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Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Sefirat Haomer
- The Meaning Sefirat Ha'omer
The subject of how to count sefirah correctly is discussed in the Talmud and our current method of counting days and weeks is a result of those Talmudic discourses. Yet, there may be more than the technicality of the counting method that is present in this custom and law of Israel.
Counting days is one thing. Counting weeks is another matter. And counting both days and weeks together in one counting is a third matter completely. For counting days alone means that somehow we are always living in the short run, day to day, without much ambition, planning and vision for our future.
Counting weeks signifies a longer-range outlook, a view at the whole and not so much at the particular, the setting of goals and the hope for the ability to welcome the arrival of the peace and serenity in our lives that Shabat always brings..
Counting both days and weeks together at one time is the symbol of the struggle to balance the immediate present with the still distant future and to arrange one’s life, attitudes, actions and behavior in such a way as to satisfy the here and now and the future all at once. This is no easy task.
Counting the days focuses us on the daily tasks at hand. The Torah is not for the dreamy eyed, for the overly contemplative and passive person. The psalmist records for us the necessity of "man going forth every day to his work and toil." In our world of freezers and preservatives it is hard to imagine the life of so many millennia when daily bread meant exactly that - struggling daily to have food on the table for one’s family.
My mother didn’t have a freezer in our home until I was out of the house already. She went grocery shopping every day and all of our meals were fresh cooked. Take out foods and frozen dinners were unknown. It was a life of counting days. Yet somehow there always was a great sense of the future in our home, unhampered by the difficulties of daily chores and the grind of everyday life.
Physically we counted days. Mentally and spiritually we were counting weeks, striving for the realization of our goals and ambitions and confident that somehow they would be achieved. And, in the life cycle of the traditional Jew, the balance between the counting of days and the counting of weeks was always delicately achieved.
It may very well be that the difficulties and challenges of everyday life contributed to achieving this harmonious and fruitful balance. The maxim of the rabbis in Avot: "According to the difficulty and effort is the commensurate reward," certainly was seen in the efforts and ability to count both days and weeks at one and the same time in one’s family life.
In our time of instant gratification and narcissism, when tomorrow means little to any of our leaders or educators, the counting of weeks has certainly diminished. The binge drinker of alcoholic beverages, the user of "recreational" drugs, the speeder on the highway and the reckless driver who endangers everyone in his vicinity by his selfishness are all symptoms of the lack of vision and hope for tomorrow.
The old Epicurean mantra of "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" is in full swing in our world. Is there any wonder that depression, rage, and a feeling of hopelessness are so much the symbols of our society? There are no easy fixes for our problems. But having a vision, an ideal, a hoped for Shabat at the end of a very trying week, certainly can give a spark to life and a hope for one’s future.
And in the Sefirah period, when we count towards the anniversary of our national charter, the Torah of Sinai, keeping this vision alive and real in our thoughts and actions, it is doubly necessary to do so. Therefore we count weeks and not only days. We deal with the present as best we can and we keep alive the vision of our future at the very same time. And that is truly a major achievement.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
Rabbis in Midrash
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
