BS”D

Emor - Can H’ Count On Us?

This is a frightening question, and possibly a more frightening answer. This relates to sefiras haomer. We see it like a new page in a scrapbook or diary, where the previous page is just thrown away. On the contrary. It is our stairway to heaven. This is a voyage to a destination that is infinity. More than we count, we are counted. We read in the posuk ‘Ki hem hayeni veorech yameniu uvahem yehge yomam valayla.” It is your life and length of your days and you shall contemplate it day and night. Rather than us keeping the omer, the omer keeps us. This klal is relevant to every mitzvah in the Torah. Mitzvos are our life in this world and in olam haba. They are the essence of what will be in olam haba. With have these precious moments second by second – to accomplish infinite good on H’s central stage. We are centre stage in world history right now. It all comes down to us. If we perform and rise up to the challenge, this world will be infinitely good. If not, we are a source of destruction,. Tearing down the pillars of everything H wants in this world. We are a source for H’s light in this world or Has Ve Shalom, Hoshech she ba CHoshech. We have the ability to light up H’s world with the radiance of H’s Torah.

What is the power of the Omer? Why is the beginning of the omer devoid of Simcha?

Why is it not so much a celebration, as on Lag B’Omer, but a period of mourning where we don’t listen to music, we don’t have weddings or celebrations that could be put off. This is to give us a kick start.

According to Rav Pinchas Ben Nuri, between Pesach and Shavuos the reshaim are judged in Gehenom. The 39 forbidden types of work apply to Yom TOv as they do to Shabbos, with the exception of preparing food to eat on Yom Tov (which includes carrying, cooking and lighting a fire). We go from Shabbos to Shabbos – Shavuos is also called Shabbos. We all gather to H in his appointed place. We also bring the first fruits of the harvest. The produce is judged at this time. We do not say shechhiyanu when we start counting the omer, because it is a time of din (judgement). We aer enormously grateful for arriving at Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos. It is not a matter of recycling the year. As Rabbi Akiva Tatz says, it is a spiral staircase that you go up.

The start of the second month is considered a healthy month to clear out all the impurities and to strengthen our inner selves. Many illnesses are caused by food that does not agree with a person. It’s a well known theory that we are what we eat. If a person is a junk food fanatic, down the line we pay for it. If a person has a lot of unhealthy sugars, he can end up with decay, rotting of his teeth – the hardest substance in the body. A person must take care of himself. Diabetes, cholesterol and heart conditions can also result from eating to excess. Every system in the body is a gauge for how we treat ourselves and how we are behaving before H’. Bty smoking a person endangers their body and removes half an hour from their life with each cigarette. It is part of our Torah and Mitzvos – Hai Bahem, to live by them. Part of that is shomer es nafshos me’od, you must guard your soul very much. According to the Hassam Sofer, on the 15^th of Iyar, Bnei Yisroel ran out of matza which they baked for 18 minutes when they were leaving Mitzrayim. They started to starve. This was something that required a national outcry. There needed to be an outcry in appreciation. Please H’ save us. Please H’ make us successful. We needed to survive in the Midbar where nothing survives. But for the grace of H’ we go forward. Somehow the smallest of nations, the weakest physical nation, have survived against all the odds, be it the Spanish Inquisition or the Shoah. Despite the pogroms and the attempt behind the Iron Curtain to crush the Jewish spirit. They could never do it because we are surrounded by eternal faith in H’. Another idea is that the gates of healing are open in the second month, hinted at in the pesukim. On the 16^th the people cried out to H’. On the 17^th the slav came. On the 18^th day, according to the Hasam Sofer, H brought forth the mon which the world had never seen before. Am Yisrael said what is this? This beautiful food – its like a blanket of dew or snow on the desert floor. When they rolled it up and tasted it, it tasted as sweet as honey. Rashi brings that it was absorbed completely into the body. The bloessing for the food amazingly enough was Hamotzi lechem min hashamayim. This was angel food. H told Am Yisroel and Moshe to collect an omer full of this man so that am Yisroel could reflect on this miracle that H’ gave to this world.

Two of the many amazing things about Man; one is that if a person took too much or too little, when they got home – the man was outside the tents of the tzadikim, the beinonim had a little way to go, whilst the people who have to struggle for their parnasa had to go very far, - the amount that they got was the amount of an omer. For those who took less this was tzedaka. For those who stocked up in their bank account thinking that tomorrow they would not have to go to work because they have their savings, they would find that the amount they have is exactly the amount that H intended from the outset. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, H knows to a cent, exactly how much each and every person will get. If a person works extra hard, or on Shabbos, or chas vechalila in a way that is forbidden, all the effort that he put in would be wasted – he might get traffic tickets, fines, the money may have be stolen, everything goes according to the plan of H’ from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. Chazal also say, Hakol bidei shamayim, hutz miyiras shomayim, everything is from heaven, except for fear of heaven. The only thing in which you have the ability to grow in an infinite way is in yiras shomayim. Therefore our love of the goodness H brings to us from heaven, and the appreciation that we receive strength and grow from it, to infinitely higher positions this time next year. Lets explore further. The Mon had an amazing effect. People get involved in all different kinds of diet which are good for the heart, for cholesterol, for weight. It turns out that at the beginning of creation, H created the perfect food, Man. It tasted like anything you wanted it to taste of. On Shabbos they collected a double oprtion for the sixth day and seventh day. Similarly we have a double challah on Shabbos. If a person left over on any other day, by the second day it was full of worms. However smart he was in trying to go around the law, H showed him that this was just a tragic waste of good brochos. Enjoy today what H has given you today. Appreciate the source of your blessing, don’t try to outsmart Him. Its like a child who steals from his father. What a tragedy – the father would have given him had he asked.

The Levush states that the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva who died during the days of the omer did not die on any of the days on which tachanun is not said, in other words on Yom Tovim, including the 7 days of Pesach, the 2 days of Rosh Chodesh for Iyar and Sivan and the seven Shabbasos. This leaves 32 days on which the talmidim perished. What did they perish for? This was a terrifying concept. They were the best talmidei chachamim of their generation, 24,000 giants in Torah. Yet, they didn’t treat each other with enough respect. Instead of exploring an issue together, and educating their chevrusa, they would not accept what the other said, instead of saying, please show me the source for this information. They wwere the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva who summed up in one sentence kol hatorah kulo ‘ve ahavsa lereecha kamocha’ you shall love your neighbour as yourself. They had the archetypal role model for loving their fellow man, in Rabbi Akiva. What happened? Every generation has gedolim to look to. The lesson is, we must help our brother, we must not ignore his is there. We count together. This is opne of thelessons of sefiras haomer. Its good if you count sefira yourself, but if you forget a day, you rely on your neghbours blessing, you have to say amen on his blessing to keep counting. Really what we need to do as a nation is to count together, one heart, one soul. The Maharal maintained that Rabbi Akiva’s talmidim died until Lag BaOmer, not just the 32 days of mourning during the omer. This brings a new focus into what is Lag Bomer. As we mentioned before in the name of the Hassam Sofer a unique thing came into being. Bread from heave, angel food, perfect for the body and soul. Nothing was wasted by the body. Imagine you don’t go to the bathroom for a few days, or for a month. You would go to the doctor because you would think there was something wrong with you. In fact, your help from heaven is perfect. You’ve got to give thanks because this is a perfect gift. Their clothes grew with them so that they didn’t need new clothes. Minors inherited clothes from the elders. At the store we can buy clothes and all kinds of things; this is a miracle, like Gan Eden itself where everything is taken care of. Everything is taken care of, except yiras shm. If we respect each other, strengthern each other and are united in our Avodas H, there will be no death. So we see a unique thing happened on Lag B’Omer.

Anybody who goes to Meron – all their food and dink are taken care of. Thousands of meters of cooking are given to those who need it, without any embarrassment chas veshalom. Many people sleep over in tents. There are many lessons to be learnt. May miracles happen. There are people who couldn’t have children for years. A year after they gave to support the community in Meron or elsewhere, they had a child. Of course any mitzvah done on condition is not a mitvah. I will only do this mitzvah if you pay me back, this is extortion. Giving must be done with a Lev Tahor, a pure heart. We must have faith, ani ma’amin beemunaso shelaima, for You H are the source of everything. On Lag Baomer there is an overflowing of celebration. Suddenly that are chasunas and singing everywhere. There are also the bonfires. These are symbolic of the Kabbalah, the letters rising up to shamayim when we learn during the year, going up to shomayim. We daven for what we will learn.

The second day of the third day is know as Yom Meyuhad. The Jewish people came to Har Sinai and H tells Moshe Rabbeinu to prepare to tell them that they would be a holy nation, Am Meleches Kohaim. Kedusha – yea. And treasure above all the nations of theorWe are to be a treasure, to be hollier and closer to H than any other people of the world. Not through arrogance, pride or greed, but because we will uphold the Taryag mitzvos. The 613 mitzvos which we are commanded to do and through keeping them, we bring blessings to the whole world. The rest of the world will say, what a great, awesome and wise nation this is. Not because were great, awesome or wise but because of the brocho that comes when we keep the mitzvos. When we keep the mitzvos the other nations will be showered with brocho as well.

The Gemoro in Yoma 76 gives 2 reasons why the man fell every day, instead of say, a few times a year. If H knows how much we need for the year, why not give it all at the start of the year, in our bank account and let us take a portion ourselves each day. That was not the way it was meant to be. It would have made life much easier. It oculd be compared, says R Shimon Bar Yochai, to a king whose has one son. He supplies him with food once a year. His son saw him once a year. So he changed the supply basis so that he could communicate with his son on a daily basis. The son could say, thank you father, how are you – I thank you so much for this wonderful blessing that you bestow upon me. Had the mon fallen once a year a person with a large family would receive his ration at the beginning of the year. There would be nothing to worry about. Now that he finished it each day, he would worry, what would happen if Chas VeShalom it didn’t come tomorrow. That alone would cause him to daven to H, to pray to H with all his heart and soul and to strengthen his faith, bringing him closer to H each day. The Gemoro refers to this as an infinitely improved way of communicating with H. This is a constant blessing rather than just coming to H once a year, On Yom Kippur, to cancel all the debts in our bank balance. Or appearing once or twice a year and saying here I am, I have done my service for the year. That is not good enough. There is infinitely more to achieve. The Mon needs to be fresh. This was the message of the lechem hapanim, the show bread, which miraculously remained fresh from Shabbos to Shabbos. What prevented the mon from falling once a year or once a week, and remaining fresh? The Cohanim would show the people the shulchan with the lechem hapanim each Yom Tov to show them that the reason for the man falling adily was not in order for them to eat fresh bread, but for them to give daily thanks to H’, thereby connecting to the Creator and appreciating how much H loves us. This idea lies behind the punishment of the snake in the garden of Eden, its lack of appreciation. It was created at the beginning of creation, caused Hava and Adam to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and was punished by having to eat dust for the rest of its life. There is no greater blessing than having all the food one needs for the entire year and his entire life available at all times. On the contrary says the Sfas Emes. There is no greater tragedy than the feeling that one is totally independent of H’. H, why should I give away a tenth or a fifth? I earned this money hard and fair by myself. This is a tragedy – the attitude of an am haaretz or apikorus. It is a tragic mistake. Imagine a child turns around to his parent and says, father, I don’t owe you a cent. I came into this world on my own. I am conducting myself and supporting myself. What do I need you for? A tragedy of infinite proportions. What would be the essence of the emotions of the father? You ingrate, if you come crying to me, what will be? From the outset, the father wants to give unlimited goodness to the son. However, there is a lack of gratitude that the son brought upon himself. There is no greate curse than being totally independent. If I possess all I need, there is no need to turn to H and pray with his whole heart with a full and crying heart. H provided the man day by day to inspire the people to daven for that day and the next day’s needs. The Gemoro called that an infinite act of love. The absence of a need to communicate demonstrated H’s hatred of the snake’s ingratitude.

Counting the Omer. You shall count 50 days. The counting is done verbally. I would like to reflect on each of the days. There is something deeper to the Sefira. More than we count the Omer, the omer is counting us. Each day it is a mitzvo with a brocho. We are ascending on an infinite stairway to heaven. Each day we must try to reach ahigher level, just as our ancestors did leaving Egypt. Every one of the 49 days is another step and an infinitely higher level than the day before. They very act of counting results in some improvement in our Emuna. However it is obvious that the main improvement has to be introspective – it comes with introspection. We have to make a tremendous effort to improve ourselves in all the traits of the sefiras haomer, the sefirot, the levels, in shomayim. Self improvement leads in turn to improvement of the universe. So let us explore now for the first time the seven sefiros. As you know, each day of the omer represents a certain sefira and each week is a certain sefira. Each day has a unique combination until we get to madregat mem tet, the 49 th level, which is reminiscent of the 49 th step descending to gehenom in Egypt and the tikun for that, ascending to Gan Eden. Lets explore this and then we will come to an understanding how infinitely awesome is the counting of the omer. How much more than counting the omer, we need to be counted. The first level in chessed. What is chessed? Kindness. The opposite of that is cruelty or evil. The next level is Gevura, which means mighty. This is not strength in terms of the might of one’s hand. It is fortitude of the soul. That soul has the stamina to overcome infinite hurdles. More mighty than the greatest warrior is a person who conquers his yetzer hora. This is strength in the sense of restraint. The opposite is weakness – a person who cannot control himself – ‘strawberry cheesecake, I can’t resist Just this one time’. What about a bacon double cheese burger – just this one time. Which leads to the next time. This leads to a total spiral into hell. The tragedy of having just a momentary weakness. He needs to say, it is forbidden by the Torah, there is no way I am going to stumble. The might is to conquer one’s own lack of self control, to get up in the morning, to get through the day accomplishing as much as one can toiling in Torah, mitzvos and Gemilus Chassadim. The next level is Tifferes, which means beauty. This doesn’t mean physical beauty, wow, what a beautiful looking flower, or landscape or ocean shore line, I dream about such a place. No, that’s not the beauty we are talking about here. It’s a spiritual beauty. A harmony with the creation and its Creator. That beauty can be felt on Shabbos. There is a new picture a new beauty that comes to the world. The opposite of beauty is ugliness, i.e. rebelliousness. He may look good physically but his attitude makes him look like a little brat. He behaves like a pig. He may look OK outside but his is rotten inside. The opposite is even a plain looking kid – how beautiful they look on Shabbos when they are dressed up in all their royalty, this is true beauty - honouring the Kingdom of H’. The next one is Netzach, which can be described as infinite, but really it is triumph, victorious. The opposite is failure or defeat – not to accomplish or strive for perfection. The next level is Hod, which is splendor. What splendid behaviour. What a splendid person that is. Hodu lH ki tov, ki leolam hasdo. Taking that level to the opposite extreme, a person who doesn’t bring the splendor of Torah to the world, brings darkness, because of their lack of faith. The next level is Sod, the foundation. The foundation of the Universe. One little root into the sand is not nearly as strong as if it sends lots of little roots in all directions. Pirkei Avos says, a tree, even if it has poor foliage, but a very strong rootbase, that taps into the waters of Torah – it has a foundation in Torah, it is invincible. All the forces in the world will not uproot it. There can be a person with beautiful foliage and excellent external behaviour, but internally, his roots are rotten. A light wind will topple that mighty wind. The opposite of Yesod is to be uprooted, to wonder around the world, and to think about what we are doing in the world. What a tragedy for a person who has been given a tree of life, an Etz Hayim, eternity, and he wonders what he is doing here. He walks around in a darkness that is darker than the deepest exile. After seven weeks, Malchus, the Kingdom, acknowledging the sovereignty of H’. That is the ultimate existence of our life in this world – constantly looking to feel, achieve and accomplish what we say in the brocho – Boruch Ata H’, Alokenu Melech haolam, King of the world, of the Universe. He is the son of Royalty. He who doesn’t feel it, who doesn’t believe in the inner sanctum, the Kodesh Kodashim of his lot, with all his soul and all his resources, if he doesn’t believe it, he is walking in slavery, in a bondage. He is enslaved to fashion, to drugs. He is enslaved to searching for that inner happiness, in all the wrong places. There are people who end up with terrible pain form forbidden fruit – overdoses from drugs and addiction that destroy all their blessings by paying for more cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, searching for that happiness that they once tasted, that they can’t find again. The more they indulge in those extra physicalities, the more they are sinking into the quagmires of an Egypt, Mitzrayim. A narrow way that is starting to crush them in their graves. The antidote to this is acknowledging H’s majesty, H’s kingdom and H’s eternal goodness, which is showered upon us to help us grow in Torah.

Once we understand this, we can understand for the first time ever, how, by keeping the count, more than keeping the count, the count is keeping us. In his Sefer Living Inspired Rabbi Akiva Tatz asks, why dowe only count 49 days, not 50. Isn’t this shocking? It says Hamishim Yom Tisperu. Who is counting 50 days? We get to 49, we get to the Everest, to the pinnacle and then fall all the way down the mountain. In that tiny last step, we are accomplishing what H commands us every year. What happens to that 50^th, Hamishim Tisperu? Why do we not actually count the 50^th day? The answer is shocking. We cannot count the 50^th in our present state, It is pure transcendence. To transcend beyond this world to another world entirely. This 50 is something that comes to us from another world. It is beyond counting. It is the Chag Hashavuos. It is the giving of the Torah. So you could say, we’ve got Torah. What is going on here? The answer is that it is not separate, it is a totality. We can count 49 stages of human development. 49 was the spiritual descent into Egypt. 50 G-d forbid is irreversible. It is Gehinom without the possibility of return. On the other hand, the 50^th level up on the spiral staircase to heaven can only be achieved with the help of heaven. Thought transcends time, space and physicality. Its given as a gift. The main result of our attention to the mitzvah of keeping the count. In face, if you keep the Torah’s commandment, of counting the 50^th by counting the 49^th, by counting the finite, by keeping every day, contemplating all the days, ‘have I counted the sefira’, ‘have I counted today’, ‘have I been counted in heaven’, that is the only way to reach the 50^th. To reach Shavuos, to reach Matan Torah. To do all that we can, and then to allow the Kedusha of H, of the Schechina, to come down into this world. As we say, from the Bris Mila, we can start learning Torah. Without a bris, the Torah is sealed, he cannot learn Torah spiritually, Bechol levavcha, bechol nafshecha uvechol meodecha. Beyond that, with this physically, the spiritual levels can do a bris mila on our heart, to remove the false layers that trap our heart from receiving the Emuna Shleima. We have total faith in the power and blessings of H’s Torah. That is the power of the spiritual. It is the totality, the oneness, which transcends all the sum of all the days which have been counted before. We count the 49 and then H counts us, for the 50^th day. That is the day we learn Torah through the night and through the day. Our mitzvah is to count and be counted. 50 is beyond tikkun. All of the 49 levels, netzach, hod, all these levels are a tikkun for our descent in Egypt. The 50^th level is beyond a tikkun. There is nothing beyond Malkius she be Malkius. The kingdom of the King. It is the present which set a precedent beyond this world which was removed from this world for 2448 years. This is Matan Torah, the gift of Torah. The nations are angry – where is their Torah. We were brought into this world to be a light unto the nations. Through our Torah will be their Torah. They will see what a great and awesome nation we can be. They will say what is our helek in the Torah. We will teach them the 7 Mitzvos Bnei Noach. That way they will merit Olam Haba and the whole world will have a helek in the Etz HaChaim. This was taken away from this wold when Adam Rishon desecrated the Torah. He had one weakness, trying to eat from the Tree of Knowledge to understand G-d’s ways, which is infinite like heaven is above the earth. His thoughts are beyond ours. The Tree of Life was taken away from man, at the garden of Eden, and returned at Sinai. Each year, for those who count and are counted, H returns that individually to each one. How important I am to H’. Lieka brick in the wall, not a brick in the wall of Pink Floyd, but a brick in the wall of the Kosel. Remove one brock and the whole wall comes tumbling down. So it is with Am Yisrael. If one Jew isn’t living up to his potential in this world, we as a nation are on a critical list. The whole world is in trouble of destroying itself. So we see that at the time of Moshiach, there will be 400 gentiles that grip the side of each Jew, appealing to him and forcing him to rise up to his potential in Torah. Each one of those gentiles will be blessed in this world and Eternity, the next world. 50 can only be counted through an infinite leap of Ahavta Lerecha Kamocha. That was a mitzvah which Rabbi Akiva ‘s talmidim could not understand. They thought through their wisdom, they could get to the garden of Eden. They had to realise that through their strengthening their learning partners, seeing that they got out of bed in the morning, that he was learning. If he wasn’t, they had to feel the agony that their chavruso was missing, that the world was missing something infinite. They had to be there, be concerned and care for each other, not just for themselves. They had to feel the lacking for their brother, and in that process, The whole world would have been repaired. Their one upmanship, thinking they were smarter than their peers, thinking they were better than their brother, they undermined themselves and their brother. When we practice Ahavta Lerecha Kamocha we become lev ehad veguf ehad, one heart and one whole, indivisible. Under H, with his Torah, we are united, like we were for a fleeting moment at Har Sinai. This brings us to a level which we only acquire for a few seconds in the history of the world. Yeshura. Unfortunately, at that point Yeshurun gets too fat and kicks out. He didn’t achieve the potential of Torah. He grew fat a weary. He grew gross to H’. He questioned certain mitzvos. What is this to you. We reply, in the Hagada, What H did for me, because if you had been there you would not have been redeemed. What should we do – ask what the hukim, mishpatim and minhagim are, the mitzvos of the Torah. There was a man who had this quality to unite the nation. His name was Moshe Rabbeinu. There will be a man in the future who will have this potential. On that day, Yiyhe H ehad ushmo ehad. Eliyahu Hanavi will come to the world announce the Mashiach. He will unite the heart and soul of this nation and of the world. On that day Torah will flow from Har HaMOriah to HAr Tzion, from Har Tzion to Yerushalayim, From Yerushalayim to Kol Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael and Toras Yisrael and from there it will light up the world with the light of Torah, which the world has never seen before. It creates an insight into the spiritual path which H has laid before us. We do not wait for events to happen. We uplift ourselves, and our brothers, with a blessing and the holiness which comes to us and all eternity, will not remain stationary. It is not the same and this time last year or this time next year. We move forward, to greet the great moments of world history.

Counting days is creating eternity. We should not be passive riding on a wave called time. Throwing away days of living, killing time, with the consequence of time killing us. We should be building our lives, building the mitzvos every day, accomplishing the maximum, causing time to become real, reaching out to our brothers, to strengthen them in the process and creating for them their eternity. Nothing could be greater than returning the soul of a brother that lost his way to a father that prays for his son. Passively drifting through time is a tragedy that allows time to dissolve life itself. Building life is building eternity. Its actively causing time to transcend into a reality which will never decay or erode. In the process we ourselves will become one with our Garden of Eden.

I wish you, and your families, and the whole nation, Kol Am Yisrael, a Shabbat shalom in this world and in olam haba. Yom Shabbos Menucha. There is no enjoyment, no happiness, no greater accomplishment than tapping into H’s gift of Shabbos than helping our brothers get the reward of a single thing. Being counted and helping our brother’s to count. Every one of us counts upon each other. In the process H counts on us, and then we are united be lev ehad ubeguf ehad on that awesome and great day, Mahiach Tzidkeinu, the Beis Hamikdash, the Geulah Shleima, Tehiyas Hameisim, and we will all celebrate at Har Hamoriah the eternity of Matan Torah for Eternity.