WORD OF THE MONTH

A weekly feature of Torah Tidbits to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby better fulfilling the mitzva of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem...

The molad of Iyar was Sunday evening at 19h 8m 7p. That was 7:47pm on the clock, Israel Summer Time. Earliest time for Kiddush L'vana is 3 full days later, i.e. Wednesday, May 11th at 7:47pm. Sunset that evening is 7:27pm and it will be dark enough for K.L. around 7:50-ish, so it is sufficient to say that first op is Wednesday night, without qualifying that with a time. Just be careful not to jump the gun, for two reasons: until 7:47pm, 3 full days have not passed since the molad, and before that time, the moon on that night is not yet MEI'IR LA'ARETZ, illuminating the Earth.

Many people will wait until Motza'ei Shabbat to say K.L., but if you are a strict 7-days-after-the-molad person, your first op will be Sunday evening, May ,15th. On another topic, Iyar is one of the few months with another name: ZIV.

FYI The 5th of Iyar can fall on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Shabbat. However, when the 5th of Iyar is Friday or Shabbat, the observance of Yom HaAtzmaut is pulled back to Thursday, to avoid Shabbat problems. So Yom HaAtzmaut will be Thursday (as it is this year) almost 40% of the time. It is Wed. 28.5% of the time. And Mon. (?bumped to Tue.) almost 32% of the time.

Our Holidays are called MIKRA'EI KODESH because they call and pull us towards KEDUSHA (Chidushei HaRim)

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