Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Sefirat Haomer
- The Meaning Sefirat Ha'omer
reaching the awesome moment of Matan Torah.
So, while the count is still continuing, let us try to answer two nagging questions about Sefira:
1) Why do we "count up? Would it not be more exciting to count down, & then "blast off" into Torah space? Haven’t we learned anything from NASA?
2) The pasuk, in last week’s sedra of Emor, clearly says: "And you shall count fifty days." And yet we don’t, do we? We stop at 49! What happened to 50?!
Let us try to answer both of these questions with one viewpoint that explains what Sefirat Ha-Omer is all about.
Rav Soloveichek notes the point-counterpoint between Pesach & the period of counting that immediately follows it. Pesach, he says, represents Perfection. Hashem intervened in history & performed countless miracles for us, in order to solve all our problems, to elevate us to dizzying heights. We saw more at the Splitting of the Sea than the greatest prophets ever saw. Chazal say: "Whatever you wish for on Pesach will be granted to you!"
But counting - as we do in the Omer - symbolizes imperfection! Because whatever number we are at today, tomorrow will be a bigger, greater number! (And that is why we count up, not down). If Pesach represents perfection, then Sefira symbolizes Man’s need to always strive to achieve more tomorrow than he did today, to reach ever closer to Hashem in holiness.
It is precisely the determination to not be content with our present state, to want more, to do more, to battle against stagnation & inertia, that ultimately defines spiritual greatness. In that sense, the Omer may be even greater than Pesach!
And that is why we never do come to the end of our counting; we never "cap off" & complete our ascension to Kedusha. 50 remains an elusive goal, the achievement "just beyond," to which we should always aspire. Like a candle, our Neshama is perpetually reaching upwards; the moment it fails to do so, it dies out.
This knowledge, that there are no limits, is precisely what moves us to try and reach those limits, to propel our souls higher & higher. To Infinity – and beyond!
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
