From lamb to leader in three stages

It is a trio of months and themes that link liberation to revelation, binding Pesach to Shavuot in one continuous movement of the soul. The journey isn’t merely historical. It’s the blueprint for how a person moves from dependency to maturity, from slave to prince, and from being saved to becoming a partner with G-d. 

The verse in Shir HaShirim captures it perfectly: “Draw me to You; after You shall we run; the King led me into his inner chambers.” 

Three clauses, three stages, three months. 

In Nissan, G-d drew us to Him. He initiated, He intervened, He shattered the natural order with the 10 plagues and the splitting of the sea. We were followers and passive recipients of miracles that enveloped us from every side. 

Nissan is Aries the ram. The lamb is the symbol of Pesach, the offering that marked Jewish homes and spared us during the final plague. The lamb is passive, docile, dependent. That was the Jewish people at the exodus. We stood at the 49th level of impurity, almost beyond redemption. We didn’t earn our freedom through strategy or strength. We were swept out on the wings of divine mercy. 

This stage is real and necessary. Before we can run, we must be pulled from the mire. Before we can choose G-d, we must experience that He chose us first. Nissan teaches humility: salvation begins not with what we do, but with what G-d does for us. It is infancy ‒ being carried, fed, and protected without having earned it. 

But the gentleness of the lamb that follows its leader cannot, on its own, secure the mission of freedom. If we remain lambs forever, we will never build a nation. 

We enter Iyar, the stage of “after You shall we run”. The miracles of Nissan become the foundation for the work that now begins. 

Throughout Iyar we count Sefirat HaOmer, the 49-day ascent from Pesach to Shavuot. Each day is a step of refinement, a deliberate act of self-development. The passivity of Nissan gives way to action. Now it is our turn to respond to the hand of G-d that reached down in Egypt. 

Iyar corresponds to Taurus the bull: brute force, passion, and drive. This is adolescence. Our independence awakens, and we discover strength, will, and desire. The danger is that this energy remains raw and self-centred. We can start running, but we will run in circles, or in the wrong direction, if we don’t know where we are meant to go. 

Iyar is about inner work. The Kabbalists map these 49 days to the refinement of the seven emotional traits, each interacting with the others. Anger checked by kindness. Kindness tempered by discipline. It is challenging, uncomfortable, and absolutely necessary. We cannot receive Torah if we remain slaves to our ego. 

Iyar asks: Now that we are free, what will we do with that freedom? Will we use it to serve, or will we use it to serve ourselves? 

We enter into Sivan, the month of receiving the Torah. “The King has led me into his inner chamber.” 

Sivan is synthesis, harmony, unity. The timidity of the sheep and the brute energy of the bull are blended in Hashem’s embrace. At Sinai we stood as both followers and leaders, humble foot soldiers and empowered leaders with a mission. We were passive enough to listen and active enough to declare “Naaseh v’Nishma”, “We will do and we will understand”. 

Sivan corresponds to Gemini the twins. There are two distinct entities that carry the same essence. On the surface these forces seem contradictory ‒ humility and assertiveness, surrender and leadership. But in the inner chamber of the King, opposites pull together. The lamb’s trust and the bull’s strength become one force directed towards purpose. 

This is adulthood. Maturity comes when we can draw on both the innocence of the child and the self-assertiveness of the teenager without being trapped in either. We are no longer merely reacting. We are choosing. We have integrated the gifts of both stages and can now draw on their combined strength. 

By Shavuot, our national liberation had matured into a readiness to commit to values, purpose, and the mission of shaping the world with the word of G-d and the teachings of the Torah. We did not merely leave the geography of Egypt. We became a people with something to say to the world. 

These stages are evident in every life. 

We begin as infants, dependent and unable to fend for ourselves. That is Nissan. We are loved before we have done anything to deserve it. 

Then come the transformative teenage years. We discover inner powers, challenge authority, feel energy surging within. That is Iyar. We learn our boundaries and test what we are made of. 

Maturity arrives when we can hold both: the trust of the child and the drive of the teenager. That is Sivan. We are no longer defined by passivity or rebellion. We are defined by purpose. 

May we all be blessed to receive the Torah with great joy and inner sincerity, not as a burden imposed from outside, but as a calling and privilege that answers something deep within us. 

May we use the auspicious moments of Shavuot to hasten the final redemption with the coming of Moshiach, our righteous redeemer. May he bring security and peace to Am Yisrael and to the world. 

Chag Sameach. 

• Rabbi Dovid Hazdan is the dean of Torah Academy and rabbi of Great Park Synagogue.