Flu Shots in the Spring?!

Iyar is a month of healing, its name is an acronym for Ani Hashem Rofecha. Why does this healing come only when the weather is warming up and we have access to the therapeutic value of fresh air?

By Rabbi Adam Goodfriend for Anash.org

This coming Friday and Shabbos is Rosh Chodesh Iyar, with the well known and timely acronym Ani Hashem Rofecha. In other words, this month is offering an opportunity to tap into the energy of healing.

What is this healing power? How do we tap into it? Why of all periods in the year does Hashem offer us this energy, after flu season, when the weather is warming up and we have access to the therapeutic value of fresh air etc? Below are a few points that address these questions based on a sicha from the Rebbe.

We know that even as a doctor applies medical treatments to his patients the healing is coming through and from Hashem. However the unique quality of Ani Hashem Rofecha is based on a posuk from Devarim 15:26. It is fundamentally different from anything a doctor could offer. This is a type of healing where sickness never comes upon us. And if for some reason it does, it is removed as if we never had it.

When the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned on charges of treason, he was detained in a room without any outside light. A tactic of interrogation was tried where he was told the completely wrong time of the day in an attempt to confuse him. It didn’t work. The Alter Rebbe immediately stated the exact correct time. Because each moment of the day shines a distinct spiritual light and since the Alter Rebbe was aware of that spiritual light, he also knew the corresponding hour, minute and second of the day.

Perhaps this story can offer some insight to why of all the periods of the year Iyar is the time of healing.

Pesach we celebrate both a physical redemtion from back breaking slavery and and a spiriutal redemption from the deprivation of the Egyptian culture and the 49 gates of impurity. The healing power that comes in the following month is similarly twofold. From the physical perspective, the healing energy in this time period seems arbitrary perhaps even out of place. Yet from a spiritual perspective we can offer an explanation.

Since at this time of the year, nature together with all of our physical drives are awakened and strengthened, it is precisely now that we need the influx of spiritual healing. Once that spiritual healing energy becomes accessible to the world, the physical healing follows – a timely reminder of the ruchnius reality underlying our world.

May we immediately see and experience this healing in a tangible way.

Based on Likueti Sichos (Volume 32, p. 72)

Rabbi Adam Goodfriend lives in Monsey, NY, with his family.

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