The Temple Institute: Holy Temple Calendar: Iyar 1, 5767
1

Iyar
Yom Chamishi
Rosh Chodesh
  • Time of the morning Tamid offering: 4:30 AM

  • Levitical song of the day:

    "For the conductor, upon the gittit..."

    Psalm 81

  • Psalm read on Rosh Chodesh:

    "Bless HaShem, O my soul. O HaShem my G-d, You are very great; You are clothed with glory and majesty. Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain; Who lays the beams of Your upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds Your chariot, who walks upon the wings of the wind; Who makes winds Your messengers, the flaming fire Your ministers..."

    Psalm 104

  • Time of the evening Tamid offering: 1:10 PM

"Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of G-d at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbavel the son of Shealtiel, and Yehoshua the son of Yotzadak, and the rest of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of the house of HaShem." (Ezra 3:8)

On this day, in the year 3408 from the time of creation, (353 BCE), construction ofthe Second Temple began, under the leadership of Zerubbavel and Yehoshua the High Priest. Official permission had been granted to the small community of returnees from the Babaylonian exile, from Coresh - Cyrus - king of Persia. Significantly, the Divine service of making offerings on thr altar was already taking place, as only the altar, and not the Sanctuary, is required for sacrifical offerings. The construction began fifty years after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed the Holy Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon.

See Light to the Nations
Construction of Second Temple Begins (370 BCE) Fifty three years following the destruction of the First Holy Temple (see Jewish History for the 9th of Av), Zerubabel and Joshua the High Priest began construction of the Second Temple, with permission from King Cyrus of Persia. The offering of sacrifices had actually commenced a few months earlier, on the vacant lot where the 1st Temple stood, however it was only after the construction started on the 1st of Iyar that the Levites began accompanying the service with song and music. The construction was later halted after the hostile Samaritans supplied false slanderous information to Cyrus about the Jews' intentions. The construction was resumed many years later, and completed 21 years later under the reign of King Darius (see Jewish History for the Third of Adar).