agents of the Israeli "Mossad" in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eichmann was in charge of all transportation required for the shipment of Jews to the extermination camps. The height of his career was reached in Hungary in 1944 when he managed to transport 400,000 Jews to the gas chambers in less than five weeks.
After the war, Eichmann fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him on May 11, 1960, and smuggled him out of the country to stand trial in Jerusalem for his crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
During the four months of the trial, over one hundred witnesses testified against him. Eichmann took the stand and used the defense that he was obeying orders. "Why me," he asked. "Why not the local policemen, thousands of them? They would have been shot if they had refused to round up the Jews for the death camps. Everybody killed the Jews."
Eichmann was found guilty on all counts, sentenced to death, and hanged at Ramleh Prison on May 31, 1962.
16 Iyar, 5784
"Nuremberg Laws" Passed in Hungary (1939)
The Nazi Nuremberg Laws, depriving Jews of their rights to citizenship, were passed by the government of Nazi Germany in 1935. In 1939, on the 16th of Iyar, the laws went into effect in Nazi-allied Hungary.
17 Iyar, 5784
Passing of "Noda B'Yehudah" (1793)
The 17th of Iyar marks the passing of Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (1713-1793), author of the Talmudic-Halachic work Noda B'Yehuda and Chief Rabbi of Prague. His famous "Letter of Peace" helped to heal the rift between the great sages Rabbi Yaakov Emden and Rabbi Yonasan Eibeshutz, which threatened to divide the Jewish people irreparably.
18 Iyar, 5784
Plague among R. Akiva's Disciples Ends (circa 120 CE)
In the weeks between Passover and Shavuot, a plague decimated 24,000 students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva--a result, says the Talmud, of the fact that they "did not respect one another." The plague's cessation on Iyar 18--the 33rd day of the Omer Count or "Lag BaOmer"--is one of the reasons that the day is celebrated each year (see "Laws and Customs" below).
The passing of R. Shimon bar Yochai (2nd century CE)
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ("Rashbi") was a leading disciple of Rabbi Akiva and one of the most essential tana'im whose teachings of Torah law are collected in the Mishnah. He was also the first to publicly teach the mystical dimension of the Torah known as the "Kabbalah" and is the author of the essential work of Kabbalah, the Zohar. For 13 years, Rabbi Shimon hid in a cave to escape the wrath of the Romans, whose government he criticized. On the day of his passing--Iyar 18, the 33rd day of the Omer Count--Rabbi Shimon gathered his disciples, revealed many of the deepest secrets of the divine wisdom, and instructed them to mark the date as "the day of my joy."
Passing of Rama (1573)
Rabbi Moshe Isereles ("Rama") of Cracow (1525-1573?) authored the glosses ("hagga'ot") on R. Yosef Caro's Code of Jewish Law and is regarded as the definitive Halachic authority for Ashkenazic Jews.
Hurva Synagogue Destroyed (1948)
The Hurva synagogue, located in the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was captured and dynamited by the Arab Legion of Jordan during the battle for Old Jerusalem in 1948.
The synagogue was built by the group of disciples of Rabbi Elijah (the "Vilna Gaon"), who immigrated from Lithuania in 1864. It was built on the ruins of the synagogue built by Rabbi Judah Chassid (Segal) and his disciples in 1700, which was destroyed by Arab mobs in 1721. Therefore, it was named the "Hurvat Rabbi Judah HaChassid"—the ruins of Rabbi Judah the Chassid, or simply "The Hurva"—The Ruin.
In 2010, following several years of construction, the synagogue—built to resemble its Ottoman-era form—was once again opened amid great fanfare.
19 Iyar, 5784
Passing of Maharam (1293)
Renowned Talmudist Rabbi Meir ("Maharam") of Rothenburg (1215? -1293) died in his cell in the Ensisheim fortress, where he had been imprisoned for ten years in an attempt to exact a huge ransom from the Jewish community. The money had been raised, but Rabbi Meir refused to have himself redeemed, lest this encourage the hostage-taking of other Jewish leaders. (see "Today in Jewish History" for Adar 4)
Rabbi Ezra Attiya (Hebrew: עזרא עטייה; Arabic: عزرا عطية; January 31, 1885 – May 25, 1970) was one of the most outstanding teachers of Torah in the Sephardic Jewish world during the 20th century.
20 Iyar, 5784
Yahrtzeit:
Rabbi Meir Brandsdorfer (Hebrew: מאיר ברנדסדורפר; September 7, 1934 – May 13, 2009) was a member of the Rabbinical Court of the Edah HaChareidis, the Haredi Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, and was in charge of their Kashrut operations, especially matters of Shechita.
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25 Iyar, 5784
Passing of R. Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa (1832)
R. Yaakov Lorberbaum was a well-known halachic authority who served as rabbi in the Eastern European cities of Kalish, Lissa, and Stryi. This prolific author's famous and widely studied works include Chavos Daas and Nesivos Hamishpat, both in-depth commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law).
26 Iyar, 5784
R. Saadia Gaon (942)
Iyar 26 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of Rabbi Saadia Gaon (892? -942), author of Emunot V'deot, one of the earliest works of Jewish philosophy. ("Gaon" was the title given to the leading Sages of Babylonia in the post-Talmudic period).
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Ramchal (1747)
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (known by the acronym "Ramchal"), philosopher, kabbalist, and ethicist, was born in Padua, Italy 1707. At a very young age, he began to study Kabbalah under the tutelage of Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, one of the foremost Kabbalists of his generation. While still in his twenties, he authored numerous works of Torah scholarship, including Derech Hashem ("The way of G-d"), a systematic exposition of the fundamentals of Judaism.
In 1735, Luzzatto left his native Italy and, avoiding public life, set up shop as a gem cutter in Amsterdam. His fame nevertheless caught up with him, and in 1740 (at the turn of the Jewish century 5500), he published his most famous work, Mesilat Yesharim ("Path of the Just"). Like many other great men of his age, Luzzatto longed for the Holy Land, and in 1743 he settled in Acco. However, he was not to enjoy an extended stay there, and on Iyar 26, 5507 (1747), at 39, he and his entire family died in a plague. According to most traditions, he was buried in Tiberias, next to the tomb of Rabbi Akiva.
28 Iyar, 5784
The Traditional yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNavi. (Some say it is the 29th of Iyar.) Maimonides observed this day as a private festival in honor of his discovery of the ancient Torah scroll written by Ben Asher.
Yahrtzeit: Rabbi Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil (died 1280) (Hebrew: יצחק בן יוסף מקורבי"ל) was a 13th-century French rabbi and tosafist, best known as the author of Sefer Mitzvot Ḳatan.