Chol Hamoed Shavuos (Ep.324)

Hi, this is Rabbi Orlofsky, and welcome to The Rabbi Orlofsky Show. And whether you're watching with our friends and producers over at attorneytime, or wherever you watch and listen to your podcasts on any platform, it's always exciting to have you along for the experience. And uh we want to remind you if on your platform you can subscribe, like, share, and comment, then it helps more people find out about the show. And uh just a shout-out uh to everybody who joined us on the Orlofsky family Pesach program. It was wonderful having you there, and uh I hope everyone had a chance to see at least a little bit of uh you know, the experience that we went through, and I hope that it was meaningful to everybody there. And we have a sponsor for this week's episode, old friends, Suri and Chaim Boy and Jew. I I have to tell a story. Uh Mrs. Boy and Jew was the head of the English department in Magen David, and uh when I went to speak there. So I I referenced some obscure book, and she was like, "You read that?" I was like, "I I I How did you get through that?" I two pages at a time in the bathroom. Anyway, Suri and Chaim Boy and Jew are delighted to dedicate a podcast in honor of our children, Rabbi Ari and Grace Boy and Jew, Rabbi Shalom Yaakov and Chaim Boy and Jew, and Yigal and Erica Susportas, in recognition of their middos tovvos and their love for Am Yisrael. May they continue to bring up their children and grandchildren the same middos. Rabbi Orlofsky have been a role model and inspiration for all the Boy and Jews and Susportases for over 20 years. May you continue may chayal chayal do it. It's so beautiful. Thank you so much. Um I want this week to uh talk about something that in fact was one of the question and answers that was submitted. And uh I think this deserves a little more attention. The question is, why is Shavuos only one day, or two days in chutz la'aretz, unlike the other two of the sholosh regalim that have chol hamoed, and then more yom tov? Why can't we have chol hamoed Shavuos? It's so interesting. It is interesting. So uh let's first of all, you're probably familiar with this, and that is after Shavuos we don't say tachnun for another six days, because those are the yemei tashlumin. Since you have only one day to bring your korbanos on Shavuos, we give you six more days to make them up, to bring your korban chagiga or your korban re'iyah that you didn't have a chance to bring yet. And uh so it does extend, it extends for another six days. But uh the the question is, I I I guess we're asking it backwards. The question is not why is Shavuos one day, the question is why is Sukkos and Pesach seven days? That's a better question. So I asked this once to a ladies group, why is Pesach seven days? And one of them said, "Because I'm not doing all this cleaning for one day. If I'm doing all this cleaning, you're eating matzah for a week." And I have to think that's an excellent answer. Makes sense for me. Yeah. Um I'm never in a rush to put away the Pesach things. I I I like Pesach. I always did. And uh I'm okay eating matzah for another few days. Uh there are those uh people who do not eat uh chametz until Shavuos, cuz they're nervous, they don't want to rely on having sold the chametz. And uh and so they uh they they eat they eat basically the whole time. Yeah. And uh personally I like matzah. And now, okay, part of that is, to be fair, that we don't keep gebrochs. Um I guess if you stay Pesachdik after Pesach, you could eat gebrochs. Yeah. But to me, and it's one of the one of the big problems, uh if you don't have a mezonos cake, then when you make kiddush, uh so you have to wash. Now, there are people who are kove'a seudah on wine or on peiros or on other things, okay. But those of us who like to use mezonos, there's no mezonos, so you have to wash. So we used to have sit down and have a pre-seudah before our seudah. And you sit down to a seudah with matzah and cream cheese, and matzah and butter, and matzah brei. You can go through a box of matzah without even blinking an eye, and jelly. And I can't speak for everybody. I've I have a certain personal preference. If you're going to use strawberry jelly, you do that with the butter. If you're going to use grape jelly, you do that with the cream cheese. I don't know I don't know what the mesorah is for that. I just that's how it that's how it comes out. My father and my brothers, they used to cut an onion in half and rub it on a matzah and add some salt, and that that was it, you know. But uh during the seudah, yeah, you can fill the fish with matzah, you have chopped liver with matzah, tuna fish with matzah. I mean, these are some of the greatest things that uh experiences that a human being could possibly have, you know. And uh it's less exciting when we make sliders, and you have to try to put it in between two little pieces of matzah, and you know, take a bite, and it all collapses on you, but you know, hey. You know. It's a it's a difficult gollus. But anyway, um so that it does extend afterwards uh from Shavuos. They're the yemei tashlumin. So uh so but but Pesach, you have six days in between. Right? So why is that? The first day is a yom tov, and the last day is a yom tov. And that's the reason that there's chol hamoed, because you have to get from the first day to the last day, and that's the process that's taking place. There's uh Rashi in parshas Bo, where Hashem says to Moshe, "Please ask ask the people to take, you know, the gold and silver from Mitzrayim, because otherwise Avraham Avinu will be upset." He says, "You kept the part where you enslaved them and oppressed them, but you didn't keep the part that they would go up b'ruchush gadol." That's Rashi. Then Nachlas Yaakov, which is in the sefer on the Torah, he asks a number of questions. He says, "Of all the people who are going to question Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Avraham Avinu?" When Avraham Avinu said Yitz- Yitzchak will be uh yeled Zaira and everything going to come out of him, and then he said, "Take him up the mountain and kill him." He didn't question him. So now he's going to suddenly question him? Yeah? That's number one. Number two is, forget about whether Avraham says anything, you promised they were going to go up b'ruchush gadol. So tell them, "Please take the gold and silver, because I promised that I they were going to go up b'ruchush gadol, not because he promised Avraham." Yeah. That's the question. Parenthetically, you can go to the merch store, rabbiorlofsky.com/merch, and get your own Rabbi Orlofsky mug, because the day is coming when I will lift up my mug, and in thousands of homes around the world, everyone will lift up their Rabbi Orlofsky mug, and we will drink together. Anyway, what's even more exciting is my daughter Yaffa, who arranged all this, um the merch store, she's working on this thing, I don't know what it is, but I've heard podcasts when they say, "If you want to support the show, you could buy me a cup of coffee." I don't know what that means. But she says, "Yeah, yeah, well, I'm working on that." That you can buy Rabbi Orlofsky a cup of coffee, and I was so excited. My wife even more. So we love coffee. My wife said, "They're they're going to bring coffee, you know." So she kept trying to explain to us that there will not be a line of people outside your door with coffee, but I think that's really what it is. You could buy me a cup of coffee, and I'll just be sitting here all day, and people will be knocking on the door So we have a suggestion over here, and that is uh you know, you have the option to be be of the studio audience, and uh if you come, so you could come and bring the coffee with you, then that would definitely solve the problem. I take it with half a Sweet'N Low and some milk. Yeah. Now, I don't know if you know this. This is very interesting. My father used to send me to the to the luncheonette to bring him coffee. And I didn't know this. There are five ways you can get your coffee. There's what's called black, that's no milk. There's dark, a little milk. There's regular, a little bit more milk. There's light, and then there's extra light. My father used to take his coffee extra light. So, I take mine regular, just so you should know, half a Sweet'N Low. And I'm waiting. Anyway, So, the first question The first question is, Abraham's going to question him. The second one is, what about Hashem's promise? And so, he answers, Hashem never planned for them to have to schlep the golden silver out of Egypt. He was having it delivered to the Yam Suf. Now, let's be clear. The Hazal say that the least walked out of Mitzrayim with 60 donkeys laden with gold and silver. 60 donkeys. And how is that described? The Kudas Sakkesef b'turei zahav. On a pillar of gold, little silver dots. Those 60 donkeys were 60 with a little dots of silver. And at the Yam Suf, they got the actual gold pillars. That was the real ruchush. Which means, if I can quote from Journeys, the song Yeshiva Shel Shprach, where he took together all kinds of different Yeshivish expressions, one of them is, the pe'ulah might be here, but the chalais is over there. What does that mean? I give a woman kiddushin, and I say it's going to take effect in 30 days. So, in 30 days, where's the where's the nesinah? So, he says, the pe'ulah is here, you gave it already, but the chalais, where it kicks in, happens over there. Yeah, it's it's one long meshicha. Yeah? There's another way of those Yeshivish lashon, yeah? It means that Yitzi'as Mitzrayim was a 7-day process. It didn't happen like that. Considering the fact that I have neuropathy in my fingers, that was extremely extremely impressive. Shh. Anyway, um I have like locked finger syndrome and stuff. The diabetes. Anyway, um so uh So, when we left Mitzrayim, we weren't free yet. V'haraya, we didn't sing a shira yet. Cuz you don't sing shira till the end of it. And they were still afraid that Paroh was going to chase them, and sure enough, Paroh did chase them. And they thought this is the end. And they say to Mosha, "Am bilishon kvorim, there aren't enough graves in in in Mitzrayim, that you brought us out here to get killed by the Egyptians? We told you we didn't want to go. We knew this was going to end badly." And he says, "Wait, wait. Hashem's got one more uh thing he wants to show you over here. You see that sea? Bam. Now you see the sea, now you don't. Yeah? It went up in the air. There used to be a drink when I was a kid called Hi-C. That's where it came from, yeah? It went up like walls. The whole thing split. Incredible. Incredible thing. But um they didn't see that coming. Then, when they saw Mitzrayim maseh asah v'yam, and they understood that now the story is over, Az yashir Mosha u'vnei Yisrael. Now they sang shira, but they didn't sing shira beforehand. Cuz they weren't part of the process. So, Pesach is Yitzi'as Mitzrayim is 7 days. It starts by leaving Egypt, and it ends at the Yam Suf. And that's why we have 2 days of Yom Dif. We have the day of Yitzi'as Mitzrayim, and we have the day of Yam Suf, Kri'as Yam Suf, and and Egypt getting destroyed in the Az Yashir. And that's a process. That's why there's a Chol HaMoed. There's another reason why Pesach is 7 days, and that is a therapy session. I've told the story about my friend who had ileitis, and a natural healer told him to eat only grapes. Which is supposed to be terrible for ileitis. But he ate it for a very long time, and eventually it cleared up. And he slowly started to which is amazing, cuz the doctors said it's impossible, you can't you can't cure it. And and slowly he started introducing more things to his diet, different vegetables, different fruits, different things, until he finally reached the point where he could eat normally. But every year for a week, he has to go back onto the grapes to keep his system clean. So, he says he tends to do it in the fall because the the grapes are cheaper then. And for a week, he just eats grapes again. It's a therapy to be able to keep um the system clear. That's what happens on Pesach. You have to eat matzah for 7 days as part of a process to be able to uh clean out your system from all the ga'avah that uh the matzah represents, from all the bad middos, from from the yetzer hara, because the yetzer hara is called the sa'ar shebei issa, which causes the bread to rise. Maybe I'll take a moment just to mention this. I know Pesach is over, but it's an important thing to know. I never knew what se'or was, full disclosure. It says, all chametz and all leaven. Right? Isn't chametz leaven? I I never knew what it meant. I finally figured it out. Now, when you're doing Menachos, before Pesach, we were doing Gemara Menachos, and and you see what se'or is. Today, there's something called bread, and something called sourdough bread. But once upon a time, there was only sourdough bread. That was the only bread that existed. How do you make sourdough bread? You take some flour and some water, and you leave it out until it ferments, and then you take out a certain amount, and then you put in some more. You have to feed it. It's a whole complicated process. Yeah? Until you're able to get enough of this yuck that's called a starter. And it's not really edible, but you add it into the dough, and it acts as a yeast to be able to make the bread rise. That is se'or. Yeah? So, what makes the bread rise? The yetzer Because the yetzer hara um is testing you and fighting you. And that's what happens is that the yeast is fighting with the proteins, and it's releasing carbon dioxide, and that's what's making it rise. And a whole ganzk gesheft. You get the Blumenkrantz Guide and read through the process of how you ferment. So, it represents the yetzer hara. So, we need a 1 week a year to to clean us out. That's why Pesach. Same thing with Sukkos. Sukkos is a process. Because we've spoken about this in the past, obviously. You go from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, and on Yom Kippur, you are like a malach. And you're out of this world, but you can't live out of this world. You have to live in this world. So, you can't go right back into your house. You have to go through a process. And the process is a sukka, where you're in the world and out of the world. You have walls, but you don't have a roof. Sort of like Mishkan Shiloh. All right? Where you have the the regular Mishkan didn't have real walls, and didn't have a real uh roof. The Beis HaMikdash had both. Shiloh had stone walls, and it had a cloth roof. So, the sukka is a Mishkan. U'fros aleinu sukkat shlomecha. And once again, we need a week to transition from Yom Kippur till we take all of the koach of Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur and Sukkos, and bring it into our house on Shmini Atzeres. And that's a a separate holiday and the same holiday. It's obviously the same holiday, cuz it's called the eighth day, which means that it must have been following the first 7 days. But you make a shehechiyanu, it's its own chag, it has its own name, you know, different things. By Pesach, you always say Pesach, whether it's the first day or the last day. And the last day, you don't uh you don't say a Shacharit on it and in Kiddush or when you light candles. And Shemini Atzeret too. So, once again, there's a process of going from uh Sukkot, the first day, which is a Yom Tov, to Shemini Atzeret, which is a Yom Tov, and those days in between are not stopped. We all fulfill with the Ushpizin. And what's the idea of the Ushpizin? The Ushpizin is they represent the seven Sefirot. And we have to maximize that. Every single day, raise ourselves up another level to be able to get to Shemini Atzeret. So, that's why so So, that's why Sukkot has seven days and that's why uh Pesach has seven days. But Shavuot is a commemoration of Hashem giving the Torah. Hashem giving the Torah. That's a one-day event. And yet, I say it's a one-day event, the Torah doesn't call it Shavuot in Parshat Emor. It calls it Yom Hachamishim, the 50th day. In case you were ever wondering where in English Pentecost comes from for Shavuot, it's because penta, yeah, the 50. The uh 50th day. Says the Ramban, an amazing idea. From Pesach to Shavuot is one long uh Chol HaMoed. We obviously don't keep all the Halakhot of Chol HaMoed, but it going from Pesach to Shavuot. And how do we count the Sefirat HaOmer? We start the second day when we bring the Omer, a barley offering, which is animal food, and we go for 7 weeks until the 50th day, and then we bring a wheat offering, which is people food. And those 7 weeks, now, even if you look in your little ArtScroll Siddur, you'll know that the first week is Chesed, the second week is Gevurah, and then you go Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malkhut. Those correspond to the Ushpizin. Avraham is Chesed, Yitzchak is Gevurah, Yaakov is Tiferet, Moshe is Netzach, Aaron is Hod, Yosef is Yesod, and David is Malkhut. Meaning the Chol HaMoed from Pesach to Shavuot, we have a week to work on each Middah. Uh in Sukkot, it was condensed and you have only one day to do that. And that's why the Chazal always call Shavuot Atzeret, like Shemini Atzeret. You're coming to the eighth day. Now, to be fair, eight and 50 is really the same idea. You go to seven, and then you come to eight. And if you do seven seven times, you come to 50. It's also in the sense an eighth day. Yeah. So, there is a conclusion in Shavuot. There there was something that led up to it. It was weeks of preparation for us to be able to get here and to be able to appreciate it. And since I'm talking about um uh Matan Torah, and let's be very clear. We did not receive anything on Shavuot. We did not get the Luchot, we did not get the Torah, we didn't get anything. Hashem said the first two Dibrot, Moshe said the last eight Dibrot, and then he went up to the mountain. That's what took place. Because I have another question over here. I'm able to get in two questions, very interesting, into the podcast. Yeah. How could Torah Shebe'al Peh be given to Moshe Rabbenu if Ma'amad Har Sinai didn't happen yet? Shouldn't the things that happened later have a different classification? Such a new thing idea. Because there was no Torah Shebe'al Peh. Even when he broke down the Luchot on on Shiv'ah BeTish'ah B'Av, he broke them. He went up again on Rosh Chodesh Elul and came down on Yom Kippur with a new set of Luchot. But before he went up, before Shavuot, he wrote the entire Torah from Bereishit until Matan Torah. And then, says Rashi, and then he wrote as the events took place or as the Halakhot were given to him, he wrote it down until the very last day of his life when he wrote those last eight uh Pesukim describing his death with his tears. Yeah, at the end. But um but you're right. Obviously, he didn't come down with the whole Torah. If he was reading the whole Torah, there's not a chance he would have sent out the Meraglim. Why would he send out the spies when he sees all the ends? If he had read the whole Torah, there's not a chance he would have hit the rock. He knows how the story ends. So, um he understood only what was happening at that particular moment, and as events unfolded. And maybe I would explain just for a moment, at the very end of the Torah, it says Eish Dos, it's black fire on white fire. Okay, so black fire is the letters, white fire are the spaces. But the whole concept of fire is that it's kinetic. It's always moving. It cannot exist in potential. You could have water that's just sitting there or a wave. You could have the air that's just sitting there or a wind. But you can have a fire burning and otherwise, it's just wood. There is no fire that's not burning. There's only potential of fire. So, how could the spaces be kinetic? They're just a background. So, the Ramban in his introduction to the Torah says that the Torah existed 2,000 years before creation. But all the letters were rearranged just to spell out names of Hashem. And then, as the events unfolded, the letters were moved into different places. So that the spaces actually gave the letters its Surah. So, it itself was active where you put the spaces. Sometimes you find the Gra takes the spaces out of a Pasuk and rewrites it another way. So, the spaces themselves become kinetic. And so, uh Moshe Rabbenu had all of the letters, but he didn't know where they went and what the messages they were saying until Hashem told him what to write. So, this is uh obviously a challenge. So, the Torah that we have today, we did not have until the end of 40 years on the day of Moshe's death. We did not have a full Sefer Torah. Couldn't. Right? Obviously, the last events had to take place in order for us to write it down. Which means, as somebody explained once, we think there was a Torah Shebe'al Peh, and comes along the Torah Shebe'al Peh to explain the Torah Shebe'al Peh. There's something written, and then we need an interpretation. It's just the opposite. First, there was Torah Shebe'al Peh. HaKadosh Baruch Hu spoke and Moshe Rabbenu spoke, and that was the Torah. There was nothing written down yet. And when he finally came with something written down, he broke it. Had to get a new set, which were pale imitation of the first ones. Cuz the first ones Hashem made, and these Moshe made. So, uh definitely, the text was not complete. So, uh Moshe would teach the people what Hashem said and give it over to them. It wasn't a finished product at all. So, there was only a Torah Shebe'al Peh. Later, there was a Torah Shebe'al Peh. And the Torah Shebe'al Peh took on the form that we have today. That's why we are not Greek fatalists. We don't believe that things have to happen. They're just fated to happen. So, what would have happened if Adam HaRishon didn't eat from the Eitz HaDa'at? What would have happened if we didn't build the Egel? Or the Meraglim didn't bring back an evil report or Moshe didn't hit the rock? There'd be a different Torah. It would tell a different story. I heard this Shvat, someone said it in the name of the Gra. I asked it to Moshe Shapiro, he never heard of it. He didn't know the Gra. But he told me a Psiktah DeRav Kahana. The Psiktah DeRav Kahana says like this, there were supposed to be Yomim Tovim in Tammuz of and Elul, just like they were in every other month. But because of the Agel, all of those holidays were removed and put into Tishrei. So, emotion made a chashmon. So, it means Rosh Hashanah would have been Shivas b'Tammuz. And he explains why, because if we would have gotten the first Luchos, the world would be a different place. It would be a new beginning. A new Rosh Hashanah. And because the nature of being a human being with human limitations is we always make mistakes, so we always need a Yom Kippur. So, Tisha B'Av would have been Yom Kippur. And then Rosh Chodesh Elul would have uh been uh Sukkos. And then we would have counted seven weeks from Sukkos to Shmini Atzeres, the same way we did from Pesach to Shavuos. And then the only holiday that would have been in Tishrei is Shmini Atzeres. And it instead of having one day of Sukkos to work on an entire Sefirah, entire level, we would have a week like we did between Pesach and Shavuos to be able to work on it and to perfect it. But everything got condensed because of it. So, that's what the Psikat Derech Kahana says. So, this is what I heard from the shame Reb Chaim, I don't know uh Reb Chaim I think it was Reb Chaim. I'm sorry, I I correct. Chaim Brisker. This is what someone told me in his name. And that is if you look at the Shalosh Regalim that's described in Ki Sisa as opposed to the ones that are listed in Mishpatim, you'll find a dramatic difference. In Mishpatim, it describes Sukkos b'Acharei Hashanah. And in Ki Sisa, it says that the Kufas Hashanah, which Rashi says the beginning of the year. Now, which one is it? Is it the beginning of the year or the end of the year? So again, this is what I heard from Reb Chaim. I don't know if it's true or not. I've not been able to find a source. Mishpatim took place before the Agel. And in Parshas Mishpatim, takka Sukkos was supposed to be at the end of the year in Elul. And after the Agel, when it got moved into Tishrei, so then it was at the beginning of the year with the Kufas Hashanah. So, it was a dramatic change that took place, obviously, as you can see. So, uh so that's where it is. And that's the time that we're in now, says the Ramban, that this is a long Chol HaMoed taking the energy of Pesach and transforming it into um into uh Shavuos. I I've I've mentioned the idea that I heard from Reb Mordechai Kornfeld that the seven Mashkin which are machshir something to be mekabel tumah correspond to the seven holidays. And we lined it up pretty easy. So, one of the seven Mashkin is blood. And that's obviously Pesach with the Mayim Chaim. All right? The Makas Dam, put the dam on the doorpost. By the blood you will live, the blood of the Bris Milah, the blood of the Korban Pesach. A lot of blood associated with it. And there's something called milk. And milk is obviously Shavuos. We eat milchigs, we eat cheesecake, etc. All right? Okay. Now, I I've mentioned uh I've said these ideas over to different talmidei chachamim and they always add to it. And one person said to me, "Well, now that makes perfect sense." Because in the times of the Gemara, when a woman was nursing, she could not become pregnant. She also could not become a niddah. Because there was no dam, there was no blood. Because the blood changed into the mother's milk that she was giving the baby. So, he says, "If Pesach is blood and Shavuos is milk, then that's the process of the dam turning into the mother's milk that sustains us. And that is, by the way, one of the reasons that we eat milchigs on Shavuos is that the mother's milk sustains a baby like the Torah sustains us." So, that's an amazing concept, as uh I'm sure you can see. So, this process of going from the dam to the milk, the idea of of going from Pesach where we bring the animal offering to Shavuos where we bring and that's why Shavuos doesn't have a date in the Torah. All right? Rosh Hashanah is described as the first day of the seventh month. And Yom Kippur is the tenth day of the seventh month. And Shavuos uh excuse me, Sukkos is the fifteenth day of the seventh month. And um uh Pesach is the fifteenth of the first month. And Shavuos is the fiftieth day after that. Or after the second day. It doesn't have a date. And since in the good old days, there was not a set calendar, so a month could be either 29 days or 30 days, depending on when the witnesses came. So, if Nissan and Iyar were each 29 days, then Shavuos would come out on the fifth of Sivan. And if they were both 30 days, then it would come out on the seventh of Sivan. Now, the way we do it is we make Nissan 30 days and we make Iyar 29 days, so it comes out on the sixth. But it doesn't even have a date in the Torah. It's completely dependent on whenever Pesach happens to come out. That's the nature that's the nature of Shavuos. So, when you say, "Why is there no Chol HaMoed?" This is what the Ramban is trying to explain, that it's a continuum. It's not it's not a holiday unto itself. It doesn't even have a date in the Torah. It's described as the fiftieth day starting from the second day of Pesach. And it's one long process, just like Sukkos was supposed to be one long process of 49 days till we get to Shmini Atzeres. That's the that's the power of this time. So, you see that there is a connection between Shmini Atzeres and Shavuos, which is also called Atzeres. One is the eighth and one is the fiftieth. The eighth day and this is the fiftieth day. And as I pointed out that eight and fifty are similar concept. Because you count uh seven then you come to eight. And if you count seven seven times, you come to fifty. And both of them represent something and that's out of time. Yeah? Uh when I say it's out of time, what does that mean? That means that this world is seven. The world was created in six days, God rested on the seventh day. And it's uh the fact that you have a seven-day week is testimony to the creation of the world. Cuz there's no reason to have a seven-day week. And in fact, the Persians had a ten-day week. That's why Esther had to have seven servants, so like named each one a day of the week, so she knew when Shabbos was. But um a day is how long it takes the Earth to spin on its axis. And a month is how long it takes the moon to go around the Earth. And a year is how long it takes the Earth to go around the Sun. And a week is nothing. No reason to have a week. In fact, uh Napoleon, to whom we have to thank for the um metric system, wanted to make a metric uh week with ten days and ten hours to a day and a hundred minutes to an hour. Hashem didn't catch on. But uh but just to have seven days to them is not a normal period of time. The League of Nations, right into the United Nations, have tried to make what they called uh international day. Because there are 365 days to a year. And if you divide it by seven, all right? It comes out to 52 plus one. So, they said, "Wouldn't that be great if New Year's always started on Sunday? I there's an extra day. We'll call that, you know, calendar day or New Year's Day or whatever it is, and it's not part of the calendar." Of course, this would totally mess up Shabbos, cuz Shabbos would come out at all kinds of different times. And uh it was fought, was fought very hard to get it to to be stopped uh cuz it would totally mess up Shabbos, mess up Jews all over the world. But, the fact that there's a 7-day week is testimony that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in 7 days. Eight is outside of this world. That's the nature of it. That's Shemini Atzeres. So, for 7 days we celebrate Sukkos. In the Sukkah surrounded on six sides with us in the middle with the seven of the Dalet Minim, one Lulav, one Esrog, three uh Hadassim and two Aravos. And we wave it in the six directions with us in the middle. And that's 7 7 7. And we walk around every day one time. And on Hoshana Rabbah we walk around seven times. And Shemini Atzeres we go into the house, we have nothing. No Lulav and Esrog, no Sukkah, no anything. And that's why the Gaonim decided to make Shemini Atzeres into Simchas Torah. Because Torah is the eighth day. It's outside of the normal functioning. And so, when you count seven times seven you come to 50. And that 50 is the same thing as the eight. It's outside of time. It's Lamala Min HaTeva. Torah doesn't make any sense. So Hashem went to the nations of the world and said, "Do you want to accept the Torah?" So, Yishmael says, "What does it say?" It says, "Don't steal." "What do you mean the Torah says I'm a pair Adam? Yad b'kol v'kol yad bo. The Torah says I'm a thief. How could you tell me not to be a thief?" Goes to Esau, "You want the Torah?" He says, "What does it say?" "Yeah, lo sirtzach." "What do you mean the Torah says I'm a murderer? Al charb'cha tichyeh, you'll live by your sword." So, it's like a good tainer, no? How can I accept the Torah and tell me not to be a thief when the Torah says I'm a thief? And the answer is, "You're right." But, because the Torah is outside of this world, it can make you anything you want. Avraham Avinu says to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, "I see in the stars that I'm never going to have a child." Then Hashem says, "Then I'll take you above the stars. I'll take you out of this world into a new reality. And there you'll have a child." And that's why it starts when he's 75, Lech L'cha, says the Maharal. Which is just another way of saying seven and a half. And it ends with Bris Milah on the eighth day where Klal Yisrael goes outside of the normal functioning. So, what's going on during this process of going from Pesach to Shavuos, these 49 days that is, so to speak, the Chol HaMoed of Shavuos? We count seven seven times. Now, let's be very careful. We do not count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. We count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. We keep counting, but we keep going higher as the Maharal explains. Time is a spiral. We keep going up and up, higher and higher until we reach the 50th day. And when we reach the 50th day then we're outside of this world. The Alshich says on the possuk uh "Ohav Yish" And the Medrash says "Yish" is Roshei Teivos, Yovel and Shmita. So, what does it mean "Ohav Yish"? Means if you live your life Shmita and Yovel then you have Yish, then you have a life. What does that mean? Most people do the same things over and over again. They just keep going over and over. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves. I Okay, you get the idea. I can go a very long time with that. But, why does it get on everybody's nerves? Cuz it's just repetitious. The Maharal said once, "You go to suburbia and everybody's got a lawn. It's not pretty. You go to the Alps and you see giant mountains and giant valleys and the contrast, that's what's beautiful." So, if you live the same day every single day and you live the same life every year every year the same life not going anywhere. But, if you live your life as a Yovel and a Shmita, you count seven years and then you count from seven to 14 and 14 to 21. And you keep going up and up in your life when you reach the 50th, you come to a Yovel. So, says the Alshich says in the Torah the average age of a person is 70 years. And it says in the Torah that we don't start counting somebody until the age of 20. Which means basically your whole life is a Yovel. And if you live your life as a Shmita Yovel going up every year every year every year and you finally reach the 50th, you're out of this world. And that's why both Shemini Atzeres and Shavuos have nothing. If we didn't come up with this minhag to stay up all night and and learn and to eat milchigs Shavuos would be nothing. If we didn't decide to make Shemini Atzeres um Simchas Torah, it would be nothing. And that's why when you're in America Shemini Atzeres is right? There's nothing there. Because it's Torah. And if it's Torah, it's outside of everything. That's what eight is. If you count Nisan as being the first month, the eighth month is Mar Cheshvan, the only month with no holidays. Cuz it's the eighth. It's outside of everything. It's beyond time and space. So, if you live your life going from Pesach to Shavuos those 50 days if you live your life going to change yourself from barley, which is animal food, into wheat, which is people food then when you reach the end of those 50 years, it's a Yovel, we blow a shofar, and you go free out of this world into a world of truth and a world of reality. Ohav Yish, you'll have something real to be able to look back on. And so, we'll finish up with appreciation comments. The Society of Praise and Thanks to Rabbi Olswang. I have to tell you the truth, I did not know there was such a society. But you judge people by the society they keep. L'chvod Rabbi Olswang. Rabbi Olswang is the wonderfulest better than any other speaking guest. We wish him lots of luck. As much as we could fit in a 30-lb truck. Oh, I get it. It's a it's a poem. His podcast is so great it makes us want to berate all those who don't like the show. They are such amoratzim. They don't even know the show is so great. It's so fantastic. It's better than sliced bread or glasses or plastic. I had an expression where they would say, "The best thing since sliced bread." You know, or you know, they came up with plastic. When the show ends, we cry buckets of tears. For we wish it could continue forever or at least 50 years. Well, let me tell you this, when I sense that my health is going, I will record a bunch of episodes going forward so that it can keep going even after I'm gone. In fact, I put in my tzava'a, I don't want anyone to speak at my levaya cuz I hate speeches. Uh but speak at the shloshim. By then I'll either be in Olam Haba again or whatever. But, it's got to be better than listening to speeches. So, they said, "Someone has to say something." I said, "I'll record something. The last Rabbi Olswang show." Anyway. To express our thanks, we simply aren't able. They don't even fit on our dining room table. Thanks for making us smile and lifting our moods. To the Rabbi Olswang show we are glueds. I see you're employing the uh Dr. Seuss method of uh of rhyming, which is fine with me. Hi, my name is David Rhodes. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your podcast. Sure you can. Go for it. At first, I thought you were the funniest as Rabbi Sitler. Nah, that's because Rabbi Rabbi Dan uh edits me. I can't just go crazy over there. Until I heard your podcast. I have listened to you every night for about a year and haven't stopped. Thank you for all the chizuk. Thank you. This is totally unfiltered. And I have nobody over me. And that's why when I get all those unpleasant emails that the last comment referred to, it's because I just say it as I see it. All right. Thank you for those kind words. And that's it for this week. If you find out more about the show, you can go to my website rabbiorlovsky.com. You can sponsor an episode, sponsor parsha on five, sponsor a question answer, can sign up for one of my online shiyurim. And uh that's it for now. Until next time, I'm Rabbi Orlovsky and this has been the Rabbi Orlovsky show. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. Torah and simcha, ready to go. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. Knowledge and wisdom will help you grow. Lots of fun in every episode. And we don't have to ride. No, we don't. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. rabbiorlovsky.com Torah anytime, YouTube and more. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. Torah and simcha, ready to go. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. Till next time, till we meet again. The Rabbi Orlovsky show. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show. It's the Rabbi Orlovsky show.