Between Yom Haatzmaut and Lag Ba’Omer | Rabbi Joel Kenigsberg | May 6 2026

Okay, tough. Thank you everybody for coming. As you all know, I'm not Rabbi Manning. I'm Rabbi Kenigsberg. But good to be here with you this morning. I wanted to talk today about something I've been thinking about, a very very interesting connection between three days that don't really seem to have anything to do with one another. Certainly two of them. That is we now find ourselves in the period of Sefirat Omer. There are a number of the Sefirat Omer classically spoke about this on Shabbat that from the Torah, the meaning of this period and what the meaning of it is today is completely completely different. But from the Torah, Sefirat Omer is the time of counting from Pesach to Shavuot, right? The seven weeks that I'm going to write. In fact, it's like a long chol hamoed connecting Pesach all the way to Shavuot. But nowadays, there are all sorts of other things and all sorts of other associations that we have with it. But there are three days more recently that have been added, that have been introduced into this period. Right? We've had Yom Ha'atzmaut. We had Lag Ba'omer just this week, and we have Yom Yerushalayim coming up. Now, seemingly, these days it's coincidental. It happens to be that they appear in Sefirat Omer. Okay, Lag Ba'omer has a certain certain connection. But they don't really seem to have much to do with one another. They don't seem to have much to do with the original meaning of Sefirat Omer either. And what I want to do is I want to examine these days through the lens of Shabbat. I'll explain in a moment exactly what I mean. But I think it has something tremendous to teach us and something very very interesting and very surprising as well regarding the original meaning of Sefirat Omer through the lens of these days also. By the way, I forgot to say, I'm sorry, there is no source sheets. I have some sources that I'll be reading from, but this will be for you. It will be Torah Shebaal Peh. So you're going to have to take my word for it that this is actually what it says inside. But I find that when people don't have source sheets in front of them that they're looking and reading ahead of the next sources, then they listen to what I have to say. So hopefully that will hopefully that will work for you as well. Let's start off with a question. As I said, none of these days can fall out on Shabbat either because that's just the way they don't fall on the calendar or because we move them. In fact, the very interesting question comes up when these certain days and these newer modern more modern festivals, and I'll call Lag Ba'omer a more modern festival as well, when they occur in close proximity to Shabbat. Either Erev Shabbat, Motzei Shabbat, what do we do? Okay, so we'll get to the philosophical underpinnings of this soon. But let's start off with a halachic question, a practical question, which it didn't come up this year, but comes up from time to time. Every few years, Lag Ba'omer can fall out on It doesn't fall on Shabbat, but it falls on Motzei Shabbat. So the question is asked, okay, when this day falls out on Motzei Shabbat, what do we do with our bonfires? What do we do those who travel to Meron, those who go this year? They limited it for various reasons, security reasons. They were only meant to be I think a few hundred people in Meron. There were a few thousand, but still much fewer than normally are there. But the question comes up and the rabbonim discuss and everybody discusses, what should be done? What can be done? What needs to be done? When should one light a bonfire when Lag Ba'omer falls out on Motzei Shabbat? Let's just preface this with the fact that there is no mitzvah min haTorah to light a bonfire on Lag Ba'omer. This is going to be significant as well. Many people have the minhag. Many people have the custom. I'm not getting into now. I'm sure there have been other shiurim that have discussed this, whether it's a good practice, it's not good practice, whatever. But assuming that there is such a minhag and many in Am Yisrael have the minhag to have a bonfire on Lag Ba'omer, to travel to Meron, whatever it may be. So my question is, Lag Ba'omer now falls out on a Motzei Shabbat. Does this change anything? Should we postpone it? Should we move it to a different day? Can we do that? Is that necessary? What What do you say? Anyone? >> [laughter] >> Okay, let's take a Let's take a vote. Let's take a show of hands. Who thinks that when Lag Ba'omer falls out on Motzei Shabbat, so it falls out on Motzei Shabbat. Nothing has to be done differently. Okay. Because we're talking about Motzei Shabbat. No one's going to light a bonfire on Shabbat. It's after Shabbat. Okay, that's what you say. Who's Who Who Who disagrees? Who thinks that if Lag Ba'omer would be on Motzei Shabbat, it would have to be moved? It depends which minhag. >> Okay. Okay. So we have a good So we have machlokes acharonim in this room. Very good. So why Why why would we have to move it? What would What would be the reason for >> If you keep on what you're supposed to do on Shabbos, then if you if you postpone it a day, you can't make music anymore. If you say Okay, so this is interesting. So the truth is that the poskim talk about this, right? If we're going to postpone the bonfire, does that mean that we're now going to postpone the the break in the minhagei aveilus, in the customs of mourning that we have throughout the day? Okay, you could argue You could argue, look, Lag Ba'omer is day number 33. We're cut The 33rd day will always fall on the 33rd day, even if I light the bonfire a day later. So you could say that the break in the custom of aveilus, that is not affected. Or maybe it will confuse people. Yeah? No, people will get married on Lag Lag Lag Ba'omer which is not part of Sefirat Omer. They'll get married. I mean, just what you said, though. Just Okay, so we So you're saying So you're saying don't postpone it because because then people will get married on the wrong day. Okay. I just think of Lag Ba'omer. It is the 33rd day. When did the bonfire be equivalent to Lag Ba'omer? It's still Lag Ba'omer. Okay, so what about So what about Okay, so we could have it's still Lag Ba'omer. The day, as we know, the day in in the Jewish calendar begins at night and carries on to the next morning. So you could theoretically you could light the bonfires in the morning. My question is what Let Let Let's just stop and think about it for a second. Why do we need to postpone it? What's the problem? They're afraid they'll do something on Shabbat. Oh. Afraid they'll do something on Shabbat, right? So here So here's the issue. They would. Here's the issue. If the bonfires are not going to be postponed from Motzei Shabbat, I think this was last year. This comes up every few years, right? We're we're afraid that people are going to start building their bonfires on Shabbat. That's going to be chillul Shabbat. By the way, where else do we find this? Where do we have a precedent, a similar contemporary case where we do such a thing? Yom Ha'atzmaut. Okay, we'll see in a few moments that I think this connection goes much deeper than just a technicality. Yom Ha'atzmaut almost never. This year it was unique and next year is unique as well in that it falls out actually on the date that it is on Hey Be'iyar. But and there has been throughout the years, there have been different takanos and different enactments that have been made in terms of exactly when Yom Ha'atzmaut falls out. There is more complicated because we have Yom Ha'Zikaron the day before and we have Yom Ha'atzmaut, right? So if either Yom Ha'Zikaron or Yom Ha'atzmaut would fall out on Motzei Shabbat, so we're concerned. There are t'kasim and there are ceremonies and celebrations and all sorts of things that are going to be done which would involve chillul Shabbat on a mass scale. And therefore, it's moved. Therefore, Yom Ha'Zikaron cannot be on Motzei Shabbat and therefore Yom Ha'atzmaut cannot be on Motzei Shabbat. And therefore, in most years, unless this year where it falls out on a Wednesday, right, it was it's going to be moved. So you would think Lag Ba'omer would be the same thing. Lag Ba'omer, you actually have a a greater problem, which is Let's forget about localized bonfires for a moment. Let's Let's talk about Meron. Let's talk about Rashbi, right? And again, whether you like it or not and whether you think it's a good thing to go or not, that I'm not getting into now. But you have thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people normally in an ordinary year going up to to Kever Rashbi Meron lighting their bonfires. Now, you understand that when you have a mass event on that scale, okay, so it takes place on Motzei Shabbat, so you need you need preparation and you need security and you need police. Unfortunately, five years ago we witnessed there was a tra There was a tragedy there which we all remember, I'm sure. And but that just underscored how important it is that these things have to be properly accommodated and properly secured. And it takes a long time. So there is no way There is no way that if the bonfires are going to take place on Motzei Shabbat that the police can only start They can wait until Shabbat goes out and then say, "Okay, let's plan for the next half an hour or the next hour when people start arriving at the mountain and and preparing and securing the site." It takes hours, maybe even a day or two before. And so what you have is you have a situation where you have hundreds of police officers who would have to go me to chillul Shabbat and they would have to go to prepare the to prepare the site. So yeah, it's a little bit different maybe to what we thought at first. And it's different to the question of Yom Ha'atzmaut. We're saying by postponing the bonfires, by postponing the celebration, the day of Again, we can't postpone the day of Lag Ba'omer. Lag Ba'omer is always on But my question is, when we when do we postpone those actions that are going to be done? It's not because I'm concerned that there are people out there who don't follow halacha, who don't listen, who are going to go and make their own bonfires when they do whenever they might do whatever Whatever they do. But we're worried there are people who keep Shabbat. They're going to be religious soldiers and police officers, etc., who will be forced to go and to break Shabbat in order to prepare, in order to to to to guard the thing because of because of the because of nefesh issue that's going to come up. So listen to some of the things. There's been some fascinating literature in the last few years that's been written about this topic. One of the cases in halacha where the poskim bring a precedent from is a case where you have a brit milah that is on Shabbat. Very very interesting case. We know says in the Torah, it says in the Gemara, it's very very clear that a brit milah has to be on the eighth day. Okay, whatever whatever the eighth day is. If the eighth day is Shabbat, if it's Rosh Hashanah, if it's Yom Kippur, whatever it is, that is when the Brit is done. I'm not talking about a Brit Milah that is postponed, but one is that is done on time, that is on the eighth day. So, the question was asked contemporary poskim asked the question, if you're going to have a Brit Milah on the eighth day, which is Shabbat, let's say the family is not observant, and there are lots of guests that are going to come, that are going to travel through Hilul Shabbat, right? So, I'm allowed to for the actual Brit Milah itself, I'm at that is that override Shabbat. But, all the other things that are going to be done together, that does not override Shabbat. So, there are poskim who say, for example, the the the Minchas Yitzchak, he writes, Minchas Yitzchak says, "I don't understand what you're talking about. What kind of a question is this? Obviously, the Mitzvah, the Mitzvah d'Oraita is that you have to go and you have to do the Brit Milah on time. All the other things that are going to happen misavev and around, so do whatever you can to minimize the Hilul Shabbat of other people coming, but we're not going to change, we're not going to cancel the Mitzvah." But, you have other poskim, Rav Wosner, the Shevet HaLevi, he writes the following. He says, "Im yesh chashash If we know that it's that it's almost certain that people are going to be mechallel Shabbat in order to attend and it's going to happen on a mass scale, and if now me has have a machoniyot, everyone's traveling in their cars to come to this Brit, the head of Shabbat and Hilulei Shabbat to be a Halacha, again, the actual the Brit Milah itself is is is is is permitted, but all these other things are not. He says, "Kvar pasakti kama pa'amim to ain lasot zeh haBrit b'Shabbat." Fascinating. So, he says, "There were cases where he said, 'Don't do the Brit on Shabbat in order to not have that have Just to circumvent it, but it's What? not telling anybody who's going to be mechallel. I mean, to I don't understand it because it's a Mitzvah to do the Brit. So, in the same So, in the same way So, in the same way So, in the same way that the Gemara says that the Milah itself is what is doche Shabbat, but the machshirei Milah, and the other things around it, that those are not going to prevent. If it's an inherent part of this is what's going to This is why it's machloket. But, if there's an inherent part of it is, you know that the family is going to be It might be they might bring the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the parents themselves, the family, they're going to come, they're going to drive in the car on Shabbat. So, he says, "Maybe in such a case, again, you have I'm not I'm not giving a psak Halacha l'maaseh." I think most poskim will say, regarding the case of the Brit Milah, will say not to postpone it, do it on time. But, nonetheless, nonetheless, you hear that it's a discussion, and you have a discussion to be had. So, where this discussion came up as well, and many years ago, was with Hafganot, demonstrations, right? Remember those? So, uh So, nowadays, nowadays, I think it's safe to assume that most of the people that are doing the demonstrations on Motzei Shabbat aren't too concerned about Hilul Shabbat or not. But, there was a time when the demonstrations that were taking place on Shabbat itself, and on Motzei Shabbat, were those against Hilul Shabbat, right? In Mea Shearim and places like that. And there's a whole series of Halachic literature talking about, can you if you're coming to demonstrate on Shabbat against the fact that a cinema is open or whatever, you're coming on Shabbat to demonstrate against Hilul Shabbat. There's an inherent paradox here, because by doing so, you're causing the police to come. So, your demonstration for the honor of Shabbat is actually causing more Hilul Shabbat, right? So, this is this is a discussion that was very very lively Halachic debate about this uh in Petah Tikva and Jerusalem and other places. So, a number of years ago, there's an article by Now, these sources that I'm reading to you here are all brought in an article by the Rav of the Mishtara, by the Rav of the police force. When he's dealing with the Asukya now about, can a Shoter, can a policeman travel on Shabbat in order to go and protect Meron for for Lag BaOmer, which is on Motzei Shabbat. So, he quotes here the Rabbi of Petah Tikva at the time, Rav Moshe Malkah, wrote the following. He said, "Yesh nam atuanim v'chi anachnu mazminim et haMishtara There are those who say, "We never told the police to come. We just came to demonstrate. Okay, we're we're doing our own thing, we're minding our own business. You, the police, you want to come to the demonstration, that's your issue." He ba atzma v'ein anachnu achrayim l'chilulei Shabbat shela. We didn't invite them, we didn't tell them to come. V'chol And he writes, "V'chol peh yodea she'ein ta'am lidvarim halalu." He says, "Everybody can understand this this claim is ridiculous. It may it it it doesn't even begin. Chada, k'she'anu mevakshim et haMishtara rishayon l'hafkin." He says, "First of all, you have to be realistic. If you're asking for a license to hold an event, to hold a demonstration, whatever it may be, so you're asking the police to come. B'zeh anachnu k'ilu mazminim otam lavo lishmor al haseder. You're as if you're asking them to come. V'anu b'atzmeinu mu'anyanim b'nochutam. And we are interested, we want their presence. K'dei lishmor shelo yihiyu katatot u'meimot, that there won't be right disorderly conduct. V'od, afilu im yihiyeh b'mikreh she'atzlanut hafkin bil'i rishut, even if a demonstration took place without a license, right? In case there haChok mechayevet haMishtara l'hofi'a miyad b'makom. The law is that the police has to come. And if ken anachnu agor mim ofa'atam, af im lo huzmanu al yadeinu. Okay, now why am I bringing all of this? Why why why am I why am I talking about this? I think that it's fascinating. Fascinating. That you have this situation. Every time that Lag BaOmer falls out on Motzei Shabbat, you have these discussions, and you will hear these discussions, right? This article, Rav Rami Brachiyahu, the Rav of the police, he's not asking the question, should the Meron be postponed or should it not be postponed? He'll say, "Obviously, it should be postponed." And every year that this Every time this happens, the Chief Rabbinate comes out with a kri'ah and says, "The Meron should be postponed." But, as you may be aware, not everybody listens to the Chief Rabbinate nowadays, okay? And And not getting into politics, but right, that's that's a fact. So, therefore, he's saying, "If this is the fact, right, and it's going to happen, and the police need to come a certain number of hours in advance, would we tell a shomer? Would we tell a religious police officer, 'You have to spend Shabbat away from your family, you have to go up to Meron before Shabbat, and you have to spend the whole time there by yourself?' Or do we say, 'Since this is going to be pikuach nefesh, and you're required to come, right, you are going to you would be allowed to travel on Shabbat itself as well.'" That is a fascinating Halachic discussion. I'm not getting into the I'm not getting into the conclusion of that for now. But, we have that question on Lag BaOmer. And we have that question every time Lag BaOmer falls out on Motzei Shabbat because of this religious ritual, the fulfillment of this minhag of lighting the bonfire that has to happen on Motzei Shabbat. Where don't we have this question about where we fought with the events that we're having or forcing people into Hilul Shabbat? It's fascinating. We don't have it on Yom HaAtzmaut. And you would think that if one of these two days is going to be a cause for Hilul Shabbat, and there's going to be debates, and there's going to be arguments about it, and there's going to be people put in a situation where because the public is acting in a certain way, and it's going to lead to Hilul Shabbat, so you would have thought Yom HaAtzmaut is a day that the whole country celebrates, that a large secular population is not so interested in in in the Shabbat necessarily, right? On the surface, would would would would would be doing this. So, therefore, the police would have to act and do whatever they do. But, as we said, we don't have that problem. Why? Because when Yom HaAtzmaut Because when Yom HaAtzmaut falls out close to Shabbat, on Motzei Shabbat, it's moved, right? And I again, I find this fascinating. This is one of the most miraculous things about Yom HaAtzmaut. The fact that you have this day, which is in the national secular calendar, and the day the date of Yom HaAtzmaut is moved, it's changed because why? Again, on the for the official government celebration, and all the All those people that we spoke about that are out there demonstrating on on on on Motzei Shabbat or whatever, right? We've all seen them, and we've all heard them from our windows. Not one of them has ever got come out and said, "We won't move Yom HaAtzmaut. Yom HaAtzmaut's meant to fall out on a certain day. This is religious coercion. This is kfiya datit. Who are you, the Rabbinate, to tell us, the secular, not to have Yom HaAtzmaut to fall out on the day that it falls out?" If you ever thought about this, it's it's I think it's miraculous. I think it's miraculous that the Rabbinate not decided. As I said, not everybody listens to the Rabbinate. This is the one time that everybody listens to the Rabbinate, which is when the Rabbinate has told us that Yom HaAtzmaut is going to be celebrated on a different day, and nobody made a Nobody makes a fuss about it. Nobody complains. So, the day that is the secular day, so to speak, we can move and we can get by without any consideration, without any problems of Hilul Shabbat. But, Lag BaOmer, which is a religious celebration, okay, that's the one that's causing Hilul Shabbat on a mass scale. There's something very very paradoxical about that. Just one moment. We then get in a couple weeks' time, we get to the next day, which is Yom Yerushalayim. And on Yom Yerushalayim is different, because on Yom Yerushalayim, we also never have a problem of Hilul Shabbat. Why? Because the only people that are celebrating Yom Yerushalayim are the ones who are dati'im anyway. This year it falls out on a Friday. If the other days were going to fall out on a Friday, so we'd say we have to move it, there's going to be Hilul Shabbat. Yom Yerushalayim doesn't get moved. So, you have Yom HaAtzmaut, which everybody agrees that we move. You have Lag BaOmer, which we have a debate about moving when it should seem obvious that every that it's going to move. And then you get to Yom Yerushalayim, which nobody says we need to move. Okay, so there's a very interesting thread that links between these days, which I which I want to go a little bit deeper on. Yeah. I think you just have to look to me. You have to look at um who What's the input for the whole question in Sukkah Lot? And on Yom Yerushalayim or Yom HaAtzmaut, the Chareidim are not involved. They don't care. So, therefore, you get a clear straight postponement. Once you get to bonfires and the big big Rabbeinu Meir you have a tremendous amount of pressure from the Haredi movement. Okay, so I don't want to get So, I don't want to get into politics here, and I don't want to talk about I don't I I don't I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to talk about I don't want to talk about people. I don't want to talk about particular groups, but I want to talk about philosophies. I want to talk about ideas. And I want to see how this idea comes out, how this idea that we've just said, and this tension and this conflict that exactly that we've been speaking about, how does it tie into the meaning actually of Sefirat HaOmer? Cuz this is actually what Sefirat HaOmer is all about, believe it or not. We've been counting now right, for almost 6 weeks, almost 5 weeks. And we start off Sefirat HaOmer with the When we start counting the day after Pesach, right? The second day, what's called in the Torah, everybody knows it, Mimaharat HaShabbat, the day after Shabbat. Those two words are explosive, right? Mimaharat HaShabbat. Throughout history, throughout the generations, there have been You think we have arguments nowadays? We have had tremendous arguments. There are pages and pages in the Gemara talking about what is the meaning of this Mimaharat HaShabbat. Because we know there are at least four five different opinions, by the way, what Mimaharat HaShabbat means. Okay, so only one of them is correct. Only one of them is legitimate. And that is what we follow today, which is Mimaharat HaShabbat, we start counting from the second day of Pesach. But it's strange because if I was to say to you if you didn't know this, right? And I was to say to you, "What does Mimaharat HaShabbat mean?" You would say, "Sunday. Shabbat is Shabbat is Saturday in English, and the day after Shabbat is Sunday." What do we What we talk about as Shabbat Bereishit. And there were those groups There were this the Beit of Shamai and Beit Hillel and different groups in the time of Beit Hillel who said, "That's exactly what it means. When the Torah says Mimaharat HaShabbat, it means it means you start counting from Sunday." Why did they say that? Why First of all, you might argue that that's the more simple pshat, that seems to be the simple meaning of the of the verses. There is the Gemara in Menachot, for example, tells a story. It says there was a certain There was a certain Beit Hillel who said, "The reason why is if you start counting the Omer on a Sunday, then Shavuot will always fall out on a on on on a Sunday as well. And therefore, he said that really Moshe Rabbeinu was trying to give the Jewish people a long weekend." It says this in the Gemara. It says this in the Gemara. It says that Moshe Rabbeinu had It says, "What is the gain of having a Beit Hillel and a Beit of Shamai?" Moshe Rabbeinu was a Moshe Rabbeinu was an Israelite. He knew that till the end of days Unlike Pesach and Sukkot, where you have a long holiday, right? 7 days, 8 days. Shavuot is only 1 day. Of course, now it's out to 2, but it is 1 day. A mad with a kind of a half Shabbat kind of a show Israel meet and gain shnei yamim. Remember, these 7 weeks of time of working out in the fields, etc. So, at the end of the 7 weeks you've been working hard. Okay, you get 2 days off instead of 1 day off. Right, we all laugh at it. But what's really going on? Is there something deeper? Is there something deeper behind this argument, right? Mimaharat HaShabbat, Mimaharat HaPesach. What's the big deal? Why couldn't they just accept that it's that we start counting from the second day of Pesach and not that we wait until until Sunday. So, there is another something very interesting that emerges from this as well. Which is what happens What happens when we start counting the Omer? What happens when we get to Mimaharat HaShabbat? So, we have different korbanot. We have different sacrifices. We begin It's called Sefirat HaOmer. What does Omer mean? Omer is a measurement of barley that is the Sefirat HaOmer, that is a sacrifice that is brought, the first sheaves of barley that are harvested from the field, and that are then brought to the to the Beit HaMikdash. That takes place when we start counting. And that's why, by the way, when we count now, and we count every night When when you count the Omer, do you say "BaOmer" or do you say "LaOmer"? Right? Part of You say both. So, where that part of where that comes from is the opinion that says "LaOmer" is more correct because on the first day is when you have the Sefirat HaOmer. We're counting "LaOmer". What I mean "BaOmer"? What "in the Omer"? What does that right? There are There are other opinions There are ways to explain it. But "LaOmer" would would would say because we're counting from the time that we brought that Omer offering. That was on the first day of the of the counting. Now that first day of the counting Harvesting, as you know, ktzira, you're going out and you're harvesting in the field. That's one of the melachot. That cannot be done on Shabbat, generally speaking. So, if you accept the opinion of the Beit of Shamai and these other groups that says Mimaharat HaShabbat means the day after Shabbat, i.e. Sunday so, it comes out that this will always take place on a weekday when this korban is brought. However, if you say Mimaharat HaShabbat means the day after Pesach, means it could be any day of the week, means it could come out on Shabbat, means that the Sefirat HaOmer could be on Shabbat. Are we allowed to go out and harvest? Are we allowed to do melachot on Shabbat? So, generally speaking, not. For the sake of something which the Torah allowed, so that so so then we could. So, it comes out a corollary, and this might be the reason why the Beit of Shamai said, "We don't want to we don't want to start counting Mimaharat HaShabbat. We don't Right, we want that to be on a Sunday definitely so that we don't come to a situation whereby we have to do this harvesting, this Sefirat HaOmer, on Shabbat itself." So, what comes out of here and Rav Kook explains, what comes out of here at first glance is something very very absurd. You're saying these other groups who do not accept the authority of the Torah She Ba'al Peh, who argue with us about what Mimaharat HaShabbat means, are they the ones that are so concerned about chillul Shabbat? They're the ones who nowadays say, "Hang on a second. If Lag BaOmer is on Motzei Shabbat, you have to postpone it. We can't allow everybody to say chillul Shabbat." And we end up being the ones, we who follow in the the footsteps of the of of the Perushim, we're the ones who say, "No, just light it. Light the bonfires, whatever you want. It's chillul Shabbat chillul Shabbat, here it's allowed." That That's what it That's what it sounds like. Obviously, that can't be the case. Obviously, that can't be what's going on. So, Rav Kook explained something beautiful. He says, "And the truth is we have a similar discussion by this relating to Pesach when Pesach falls out on Erev Shabbat not this year. But um But he's he says as follows. All the avodah in the Beit HaMikdash when we had a Beit HaMikdash, on Shabbat, the Beit HaMikdash operated as normal. You have all the korbanot. Every Every Shabbat we say in our tefillot, we have we have Musaf, and we have the korban Tamid, and we have all the korbanot, right? Shechita and all the things you do in a korban, these are melachot. They would not be allowed elsewhere. But because it's So, but because this is what happens in the Beit HaMikdash, this is what's required, it's allowed even on Shabbat. Because the principle is that any korban that is a korban tzibbur any offering which is a national offering, that can be brought even on Shabbat and on Yom Tov. A personal a private offering a private korban cannot be brought. A person has their own korban chatat or olah or whatever it is they want to bring, they can bring that any other day of the week to the Beit HaMikdash. My personal offering we say, "No, Shabbat you're not allowed to do these melachot." So, say, "But how come on Shabbat you bring the korban Tamid, and how come you bring the korban Musaf?" You're allowed to bring it. You're required to bring it because that is a korban tzibbur. That's part of the nation. That's part of the klal. Okay. How do we view the Sefirat HaOmer? The Sefirat HaOmer is something it's not personal, it's national. But it's done in the field. It's not that Yeah, the melacha is not done inside the Beit HaMikdash itself. It's done for the sake of the Beit HaMikdash. But it's done outside It's done in the field. So, Rav Kook writes as follows. Rav Kook writes a beautiful idea. This is This can be found in Ma'amrei HaRa'aya. If anybody wants, I can give you the the source afterwards. He says, "Ketzad HaShem item shlita ne'ulah. Bad sichlo ratzionali shel adam lihiyot yesod tziburi. Kacha hayta ta'anat Tzeduki. He says the Tzedukim said, "They said, 'You know what spirituality is? You know what serving God means? That's when you do it on an individual way. When I serve God from my you know, when I reach the highest intellectual platform individually that I can.'" But they didn't understand that it's something when it's something public. When it's something national. When I'm part of that And not only that, what What are we talking about when we talk about the national national forms of service? He says, "Halanu tzo'adim binyana aretz hayesod harashi hakla'ut. Halo etzel kol ha'amim hakorim kalkali chiyuni pashut." Says Rav Kook, "Look at building up the land. Look at agriculture. Any other nation in the world when they have agriculture, they look at that not as a holy endeavor, they look at that as something they have to do in order to make money, in order to survive. But by the Jewish people, by Eretz Yisrael the reishit hakatzir, the beginning of the harvest, the Omer, that is something that takes on a level of kodesh. That is something that becomes sanctified. Building up the land, working the land, that teaches us this is part of the korban tzibbur, this is part of the the avodat HaShem, this is part of the work of the Omer, the entire spiritual process, this is all part of it. So, that is one machloket. That is one disagreement that that that takes place, and that helps us explain the difference between the Tzedukim and the Perushim in terms of right, when do we begin? Do we begin the day after the begin on Sunday or do we begin the day after Pesach, whatever day it falls out? That is related to whether the Sefirat HaOmer can fall out on Shabbat or not. And that is related to whether the whole concept of agriculture, with the whole concept of building up the land, with the whole concept of everything that we do in the society is that just an individual doing what they would do as part of their sustenance or even a nation doing what it would do as part of its sustenance, or is there a higher level or is there a deeper meaning? I'm sure you're all thinking ahead of me and understanding how this all this ties in with Yom Ha'atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim. Okay, but that is one that is one idea. There's another idea I want to share with you, another explanation by a different contemporary thinker, Rabbi Saks, who who has a has an essay in his Machshavah in a number of different places where he discusses also this idea between Macharot Shabbat and Macharot Pesach, and he says something a little bit different but related and fascinating. He says as follows. Sefirat Ha'omer maybe maybe is commemorating something historical just like all our other chagim are commemorating something historical. And maybe the machlokes, the argument between the two, between these two groups is what are we trying to commemorate or what are we trying to idealize? As follows. Where else do we find the word omer? So we mentioned that omer is a measurement, it's a measurement of grain. It's related to that korban, that offering of barley that we bring, whether it's on Shabbat or not on Shabbat as we've just discussed. Where else in the Torah do we find the word omer? What does it relate to? The manna. So so in in Parshat Beshalach we find this, we have the discussion of the manna, right? And Hashem says to Moshe, "Hineni mamtir lachem lechem min ha'shamayim." I'm bringing you a bread from the heavens. There's a discussion in the mefarshim and some of the poskim as well, believe it or not this actually has relevance in in halacha l'maaseh, what bracha did they say on the manna? Right? So there are those who say the bracha was "Hamotzi lechem min ha'shamayim." This is a It comes up, it's brought, this discussion, when you have hydroponic vegetables and things like that that don't actually grow in the ground, what would the bracha maybe be different or not? And one of the sources that they bring is this is this discussion, very interesting. But later on in that pasuk so it says "Vayislichu bnei Yisrael vayilaktu am aber umamit." They went and they gathered up, they collected the manna. "Vayamodu ba'omer. Velo umamit lo hechsir ish lefi ochlo la'ket." Right? As we know, you could only take a specific measurement but the measurement that you could take was an omer. Fascinating. So what's the connection between the omer of barley and the omer of manna? Does it just happen to be the same measurement? Does it just happen to be the same word? Or does it mean something more? So Rashi tells us over there, right? When did the when did the manna start falling? So Rashi quotes this idea that's in the Gemara in Maseches Shabbat, this sugia that deals with with coming out and receiving the Torah and and the chronology of when everything happened, and there was a debate as to by the way this debate exactly when we received the Torah, was it on Vav Nisan, was it on Vav Sivan, was it on Zayin Sivan? Everybody agrees that it was on Shabbat. So Rashi says the following, he says "Vayored ha'mann b'shishah asar b'Iyar v'yom rishon b'Shabbat hayah." Says when the manna first began to fall, it was "yom rishon b'Shabbat." In other words, maybe maybe that Stokim and the Ba'alei Tosafot when they said Macharot Shabbat has to be "yom rishon," maybe they were saying they found an allusion here and they said Sefirat Ha'omer, we're counting the omer, we're counting back, we're remembering the first omer which was the omer of manna, which always fell, began to fall on a Sunday. So we are commemorating in that action the beginning of the falling of the manna. Okay. So that's an interesting thought. Let's take it Let's take it further, let's take it to the to the next step. The Rambam in Hilchot Temidin u'Musafin he talks here about this this argument of is it Macharot Shabbat, is it Macharot Pesach, what does it mean? And he says, listen to his language, he doesn't mince words. He says "V'im tomar she'oto Pesach b'Shabbat she'oto Pesach b'Shabbat elah k'mo she'dimu ha'tipshim." He says these tipshim, these are the If you say Macharot Shabbat means Sunday, right? You're being foolish. It's a stupid thing to say. "Heyach talah ha'davar b'techilat ha'chodesh b'davar ein ha'ikar v'lo ha'sibah she'nikra nikra elah me'achar she'talah ha'davar b'macharot ha'Pesach ha'davar barur she'macharot ha'Pesach hi ha'ilah matzeret et ha'chodesh. V'ein mashgichin al eizeh yom hu mimei ha'shavu'a." Okay, he's dealing with here chodesh and chodesh, etc. Things I'm not getting into now, but the point is he says very very clearly that what matters and what's important for us is that it's Macharot Pesach, that it's the day after Pesach, whichever day of the week it falls. He quotes that from a pasuk. Where do we find a pasuk that says explicitly, we've been talking about Macharot Shabbat, that's what the Torah says, but where do we find a pasuk that talks about Macharot Pesach? So that you'll find in Sefer Yehoshua. In Sefer Yehoshua, and this is what the Rambam is alluding to, when we cross over and we come into the land of Israel and when we come into the land of Israel we stop eating manna and we start eating from the grains. And the pasuk says "Vayochlu me'avur ha'aretz mimacharot Pesach matzot u'kalui be'etzem hayom hazeh." I imagine that, going from eating manna to eating matzot. Okay? But that says this says "mimacharot Pesach vayishbot ha'mann." And the manna stops. We've now changed phase completely. We've gone from the supernatural existence in the desert where food is falling from the sky to the natural existence where we have to work the land and we have to eat from the land and we have to build up the land. And remember there are those who think that building up the land is a lowly thing and it's a b'di'avad and it's not something we should be involved in, you just have to do it for the sake of sustenance. But Rav Kook told us that there's something more to it and it's actually a spiritual endeavor and something that we have to infuse with holiness, infuse with kedushah. But it's "mimacharot Pesach and it's "vayishbot ha'mann." That's when the manna stops. So now what comes out of this? And Rav Saks suggests this and he develops it further. But is that according to those who say that we start counting the omer on Macharot Shabbat, meaning on Sunday, you're commemorating the beginning of the manna falling. But when you say "mimacharot Pesach," as you It's the day after Pesach, not Sunday, whatever day of the week it is, you're commemorating when the manna stops. You're commemorating the end of the miracle but going into a greater miracle which is the fact that here we are in Eretz Yisrael and here we are building up the land and eating from the land and and that that is a different that is a different phase. So he wants to suggest that this is a whole this whole argument between them and two different groups and two different divisions and two different worldviews about how involved we should be in the world and how much we should work, etc. But okay. But I think connecting, bringing these two ideas together, we see something incredible. Right? Again, Rav Kook taught us that the machlokes between them was about in maybe individual versus collective, was about was about what is the meaning of agriculture within the land? Right? And and and and this is what we're suggesting, the whole argument is >> [clears throat] >> when the manna stops. When we're working in when we're working the land, when we're eating from the land, is that something we want to remember or is it something we want to commemorate? Is that something you want to idealize? Is that something that is that is can be infused with sanctity or is it a necessary evil, so to speak? In other words, the whole of Sefirat Ha'omer is teaching us we go from this period, we begin mimacharot Shabbat, right? Rav Saks says something else, by the way. He says I'll read I'll just read you a quote what he says. He says "Mimacharot Shabbat is taking us back to the story Shabbat is taking us back to the story of creation. If at the end of the day we mean that the day after Shabbat is Macharot Pesach, why does the Torah not say "mimacharot Pesach"? Why does it still use the words Macharot Shabbat?" Lots to say over there, and different explanations we could give. But part of it is taking us back to the story of creation, part of it is taking back to the original Shabbat. He writes "On Shabbat we celebrate the world God creates. The day after Shabbat is when we celebrate the world that we create." The phrase Macharot Shabbat is a metaphor for human endeavor and achievement, the space God makes for us and how we then for then go and then and and and build on that and develop that. For 2,000 years in exile, all of this was a was a theoretical discussion, it was a theoretical debate. We couldn't really be so involved in this. We were waiting, we were waiting for the time that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was going to bring us back. And here we are. We have these days on our calendar called Yom Ha'atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim. As I say, I don't think it's by coincidence that it's specifically in this period, in this period of Sefirat Ha'omer, this is the time that is teaching us that this this process where you go from the omer on Pesach through to the shtei halechem on Shavuot, it's a time of working and taking and and where the manna stops, right? But we're building the land and we're growing the land, that's "mimacharot Shabbat," that's where the work begins. Can this can we see this as part of our national endeavor? Can we see this as something that is infused with sanctity? Can we see this as us being partners with God in creation in bringing about and and and moving this process of geulah forward, moving forward this process of redemption? And how we view that and how we relate to that, I think it's not by coincidence, right? Relates very very much to what we started off, what we said right at the beginning. You look at these three days on our calendar and what they are and when they are and what they represent and how do we view them? And again, without talking about specific individuals and without talking about specific rabbis or specific communities or anything, because the truth is that in every community you can find people who think this and people who think that. Again, the point of this is not to denigrate anybody, but just to talk about ideas and talk about these philosophies. But when you look at the the the the the thinking behind those who said Yom Ha'atzmaut, they could have you know, they could have said Yom Ha'atzmaut falls out on Shabbat. Okay, so it falls out on Shabbat. Oh, it falls out on Motzei Shabbat. We'll do what we have to do like we always do what we have to do. But no, there's a concern here. There's a concern of national responsibility. And saying we can't allow it to be we can't allow this to be on a day that's going to lead to chillul Shabbat on a mass scale. We don't want it to be that way. And where did they Where did they learn it from? Maybe where was the precedent for that? Was it with Ben-Gurion himself? You know, when the state was declared with three hours and the time you know, Rav Kook always left to to say this. They say that the state of Israel was born out of a concern for the sanctity of Shabbat. Right? The day that the British mandate ended and the state was meant to be declared was on Shabbat. And Ben-Gurion said it can't be. Whether he Whether he thought it himself, whether he was concerned for it. Other people would say whatever, I don't know. Doesn't matter. But the point you know, as I've said, I'll give it give give a different example of that. Now, in our days, you know, you hear We're not talking politics. But you hear every week, you hear the prime minister talking in such religious terms. It's always b'ezrat Hashem. It's always baruch Hashem. Quoting psukim left, right, and center. And I've said many times, whether he's quoting psukim because he believes in the psukim or he's quoting the psukim because he thinks that that's what people want to hear. You know, I don't know which one is more Which one is more moving? Because if that's what That's what people want to hear. That's where the nation is. That's what the Jewish people are thirsty to hear and to connect and to feel that there's a in the sense of that. So So Ben-Gurion declares the state. He said, "We're not going to declare the Jewish state will not be born out of a desecration of Shabbat. So we'll bring it forward a few hours and it's on Friday afternoon." And that is it. And And And to this day, Yom Ha'atzmaut comes along, takes place. There is a There is a sense of national responsibility that is part of the way that we that we relate to this. And maybe because it comes from that place, maybe that's why the miracle occurs. I still maintain that it's a miracle that everybody here listens to the Rav Ha'Rashi and the and celebrates Yom Ha'atzmaut on the same day. We get to Lag Ba'Omer. We get to Lag Ba'Omer. And unfortunately, we're still having this We're still having discussions. We're still having debates. In a sense, it's a nonsensical debate. The one that comes and says, "It's going to fall out on Motzei Shabbat." We're only going on Motzei Shabbat to make our bonfire. If you want to go before Shabbat, that's your problem. As we saw the Rav of Petah Tikva in a different context said you got that there's there's nothing to that. But it's teaching us that everything we do in what is avodat Hashem and what are we building and what are we trying to achieve here? Whether it's through working the land, whether it's through high-tech, whether it's through your learning, whether it's through your bonfires, your religious ritual, whatever it is, it has to be done in a way that's not just about me and myself and my arba amot, but how does that connect to the entire nation? How does that connect the entire people? And that's why at least the Rav Ha'Rashi says that nobody listens to them. But they say, "If it falls out on Motzei Shabbat, so then you have to then you have to postpone the bonfires. Okay, Lag Ba'Omer is still Lag Ba'Omer, but postpone to the next day." Then we get to Yom Yerushalayim. And again, this one is uh you know, there's something very There's something very uplifting about this and there's something very disappointing about this. But it teaches us that we're still in the process. We're not quite there yet. This is a day that if Yom Ha'atzmaut, where we got our physical independence, very much parallels Pesach, and it's not by coincidence that it's just a couple weeks off to Pesach, Yom Yerushalayim falls out just a week before Shavuot. It's always the same day of the week as well that parallels Yerushalayim's spiritual liberation, right? And this is the day which fortunately, there's no chillul Shabbat. Unfortunately, it's because many people still do not mark it, still do not notice it, still do not even recognize that anything happened on this day. But maybe maybe we're on the process and we hope that year by year more and more people will recognize and we will see you know, we've seen all these miracles. End of the story which I think I've told some of you before, but uh I think I mentioned here on Yom Ha'atzmaut. So I heard this from the chief rabbi. He said, not personally, it was in in a recorded uh speech that he gave. But he said that a few weeks ago he saw the head of the Shabak, the head of the Shabak, David Zini, who said to him, he said, "I don't understand. Why has the Rav Ha'Rashi Why has the chief rabbi not established a day of Thanksgiving for the miracles that we've seen in this war?" And uh so his answer My answer is My answer is cuz nobody would listen to the chief rabbi at the moment, unfortunately. His answer was "Well, you know, we're still in We're still in the war. It's not over yet." And the head of the Shabak said to the chief rabbi, he said, "If you knew everything that I know, if you'd seen the things that we've seen over the last few weeks, I guarantee you you would have no questions. You would declare right now that we need to have a day of Thanksgiving and praise to Hashem for the for the miracles that we've seen." So maybe maybe there's another day like that that's on the way. And we hope and we pray that it will be that it will be soon. That it will be another Yom Tov. That will be whenever it is, should be speedily in our days. That will be a day that will that will be no chillul Shabbat for sure. And that will be recognized by all of Am Yisrael too.