1 Iyar (May 2) — Second day Rosh Chodesh
2 Iyar (May 3) Tiferet sh’b’tiferet – Birthday of the Rebbe MaHaRash, the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe; yahrzeit of Chasidic masters Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and Rabbi Shmuel-Shelke of Nicholsburg
3 Iyar (May 4) — Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers
4 Iyar (May 5) — Independence Day – The seventy fourth anniversary of the Declaration of the State of Israel
6 Iyar (May 6-7) — Shabbat Emor, Torah Reading: Lev.21:1-24:23, Haftorah: Ezek.44:15-31 – Pirkei Avot – Chapter 2
13 Iyar (May 14) — Shabbat Behar, Torah Reading: Lev.25:1-26:2; Haftarah: Jeremiah 32:6-27 -Pirkei Avot – Chapter 3
Yahrzeit of Yisroel Aryeh Leib Schneerson (brother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe), buried in Tsfat.
14 Iyar (May 15) — A biblical holiday. You don’t know which one? Look it up! – Numbers 9:1-14.
The yahrzeit celebrations of the great Mishnaic Sages, Rabbi Meir Ba’al HaNes (Tiberias) and of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ila’ie (Tsfat)
18 Iyar (May 18-19) — Lag BaOmer, Hod sh’b’hod – The yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the seminal kabbalist and sage of the Mishnah, buried in Meron, whose mystical teachings are the basis of the Zohar. Also the day on which the plaque ceased that took the lives of 24,000 of the students of Rabbi Akivah. A day of great rejoicing and the day on which three year old boys get their first haircut and peyot shaping, preferably at Meron.
20 Iyar (May 20-21) — Shabbat Bechukotai -Torah Reading: Lev. 26:3-27:34; Haftorah: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14 – Pirkei Avot – Chapter 4. Shabbat Chazak — (calling out “Chazak! Chazak! V’nit’chazayk!” after the reading of the concluding verse of each of the five books of the Torah)
27 Iyar (May 27-28)– Shabbat Bamidbar -Torah Reading Numbers 1:1-4:20, Haftarah-Hosea 2:1-22. Pirkei Avot – Chapter 6. Shabbat Mevarchim — (blessing the coming month – Sivan).
In many chassidic communities it is a custom to read the whole book of Psalms each Shabbat Mevarchim before the Morning Prayer.
28 Iyar (May 29) — Jerusalem Liberation Day