Page 283 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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262 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
War , on June 6, 1967. This war started as a result of a series of misunderstandings,
when Arab armies amassed at the borders of Israel, forcing Israel to launch pre-
emptive military strikes that ended six days later, with all of the land of Israel, west
of Jordan River , under Jewish control, including the old city of Jerusalem.
The Six-Day War started on the twenty-sixth of the Hebrew month of Iyar .

These six eras in Jewish history are all significant; three of them represent the
Jewish people returning from exile to re-inhabit the Holy Land, and all represent
major events where Jews proclaimed nationhood—either by exiting from slav-
ery, or by building temples, or by conquering pieces of the Promised Land. All
these events started in the same month … the second month of the Jewish biblical
calendar … the month of Ziv … the month of Iyar .

20.3.7 The Month of Iyar in Jewish Tradition
The name “Iyar ” is, like others in the Hebrew calendar, of Babylonian origin. The
zodiac sign of Iyar is an ox eating grass. This may be explained by the fact that this

month corresponds to the first month in the warm season in Eretz Israel , when the
ox can still find enough grass to satisfy its appetite from the grass of the field.

Yet, there is more symbolism to the ox. The ox eating grass reminds one of how
the people of Israel are described in the Bible when they pass through territories of
various peoples prior to their entry into the Promised Land. One of these peoples
is the Moab , and the Bible describes the anxiety of this people after learning of the
victories of the Israelites in combats waged against Moab’s neighboring countries:
“And Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab said to the
elderly of Midyan, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as
the ox licks up the grass of the field” (Num. 22:3–4).

The month of Iyar is regarded in Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) as the month
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associated with the Sefirah of Gevura, the fi fth of the ten Sefi rot. There are vari-
ous interpretations and implications to this concept.
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According to the Kabbalah , gevurah is associated in the soul with the power
to restrain one’s innate urge to bestow goodness upon others, when the recipient
of that good is judged to be unworthy and liable to misuse it. As the force that
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measures and assesses the worthiness of creation, gevurah is also referred to in
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the Kabbalah as midat ha-din (“the attribute of judgment”), as contrasted with
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chesed, which is midat ha-rachamim (“the attribute of compassion and merci-
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fulness”). It is the restraining might of gevurah that allows one to overcome his
enemies, be they from without or from within (his evil inclination).
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Chesed and gevurah act together to create an inner balance in the soul’s
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approach to the outside world. While the right arm of chesed operates to draw