Pesach to Shavuot: Counting & Rising to Greatness - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

we are in the period of time uh that's called sverasa omer and spheros omer is the linkage between pesach and shivois the ramban actually says very interestingly enough that one could envision spherus omer as a long haul hamoid there's a holiday called pesach which is the manchester the season of our freedom and there's a holiday called shivuas called zaman matantorosenu the season of our torah but instead of looking at it like two separate holidays sv rasa omer creates a whole hamoid kind of the intermediate days of a festival that link together two holidays and actually makes them one and there's a very profound idea here because freedom without torah is meaningless a pesach that is not connected to a schwa is the freedom of the wild animal it does not represent the nobility of man it does not represent the greatness of man and therefore the torah itself links the notion of freedom with the notion of torah there was a great indian poet not jewish and i don't even know if he knew a jew tagori who once compared a human soul to a violin string a violin string is capable of producing beautiful music but only when it's tied down if you take a loose string and put it on a table and pluck it you're not going to get any music the music comes only when it's tied across the bow or the bridge of the violin so too a human soul is capable of such beautiful music but only when it submits itself it ties itself down to something higher and greater than itself we operate with the illusion that if only we would be free if we could do what we want then we would be creative then we would accomplish but never have i got to keep this commandment and that commandment it's simply crimping my style not enabling me to express my creativity in fact the opposite is the case it is precisely by submission to akadeshwar who's world to acquire whose laws to his moral order that the excellence and beauty and radiance and goodness that is within my soul can find its highest expression and thus there's a very very deep reason why shavuos is connected to pesach because without chavuos pesach itself would not only be meaningless but would be self-destructive khazam made the observation thousands of years ago that the korban that is brought on pesach is a barley offering that's the omer and the corbin that is brought on shivuos is a wheat offering that is called the stem the two loaves of bread in the time of the torah this is before we had cholent barley was primarily fed to animals wheat was utilized for human consumption the rem is is freedom without torah is the freedom of the wild animal it is only through the torah that our animalistic freedom becomes human dignity i would suggest something i did not see a source for this but perhaps there could be a similar idea and we know that the first night of pesach based on the jewish calendar is always the same night of the week as the ninth above later in the summer there is in other words a connection between the night of liberation the first day of liberation pesach and the ninth of fact some say this is why ashkenazim have a custom of eating a hard-boiled egg at the start of the seder meal because the hard-boiled egg is the food that we give a mourner because it represents the circle of life good times become bad times bad times become good times and we're feeding and we're eating the food of an avel the food of a mourner because we are mourning the khurban-basamiktas on the first night of pesach both because we don't have a corbin pesach so we're mourning that and because we actually think of the ninth ave but there are no coincidences in judaism god runs every facet of the world so if indeed it turns out that the first day of pesach is always the day of the ninth of of there must be a reason for that in ruchnius and i would suggest although i did not see this anywhere that perhaps the lesson is that the first day of pesach is the only day that is not yet fully connected to shavuot because we don't start counting the omer till the second day of pesach so maybe the remis of the torah is when you have a freedom that is not yet connected to torah invariably it will result in destruction in exile and in corbyn so in effect one might say the hard-boiled egg is the substitute for not counting the omer the first day of pesach but that brings us now to really a fundamental question the mitzvah of counting the omer period is in the torah itself parshas emma we're going to read about it in a few days and the torah says the following usuvartan and some people say this verse every night before counting the omer usf you shall count starting from the day after shabbos i'll get back to that from the day that you bring the omir offering seven weeks that's 49 days and then the 50th day you make the holiday of shabbos now the big problem with this passage is that the torah says you start counting the day after shabbos now most of the time almost all of the times when the torah says the word shabbat shabbas means saturday the seventh day of the week and that would mean shabbat the day after shabbos would mean sunday so if you read the sukim quite literally this would mean you would start counting the omer on the sunday following pesach indeed this was the position of the sadducees a sect during the second temple who did not believe in the oral tradition and they were succeeded by the karo rights who still exist even today that they do not count the armor till the sunday after passover and yet most definitively that is not the rabbinic understanding of this verse our sages absolutely said that when the torah says shabbas in this verse it does not mean saturday the seventh day of creation but shabbos is a another name for the first day of pesach pesach is called shabbas mee maharasa means the day after the second day of pesach and the gemara in menaches talks about the fact that this was a bitter source of disputes between the prusian the pharisees our sages and the stukim the sadducees and this lasted many many decades till the prussian were able were able to establish this definitive position but the question becomes very very simple yes it is true that it's possible to say that shabbos means pesach and therefore means the day after pesach the day after the first day of pesach but why does the torah use a term that's so ambiguous why would the torah refer to the holiday of pesach by the appalachian shabbos normally shabba sashabas and yamtif's yamtif what is so shabbistic about pesach that the torah uses the word shabbos to describe the first day of pesach that's question number one question number two is already connected to an earlier point even according to the sages we don't start counting the omer till the second day of pesach or the second night of pesach we don't do it the first night how come if after all the ultimate message is we want to connect freedom and responsibility and we want to make the point that without torah freedom is animalistic liberation and not human dignity well isn't that point equally relevant the first night of pesach so why would it be so that the torah says ubadafka do it the day after so we want to discuss two questions about the counting of the omer question one why does the torah describe the first day of pesach by the name shabas and therefore we count the day after that first day and question number two why does svera start me maharasabas the day after shabbos the day after that first day of pesach why don't we start it pesach itself let's start with the first saint or the first seder we should count sverasa omer with respect to the first question i want to share with you a thought of ramir simkra the mesh who makes the very interesting observation that all of us know that halachically there are differences between shabbos and yamtif and there are two basic distinctions between shabbos and yamtif that we have to keep in mind distinction number one is on shabbos we have 39 categories of malacha that we're not allowed to violate and these categories are absolute we can only violate a malacha literally if it's a matter of life and death to save a human life that's because nephesh by contrast yom tough although yamcha also has the same 39 malaccas of shabbos there's a huge dispensation for yamthaf that we don't have on shabbos and that is called oakhill nephesh we are allowed to cook we are allowed to prepare food we are allowed to do activities that are necessary for the umptif so distinction number one is shabbos does not have a dispensation called okoneveg for cooking and food preparation jumped off does have a dispensation for cooking food preparation and other activities that are needed to enhance the joy of yumdiff that is difference number one difference number two is how does a shabbos or a youngtif get sanctified the holiness of shabbos comes exclusively from god every seventh day when friday night comes in that day is holy it is holy whether jews observe it whether they don't observe it there is nothing we have to do to make it holy shabbos is kadosh with us or without us even though we do make something called kidus which literally means sanctification we're not really sanctifying shabbos we are acknowledging that our kodesh barco sanctified shabbos yamcha is very different in the time of the basa mikdash a month did not begin simply because there was a new moon rather there had to be a testimony of witnesses that they saw a new moon they had to go in front of the sanhedrin in jerusalem and the sanhedrin in jerusalem proclaimed that day rosh chodesh and then x number of days from rosh chodesh in the case of pesach 15 days would be the holiday of pesach but the holiday of pesach is a function of the sanctification of the sanhedrin who are the representatives of am israel and the gemara in rosh hashanah tells us that even if astronomically they made the wrong day rosh chodesh the holidays are counted from the erroneous calculation and not from the astronomical appearance of the new moon now even today when we don't have a base on mikktosh and we don't have a sanhedrin and we work on a fixed calendar so you might get the impression that the cycle is automatic the rambam explains that is not quite true rather the last sanhedrin knowing that the temple would be destroyed and the sanhedrin would be abolished calculated ahead of time all the future rosh roshes until the year 6000 because by then mashiach for sure will be here and they sanctified the new moons in advance indeed many opinions say that the jewish calendar expires in the year six thousand so if khas for shalom this isn't going to happen but if mashiach would not arrive there would no longer be jewish holidays based on the lunar cycle simply because there was no sanhedrin that was makadesh that sanctified the new moon so in other words the holiness of shabbos is from god the holiness of yamthaf is a power that is vested in us to sanctify the new moon thereby establishing the holidays that are x number of days from the new moon this is why in the sitter the bracha is different on shabbos we say baruch hashem blessed our true god you are the one that sanctifies the shabbos by contrast on a yamchev we say broker hashem israel you have sanctified israel the hazmatim who is then given the power to sanctify the times the text is very exact when it comes to shabbos god sanctifies shabbos when it comes to yamtif god sanctifies israel and israel is given the power to sanctify the times and that is why when it's both yom to fan shabbos the bracha is so exact beautifully so kadesha you sanctify shabbos the israel you sanctify israel who then sanctifies the amphitheath so be kisser in looking at the difference between shabbos and yamcha we've identified ramir simcha identifies two differences shabbos there is no dispensation for food preparation jumped if there is number two shabbos the holiness comes from god yamcha the holiness comes from us via the sanhedrin ramirez says the distinctions in shabbos and yamtif are reflective of a third difference between shabbos and yamcha that can explain the other two and that is shabbos commemorates an event which in its essence has nothing to do with the jewish people god made the world in six days he rested on the seventh day by our resting on shabbos and by emulating god we are acknowledging that god is the source of creation but shabbos has nothing to do with the jewish people the event that shabbos commemorates was prior to the jewish people being created etc in fact that's why shabbos is called a gift a gift is something you haven't earned you're not entitled to logically shabbos should be observed by every person in the world jew and non-jew and yet we know halal it's very interesting non-jews are not supposed to keep shabbos completely a non-jew who keeps the shabbos the way a jew does is actually high of mesa so in a sense shabbos is the quintessential gift it has nothing to do with us it is the testimony that god is the creator of heaven and earth that is a fact that every person in the world is obligated to believe jew and non-jew and yet god gave it to the jewish people but because it commemorates an event that is not connected to us number one it does not bend to our needs shabbos is not but ill to us i need food i need to cook i got to do it before shabbos because since shabbos is something of which i have no connection intrinsically it is not subordinate to my physical needs and that's why there is no hetero of okra nephesh and by the same token we are not the ones who make it holy the holiness of shabbos pre-existed the jewish people and therefore the holiness of shabbos does not depend on anything that we do so we now have this halachically there are two differences between shabbos and yamcha okel nephesh and whether you need a sanhedrin philosophically those two differences emanate from the idea that shabbos pre-existed on israel and therefore its holiness does not dependent on israel and its holiness does not bend to our needs by contrast yamthev think about this yamchav would have no meaning without a jewish people the reason there's a pesach is because of yitzhiyas mitzrayim the reason there's a shavu house is because of matantora god giving the torah to israel the reason there's a succos is because of the clouds of glory yamcha is a celebration it is a commemoration of god's unique relationship with um israel and without an army israel there would be no yamitov so yamcha is because of us because yamcha exists only because of us that is why it bends to our needs yamcha is tough el yamtiv is subordinate to our nephesh you cannot cook for a guy on yomtif it only bends for the needs of a jew and that is why the holiness of yamtiv depends on ami israel acting through the sanhedrin because without an ami israel there would be no yamimtovam at all and that is why the yomim tell them themselves are not described as a matana a matana a gift is something you get that you have no connection to i just give you a gift shabbos is a gift because why should shabbos be given to us yav is not a gift it's obvious yamcha is given to us because we were the ones taken out of mitzrayim we were the ones who got the torah we were the ones that had only a cover so now it turns out that if we understand that shabbos represents the gift that god gave you which you did not earn and you did not deserve and yamcha represents those experiences that emanate out of hashem's unique relationship with you where mayor simply says we can now understand of all the yamim tovhim is the closest to shabbos why is this it's true of course pesach commemorates a unique experience to ami israel but ami israel were not under madrega where they truly deserved it remember that karisparko told avram avinu in the covenant of the parts that we were supposed to be enslaved and persecuted for 400 years and yet god took us out after 210 years 190 years early and the reason is because in those 210 years of mitzrayim we were we were reaching very very low levels of impurity the kabbalists teach us there's only 50 levels of impurity when you hit level 50 you're not redeemable we were on the 49th level of impurity and if we would have stayed another minute even the amount of time that it takes for dough to rise we would have hit the 50th level we would have been irredeemable as it were four-fifths of us died we had hit the 50th level the one-fifth was 49 and sinking so mama it turns out we were not worthy of redemption we did not earn it this was a gift that god gave us some extra mitzvos the mitzvah of carbon pesach the mitzvah prismila to give us some type of something to grab onto something to hold on to but it was something we didn't earn hashem gave it to us out of his love for ami israel and because of the promise that he made to the avos of ram yitzhak and yakov so the torah therefore says that pesach is like a shabbos experience because it does not it's not something we earned unlike shabbos where we worked to perfect ourselves to become worthy of the torah unlike the clouds of glory of of sukis which are the aftermath of the shuva that we do on yom kippur so shavuous and sukis we earned hashem's love pesach is a mat an undeserved gift and that's that is why it is called shabbos so that answer is question number one why is pesach called shabbos because it partakes of that shabastica characteristic of the unearned gift the pure grace of god but now let's come to the next question why do we start counting the omer the day after this shabbos why do we not start counting the omer on the first day of pesach on shabbos itself ramirez does not address this question but i want to uh share with you a beautiful insight that says in the name of his great grandfather the baal shem tov and that is we know that often when a person first comes to hashem a person does chuva mitzvo seems so vibrant so fresh shabbos is wonderful davening is so inspirational every mitzvah is exciting and beautiful and vibrant and inspirational and then as the weeks go by the months go by the years go by a person often loses his enthusiasm it gets wrote it gets repetitive how can that be now what are you going to say well everything you know if it becomes the habits we lose our excitement well that may be true for a lot of things but how could it be true for mithvis if every time i do mitzvahs i get closer and closer to the reboundership layla how could it be that the more i do the less inspired i get what sense does that make why would there be diminishing returns why should the guy that does shabbos the first time gets such a geshemak and such a passion and i've been keeping shabbos for 40 years i don't get that feeling what's going on the mitzvahs are supposed to bring me closer to asia and the belgento says consider a baby that's learning to walk initially when the baby first stands up the parents are holding the baby by his shoulders and he puts one step in front of the other step and it's going good going smooth the baby is thinking hey this walking is a lot of fun i like it and then at some point the parents let go because they feel the baby is strong enough to start walking on his own but what's going to happen as soon as the parents let go as soon as the parents let go the kid's gonna fall now if he could articulate his thoughts or his frustrations he might be thinking how come walking was so easy five minutes ago and now it's so hard i'm only 18 months already regressing what's going on but the answer is it was easy because your parents were supporting you but now you have the challenge of doing it on your own now surely abba and ema are still in the background they're still watching you they're still there to protect you if anything goes wrong but you have to make it your own if you don't make it your own it's not really yours says the baal shem tov in a vodas hashem when a person is far from hashem hashem has to carry them because otherwise they have no way of connecting to the mitzvah and when hashem carries you everything seems effortless everything seems easy everything seems beautiful but at some point takaris barku says i've shown you what you can become now i'm gonna let go a little bit and have you make it your own spiritual level says the balchemtel initially that's going to be hard because abba is not holding on to me anymore he's still there of course he's still there but i got to incorporate it into my own madrega and therefore the balshem dove and rav nachman say counterintuitively that when a person achieved great madregos great spiritual levels and now he finds himself struggling instead of feeling bad and in despair hashem is giving you a vote of confidence you're ready you're strong enough to move ahead i can let go now because you're ready for the next level seen in this way we can now understand the relationship was a great and awesome revelation of god's presence we saw and we experienced miracles i'll say at the amsof at the red sea that even the lowliest made servant in israel perceived revelations of god that were even greater than the navijskal that saw the divine chariot and the divine throne everything was open to us we achieve tremendous spiritual levels but they were not earned they were not something that we had worked on they are not something that we were ready for hashem art officially lifted us up to show us what is kedusha what is intimacy what is connection to god and that was sudden that's why shirashiram uses the idea of makape god jumped god skipped it's as if to say we were on in first grade and hashem put us into a postgraduate phd program we skipped all the grades but that can't be permanent after hashem shows us the highest of madre goats he then puts us on the ground and says i've shown you the top of the mountain now i'm putting you at the bottom and you have to climb up and that's the difference between sveras homer and pesach pesach is this sudden revelation of god the counting of the armory is level by level step by step by step by step and that is why sriracha has to be the day after shabbos meaning the day after pesach pesach is the revelation of what i can become but you can't stop there you can't just take god's gifts without working without effort there has to be a maharas there has to be a tomorrow and svera is tomorrow the next day the next level take the gifts that god gave you and make them the gift that you give back to hashem by your work by your effort by your striving by your yegia and that's not a one day process that's level after level after level after level the balatanya writes in the beginning of shirashiram the beginning of the song of songs which is a metaphor for the love that hashem has for the jewish people and jewish people have for hashem the jewish people as the woman cry out ma pull me after you narutza so we can run says the balatanya mashini god pulls us we're like a sack of potatoes but through the concept of aymer narutsa we run with hashem we've internalized it we've made it our own you know in life hashem often gives us very dramatic inspirational experiences that we really didn't expect they were gifts from shamayim he opened up the heavens to give us a sense of what it's like to be connected to him and those experiences are as precious as gold and so sweet and so good that we want to hold on to them forever but the reality is we don't hold on to them forever they often go they often pass and the idea is hashem shows us what we can become but he then hides again and says i've shown you what you can become i've shown you what you really are it's your job to become it and as i said the gifts hashem gives us now become the gifts that we give hakadeshparkha so i hope that all of us will be inspired during this very very precious time to grow in our torah in our years hashem our avas hashem israel to understand that even in our comparative isolation is with us in all of our tsaras and may he say die may he say enough to all of the sorrows of the world may we be zolcha to mashiach be well you