Page 280 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 20 COINCIDENCES IN JEWISH HISTORY AND BEYOND
CHAPTER 20 COINCIDENCES IN JEWISH HISTORY AND BEYOND 259
20.3 The Month of Iyar
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According to biblical counting, the month of Iyar is the second month in the
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Hebrew calendar. It comes after the first month of Nisan, the month that marks

the exodus from Egypt (“This month shall be to you the beginning of months:
it shall be the first month of the year to you”—Exod. 12:2). In modern days, the

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first month in the Hebrew calendar is the month of Tishrei, which starts with
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the two-day festivity of Rosh Hashanah (literally, the Head of the Year).
What characterizes the month of Iyar, and what is unique about it?
In over three thousand years of existence, the Jewish people asserted and gained
nationhood through very brief transition periods, when profound transformation
in the Jewish people’s mode of existence had taken place. These transformations
could be realized by a transition from slavery to freedom, by building temples to
God, or by the conquering of territory by force in the Promised Land.
There are six such defining eras in the history of the Jewish people, when Jews

declared themselves a free nation, entitled to manifest their own nationhood in
their ancestral Eretz—Israel .

20.3.1 Exodus

The first historical event is the exodus from Egypt. On the fourteenth of Nisan ,

the first day of the festivity of Passover, the Israelites left Egypt, transforming

themselves from being slaves into being a free nation. Shortly thereafter, “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). It is not in vain that the Bible

marks only this day. This is the day when the Israelites “officially” started their
wandering in the desert, leaving Egypt “for good” on their way to the Promised
Land. Thus, it is the second month, the month of Iyar , that marks the first month

the Israelites became a free nation, coming out of the bondage of Egypt.

20.3.2 Entering the Promised Land

The second defining moment in Jewish history, when Jews exercised their right

for sovereignty in the land of Israel, is their entrance into the Promised Land after
forty years of wandering in the Sinai desert. On the tenth of the month of Nisan,
the Israelites crossed the Jordan River (Josh. 4:19), entering the land of Israel. This

entrance is marked by the Bible by a seemingly insignificant comment: “And the

manna ceased on the morrow when they ate of the corn of the land; neither had
the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the produce of the land