Emor - Secret of the Omer Offering

you're listening to the weekly par of podcast recorded with aam's nevering assistance in R Israel 2015 this week's para is para's more in the para this week we have numerous topics I'd like to focus in in uh chapter 23:1 15 The Torah tells us it's speaking about the holidays that we have it speaks about PES Passover it speaks about sh but it tells us that in between PES and this very time period that we're in right now currently we have a countdown we count 49 days from Passover until SH now there's a bunch of questions that we're going to ask and the first one that strikes us is that when we think of this time the first thing that we see is that it's not called the it's not called counting the weeks or counting until the holiday of receiving the Torah it's not called Counting of the Torah counting buildup D that's not what it's called it's called s which means counting of the OM what is the OM it's a special sacrifice which was brought on the second day of Passover and when we start to read about the OM we start to see that there's a lot that we don't know there's a lot that we don't know this is in chapter 23:15 you should begin counting from the day after the first day of Passover from the day that you bring the Corban the special sacrifice the special offering really more accurately which was waved there was a movement which we'll speak about they took this offering and they waved it in four directions they waved it up and down we'll see about that seven complete weeks it shall be the counting goes through seven weeks now the first question that we have to to try to understand is a question that we asked why is it called s the counting of the OM what is the concept of this om offering question number two is why is it called what's what's the significance of the weeks we have to count the weeks and as we count we don't just count the number of days we count the number of days but then we say how many weeks we've been going through so for example tonight on Friday night we're going to say today is 28 days which is four weeks of the so we speak about the days but we also speak about the weeks we count to seven and we count seven times to seven why all of this focus on the number seven why all this focus on Counting the weeks now when we start to try to explore what's the significance of this Corb or this offering of the we start to get hints when we look at the MIM what's going on here one thing that we see the T tells us is that it was it was an offering which was brought from specifically from barley whereas all the other Corban all the other offerings that were brought in the temple where the was something which was brought from the flower offering was brought from wheat other offerings were brought from wheat on sh we bring wheat but when it came to this one and one other case one other offering we find that it was brought specifically from from barley which is our sages tell us is animal fod it's animal food now the other place that we have an offering which is brought from animal F so to speak from from barley is the the sa a wayward wife a woman who has defied her husband her husband said to her I don't want you to be seen with that man again she went and she was Private she was alone with him in the house and there were Witnesses Etc so she has to bring a special Corban she has to go through a whole a whole process and part of that process is she brings an offering from from barley and as our sages tell us she did a m she did an animal act by defying her husband being alone with this man whether or not she actually had relations with him she still did something wrong and so by doing that she has to come with a kapara she has to atone for herself with an offering of barley but here we see also there's there's an offering of barley that's being being brought on the second day of PES and there's a parall the MIM connect the concept of s to the concept of the OM and the question is why what is this aspect here another concept that the medish talks about in regards to the Corb is that the medish says and this is really deep so focus in here the me says that in the six months prior to pesak prior to Passover prior to the month of Nissan so we have the rainy season on the land of Israel and the Jewish people have gone through 6 months of winter and they've seen how Hashem has provided for them rain now it comes the time of Nissan and pesak Begins the the time of the Harvest Begins the time of Tua of reaping the the grains that have grown throughout the the winter but the Jew as he looks out on his field he can become complacent he can think look the rains have already come everything is fine I don't need God anymore you know it's like the the guy who says he's he's driving around on the parking lot he can't find a parking spot and he says God please help me find a parking spot and he comes and there right in front of him a car pulls out he's like okay thanks God I I found a spot it's all right you don't have to help me you know it's like after 6 months of receiving all of the bounty all all of our needs the the rain coming all of a sudden we have what we need it's easy to forget about God now the meas says that's part of the reason why we bring the Corbin the Corbin is to say look God even though all of our needs have been provided for and we're about to start reaping we're about to start getting all of those things that we need nevertheless there's still something that can happen the M says what can still happen is that there can be r evil winds to run there can be evil do things that are not productive that can affect the crop that can destroy what we've already received or what we're about to receive in recognition of this the Jew brings a Corbin he brings a special offering to God which is the first of the grains the The Barley was the first thing that would grow at this time Passover time and it would take a little bit longer for the the wheat to grow the first grains he would bring and he would say God I give this to you and he would do an act of TFA he would wave it in four directions and the meor says and Rashi brings this that he would do it in the four directions he would make this movement of waving it in four directions first of all to recognize that the four corners of the Earth the four directions of the earth belong to God and he would go up and down to recognize that the heavens and the Earth belong to God but besides to that the recognition that was gained through this action would prevent the evil winds would prevent the evil do that could come down from heaven and so this act of TFA of way saing would serve to remind the Jew would serve to remind him that even though yes I have what I need until now the rain has come the relationship seems to be there but still not everything is certain things could still get messed up and in that recognition by doing this by bringing this cor he would be would strengthen in himself the relationship is not there's there's nothing that that should be taken for granted and in this way he would strengthen it and keep that relationship that's the that's what's clear from this medish but a question that we could ask is if a person has seen the rain has come I live in AR I live here in Israel and not every winter do we have the rain as we needed this year we did this year I think I read somewhere that it was every 2 and 1/2 weeks uh cader in order exactly what was needed we had that rain but it's not always like that there are winters where the rain just doesn't come so a person a Jew and uh living in Israel knows that we don't necessarily have what we need and we have what we need how is it that a person needs at this point this moment to bring this Corb and to bring this special offering to make sure that he doesn't forget it seems strange now there's another medish that when we look at it and we start to examine also it's it's really difficult to understand and if we get it we'll get something really deep here the me tells us that the OM the bringing of the corbon don't think that it's a very light Mitzvah it's not significant don't think that says through the Commandment of the Abraham merited to inherit the land of Canan the me brings a proof to this from the verses very strange statement though don't think that the is insignificant it seems like you know what's the big deal it's one Corbin Heimer it's one offering you bring it that's it you forget about it no we don't forget about it so fast this is something which was a for Abraham that he should inherit the land of Israel not only that says it was a for gon in the times of Gideon he was saved because of this not only that it was a for the Jewish people in the times of they were saved because of this and it goes through numerous different circumstances the Jewish people were in times of distress and they were saved because of the carbon because of the sacrifice and the mees goes into detail very interestingly beautiful detail speaking about the story of porm and how morai morai you know he saw that hon that hmon wanted to destroy the Jewish people and he commanded Esther to fast and Esther asked that all the Jewish people fast and they were fasting for 3 days and when was this very interestingly this story occurred actually on PES on Passover and that night says the med the Mori and his students were all studying the laws of the carbon of the the special offering of the and the Mish goes through very interesting details I'm not going to get into all the details but it says that when hamon when hmon saw that this is what they were studying he said if this is what you are studying you are going to win you're going to succeed against me I will not be able to succeed in my plans you are the one who are going to come out the Victor and indeed the Mish continues and talks about this and says that that was the bottom line the success of the Jewish people their salvation occurred because of the fact because of the Mitzvah of the carbon even though they weren't actually bringing it they didn't actually bring this this this offering but still the actual discussion of the corer itself would also bring about a Salvation a gula Redemption for the Jewish people and the question is why what is the Deep significance of the caral what is the power what is the idea behind it that indeed causes the Jewish people to have such great salvation and to inherit the land of Israel now there's one more thing that this me says which I left out because I wanted to come back to it because I believe that it holds the key for our entire conversation the me says like this says let this mitz this commandment of the offering of the OM not be light in your eyes shall MIT because through the Commandment of the god makes peace between man and his wife what I mean to say is says in the Merit of The Barley flour now clearly this me need's explanation because what is he talking about peace between man and his wife in this specifically of The Barley flow what's what's what's he saying so in explaining this the Y who's one of the here on the measure she explains like this I want to read it to you inside it's so beautiful holds that the reasoning the the deeper understanding of this offering of the OM is in order to unite the divine presence god with the people of Israel like it says in the Z that the purpose of the OM is to unify the male and female aspects of God through the people of Israel they are and to distance the wind or the spirit of impurity so here again we have a reference to this Spirit or this wind this evil wind we'll have to see soon what that's referring to but what is the AC saying he's saying that when rakish says that the purpose of the OM is to make peace between man and his wife it's referring to Bringing peace between the manifestation the male manifestation so to speak of God and the female manifestation which is and between God as it were and the Jewish people who are also in a certain sense God represents the male aspect the Jewish people represents the female aspect and it's through the through the Merit of the of the barley flow what does that mean so he shows us that there's another place which we mentioned before where we have this barley flow for the same reason as we have it over here when it came to the S when it came to the Wayward wife she also brought a an offering of barley flow because it was in order to show if the woman was indeed innocent to prove her innocence to show that she was a kosher woman that she was okay and if she was someone who indeed had sinned with this man it was to distance her to cause her to be embarrassed and to cause her a deserved death this is what it means that through the through the midst of om it brings peace now I want to ask just two more questions and then with the answer to these questions we'll start to unravel and understand all of the questions that we asked until now the first question is this I mean think about this woman okay this woman is a wayward wife she has defied her husband she's been alone with a man that she was told not to and let's say she had done something wrong let's say she was indeed she had had relations with this man and now she's brought in front of everyone she's hum humiliated her hair is uncovered her clothes are pulled down she you know not in a way where where she's completely unclothed but in a way where the her heart is revealed that's the says and she's really embarrassed now why would she go through this if she indeed did something wrong why would she be willing to drink these Waters and and remain a defined state to to the end and then be destroyed by it and be and die a horrible death what's where where's that willingness why is she doing that and on the other side of it another interesting question is that the it's yose refers to her as if she didn't actually sin with the man she didn't actually have relations with him she's called and we're going to create sh and bias we're going to bring them back into a state of love and the question is what's going on here I mean obviously this woman indeed defied her husband it's not possible to be standing and and drinking this Waters and going through this whole embarrassment this humiliation unless she had done something wrong unless she had been seen alone with this man she may not have had relations with him but she still did something wrong why is she referred to as an is sh why is the Torah going to how is this going to bring them back into a state of sh a state of peace between man and his wife and I think that the root of what's going on here is the concept of the r the these evil winds and this poor do is is a reflection of the Defiance of this woman this woman has a relationship with her husband and what does she do with that she throws it away and she feels perhaps like her husband isn't giving her what she needs isn't perhaps uh you know being the husband that she wants and she she seeks to find it somewhere else and she defies her commitment she defies her relationship with her husband now practically this can have two different endings when she does this one thing could happen is that she could end up having relations with another man destroying herself destroying her commitments destroying her children's lives destroying her household as the gamar says that's one possibility but there's another possibility and that is that her husband can see hey I'm not giving my wife what she needs she's obviously going elsewhere because there's something wrong with how I am interacting with her and the net result can be that that the husband takes to Heart what's going on and indeed starts to give her what she needs and she starts to realize that she can get what she needs in the place where she made her commitment she doesn't need to go elsewhere now why if she indeed didn't do anything wrong why does she have to be humiliated in this way and I think that part of the reason is because when a person has a Defiance the Ty wants him to realize God wants him to realize that there's a purpose for that Defiance and the Defiance can go for me to say I'm going to just completely break off my relationship now but rather the finance needs to say look you're not giving me what I need and I need to get what I need I'm a human being I need my I I have needs and so if a person takes it to in the wrong direction that Defiance needs to be humiliated the person who has that Defiance needs to be humiliated what is humiliation I once heard it said by a spiritual mentor of mine humility and humble means living with the truth humiliation is being caught not conforming or not being in line with the truth and so this woman is is doing something wrong with her Defiance and so when a person is humiliated when a person is caught or shown in public to be doing something wrong it burns off the Defiance it serves to take away the Defiance a woman who goes through this process she can't can't but come out on the other end you think she's going to go back to that man again that she was cheating with or that she was spending time with against the will of her husband she didn't have relations with him but you think's she's going to go back there no she won't because that Defiance that was within her gets burned off by this humiliation and so this creates showing this creates peace now think of this in terms let's let's draw a parallel between that and the relationship between the Jewish people and God you know the Jewish people are in this relationship with God and God says here here's the rain here's everything that you need and and at a certain point we spoke about on pesak for for the concept of Passover that pesak is all about his botles I'm completely giving myself up I'm I'm nothing in front of God there's only so long that a person can say I'm nothing in front of God you can do that for a week you can eat M for a week the day after PES you're right back into thees you have to start eating that bread again you can't be in that for too long a complete a spotless what about me what where where am I just like that woman that sa she says what about my needs where am I the Jew also says that God you've given me everything but but what about me where do I get to be involved in this relationship so One Direction person can go is no it's all me I'm going to prove to you God that I can do this on my own and that causes the that brings about a woman who gets destroyed but there's another Direction that's possible and that is for a person to say God I give it up I give it up I give up my animal nature I give up my baseness I give up my Defiance I give it to you on pesak the Jewish people experienced incredible Miracles there was no agen kite there was no uh selfness I was gone if you're there you see these Miracles you're gone there's no there's no more free will but then what do they say they say wait where where are we here where am I here in this relationship if I don't have any free will so then it's just God there's no me and that's why you find as the Torah speaks about the Journey of the Jewish people as they get to Har SII before they get there they're they're complaining there's no water they're complaining there's no food and and there's complaints and there's the the the magic that moment is gone but there's a Corbin and there's a sphere of om there's this offering of the OM and there's a counting we count and continue to remember and we count to seven to continue to bring back to ourselves what is this all about what is the Defiance about what is this ego about it's not there for me to go off the deep end it's there for me to give it back to God to give up my agen kind my self my selfishness I don't deserve the land of Israel I don't deserve G Redemption but I can tap into that by bringing a Sacrifice by bringing an offering which says I give up my baseness I give up this animal fod this I give that up I'm willing to humiliate myself admit that I am just the person that I'm just a human being with human frailties with human Defiance and you've given me so much and I don't want to ruin it I don't want to take away from it what are these R what are these evil winds to these evil dos what is that that's manifestation if I get stuck in thinking this is about this is about me God I want to do this myself every you know you gave me all this water okay that's enough I found my parking spot that's all right I don't need your help anymore if I get stuck in that I can ruin it and I can manifest in things that will actually destroy cause ill effect to the wheat that I thought is mine the wheat that I thought that I did even though I know God did it but I know I want to prove it to myself so in order to stop those winds in order to stop a manifestation in the world of my ego I need to give up my ego that's the Corb and it's specifically that corbon that offering which which counterbalances counteracts a hon a hmon h he comes from aik and their whole the essence of their being is Defiance of God to the end they are the sa who has given up given their soul to the devil so to speak they have indeed gone away from God the only way to counteract that is with an admission a giving up of my Defiance a giving up of my animal nature a giving up of my need to be in control for to even to need to to be part of the relationship so to speak there's a giving up that happens when I bring the Corbin and it's easy to get bring that Corbin on on P it's easy then because the the Miracles are manifest so we just say that I give myself up to God that's very easy can I keep counting to seven seven representing I give up myself to God I'm not going to do anything here the seventh day is chabas six days I work seventh day I'm quiet seventh day I receive can I do that seven times can I keep getting to seven seven times that's the work of the counting of this aspect of giving myself up and giving myself up again and giving up my Defiance one more time and it's through this act of giving it up the humiliation that I experience when I recognize that I'm a person I feel embarrassed look at the things that I'm doing look at the Defiance that I have my God I give that up to you God I give it up to you now I don't know how to how to get past it God I give it to you you take care of this in that statement in that work this is the work from p in that work we Merit we get to have a true relationship with Hashem we get to Merit to bring the divine presence together with the Jewish people as it says in this Mish we get to Merit for shom to have peace between man and his wife just like the sa comes out of the humiliation and now the the Defiance is burned off of her so too the the Caron serves to do that for us as well and by counting the SP and reminding ourselves of this lesson we can bring this into our lives and have a true relationship with Hashem where indeed we receive the Torah I want to bless you please bless me back that hem should help us take this message to Heart help us get this idea help us internalize this idea be able to give up that part of us that defined part of us that Wayward wife which is within each and every one of us sh should bless us with a true relationship with him thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]