We are at the end of the month of Menachem-Av, about to start the month of Elul, when we evaluate the year that is concluding and prepare for the coming year. From the fifteenth of Av and on it is customary to wish each other to be inscribed and completely sealed for a good, sweet year.
The Mazal of the month of Menachem-Av is a lion, “Aryeh” in Hebrew. The letters of Aryeh stand for Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Hosha’anah Rabbah.
The only reason that the Beis Hamikdash (Holy Temple), called “Ariel” (“lion of G-d”) was destroyed in the month of the lion was in order that G-d, Who is compared to a lion, will build the third, eternal Beis Hamikdash, in the month of the lion, now!
(See talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita, Re’eh 5751 (1991) and more)
