Chodesh Tov!

Chodesh tov l'kulam!

The Month of Iyar

It is related in the Prophets (Kings I, 6:1) that King Solomon began the building of the First Temple "in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the House of G-d." The Radak explains: "The month Ziv is the month of Iyar... and it is called Ziv, as our sages explain, because of the splendor of the trees, namely the brilliance of the flowers and buds." Ziv means "splendor" or "brilliance." In this month of "brilliance" King Solomon "began to build the House of G-d."
The two names of the month, Ziv and Iyar (from "or," the primary word in Hebrew for "light"), are indeed two synonyms for "light." They both relate to the special light that shines in this second month of the Jewish calender. In particular, Iyar refers to the light source (or to the light within and proximate to its source), whereas Ziv refers to the expansion of radiant-energy as it shines far from its source. With regard to G-d's Divine light, the Ziv is that radiance which descends from its source to shine on the Jewish soul as enclothed in a physical body on earth, and to awaken in it the desire to build a House for G-d (within the context of physical reality, far removed, as it were, from the source of Divine light).