Iyar – A Month Like No Other

BY RABBI DORON PEREZ

Iyar is the only month where the religious experience today is the opposite of what it was designated to be in Biblical times. Iyar in the Torah was designated as a month of total anticipation and elation as we count up to the receiving of the Torah. The Sefer HaChinuch tells us that each day we count signifies a step of growing excitement as we prepare to re-experience our rendezvous with Divine revelation.

Yet, Jewish experience in the 2nd century changed all this, and it is now primarily a time of pain, tragedy and mourning. The sudden and tragic death of the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, which happened predominantly in the month of Iyar, sharply altered the religious and emotional experience of this month.

Why did this particular tragedy, as opposed to so many other tragic massacres, evoke a time of collective mourning for future generations?

Undoubtedly, the death of such a large quantity and quality of Talmudic scholars effectively resulted in the decimation of Torah learning in Judea – an enormous tragedy in and of itself. But there is a twist in the plot. Although the Talmud mentions that they died of a disease called הָרָכְסַא , perhaps diphtheria, Rav Shreira Gaon maintains that they died as a result of דָמְׁש – a religious war. This means that they died during the Bar Kochba rebellion, as this was the only religious war at that time. Not sickness alone, therefore, caused this destruction but rather their death at the hands of the Romans.

Understanding the depth of the tragic failure of the Bar Kochba rebellion is crucial to understanding the depth of the loss and mourning that ensued.

The fall of Beitar and the vanquishing of the rebellion is one of the greatest tragedies of Jewish history. The Rambam goes as far as to say that this loss was as tragic as the day of the destruction of the