Hallel: Rosh Chodesh Iyar: Seeking Sinai: Introduction

We derive the appellation for God’s Name, used in the Rosh Chodesh Mussaf – Additional Prayer – for Rosh Chodesh Iyar from the combination of letters and vowels of the following verse: “Thus said God, “Let not the wise man glorify himself with his wisdom, and let not the strong man glorify himself with his strength, let not the rich man glorify himself with his wealth. For only with this may one glorify himself – contemplating and knowing Me – Yithallel Hamithallel Haskel V’yado’a – Y-H-H-V – for I am God, Who does kindness, justice and righteousness in the land, for in these is My desire,” – the word of God.” (Jeremiah 9:22-23)

The chapter of Jeremiah begins with: “Oh that I were in the wilderness, in a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them!” I find it interesting that the chapter from which we derive the Appellation for Iyar, the month in which the Children of Israel travelled through the desert, begins with Jeremiah wishing to be in the wilderness, “in a lodging-place of wayfaring men,” meaning the Children of Israel, who lived in the Succot of the Clouds of Glory, while they were on their way to Sinai.

Jeremiah, frustrated and disgusted by his contemporaries, wants to go back to that time before Sinai, and start again.

We will use this as the basis of our approach to the Hallel for Rosh Chodesh Iyar: