Sefiras HaOmer: "Are We There Yet?"

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay good morning my bu say just a quick thought start off the day the right way okay um the the what's the of he says that by counting toward the day by counting toward sh it's the day in our minds in other words if sh we just allow it to hit us so the experience is limited because um was anticipating the day however the fact that we count up to it for 49 days that that increases our anticipation and elevates the status that has in our mind and that's the purpose of the the writes similarly and that's what we're going to discuss this morning very briefly writes what's the reason for the so he writes I'll translate for you he says we know the purpose of is for and not only is it the purpose of it's the purpose of the whole world right like the say and that's the reason why took us out of didn't take us Adam because he felt bad for us or because he didn't feel it was justified that we should be slaves this wasn't a uh it wasn't sponsored by Abraham Lincoln that's not why God took us out of Egypt he took us out of M so to give us the Tah the sign that I sent you is that when I took you take you out of you're going to be in other words is for listen that means a is an O for B is an i for that means normally the normally the secondary thing is a i is a sign for the primary thing so is is the and the is so he says like this and since since the whole reason we were redeemed this for therefore we commanded we're commanded to C beginning the second day of why to show the desire to show the longing to show the yearning that we have like a slave that is counting toward his Liberation when am I finally going to go free okay so far very simple now the ask the question you ready for the question correct maybe should be bothered by the following question in other words he's bothered by this question he says if the whole reason we're counting is to show our desire to show our longing to show our yearning then if you look around the world you look at the reality of life whenever you count towards something you count down yeah uh school is over in in 30 days and 29 days and 28 days and 27 days and 26 days and 25 days 24 days nobody counts right do you count and how many days is already starting in the summer do you count oh when you she going to start already right doesn't usually happen most people can at the end of the year the end of year count 10 days left nine days left eight days left so why do we count upward one day two days three days four days five days that's if the purpose of counting is to show you're looking forward to something you count down nobody ever counts up that's the question of the the so now here so the question is so why don't we count up why don't we count down we should count 49 48 47 46 the answer is 49 is too big of a number if you're going to start with 49 you're going to go out of your you're going to be distressed you're going to be disturbed 49 days in I can't take it it's too many so that's therefore we have to count upward one 2 3 because if we would count down it would be it would be aggravating it would be painful now the has a very interesting question he says if that's the case the reason why we count up because if we were to count down the number would be too big so then what you should do is count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 till 25 and then once you then once you get to 25 you then you should count down don't ask if so after most of the days have passed why don't we then go downward if the only reason we go upward is because the number is too big so then we get to the halfway point then we should go down and the answer is because it would be strange to change the format in middle of the mitzvah it would be change to it would be strange to change the format you you won't be saying any saying yeah you say yeah you'd have to change the format of the Mitzvah we don't want to throw things off you know we want to keep things uniform so really the more reasonable way would be to do 49 48 47 however starting with such a big number would be distressing so we have to start going with a small number I why don't we switch it we don't want to change the format so uh it's brought in 's biography that he ex it's a very strange question we should change the Mitzvah middle like what was this question we should count 1 2 3 25 and then count 25 like why would anybody do that so he explained it's a very reasonable thing to do why there's a famous says inan that anyone who calculates when Mah is going to come his bones should swell up in other words the put a curse on those who try to figure out when Mia will come and that's why from the time the G was written in the times of the and Times of the they didn't really try to predict when mhia is coming and yet if you look in the last 200 Years everybody in their third cousin and their second cousin and their first cousin has his when Mia is going to come the malum said 1913 maybe 2013 and this one had a and that one had a and there are hundreds of and they all share one thing in common they were all wrong but the question is but the gamar put a curse on those who are so how could the great try to figure out is coming so there's a famous mus yeah said there was once a kid and he was traveling with his father from vilna to Vara and they leave the house right you would never do anything like this right but you leave the house and you get into the car and you pack up the car and everybody's cramped together and and what do the kids say after 3 minutes are we there yet and the father said what are you what are you saying Are We There Yet you know relax and then 5 minutes later are we there yet and then 10 minutes later Are We There Yet the father come on I don't want to if I hear that again we're turning around we're going back we're not going on the trip I don't want to hear that's it if I hear one more Ketch that's we're not going on a trip ever again on right and then what happens is they're they're um approaching uh VNA and the father turns to the wagon driver and he says are we there yet and the kid turns to the father you told me that if I fetch one more time are we there yet yeah we're not going and now you're doing the same thing that I did what's the difference so said no there's a big nafam when we were 30 hours from VNA so forever from and you're saying Are We There Are We There we just started your question doesn't make any sense it's a it's painful to ask such a question we don't want to hear that question nobody wants to hear that question but when we're in close proximity to V the destination and now we're in the par now we're entitled to ask are we there now I can ask the wagon are we there so the same thing with Mia says in the times of the G knew it's going to be a long it's going to be a long haul it's going to take a very long time so they cursed anybody who asks when tries to figure out when mhia is coming because well we're going figure out Mia is coming it's coming in more than 2,000 years it's not it's not a proper thing to do to try to calculate when m is coming but in the as we're getting closer then maybe we have more of a license to try to calculate when mhia is coming and therefore applied this to the question of the in other words when the number is so big you can't start 49 48 47 so imagine you know um school is over in 50 million days right you have another 50 million days of school until you graduate high school so you can't calculate that way but when you get to 12th grade and you have a month left then you could start counting down that's what the is saying that you can't start 49 48 47 46 it's too big of a number but it's very reasonable that as the number is coming close to completion then we could change things up and maybe start counting down but the say ansers we're not going to change it in middle but it it possibly would be reasonable to do such a thing can we do weeks no like one week we do count weeks yes no say just Oh you mean uh we should count go going going up in days and going down in weeks no just say we have weeks five weeks yeah but you have to count y they have to count have to count days and you have to count weeks okay one more answer and then um we'll have to call next Sunday we're going to start there's a ran the ran says like this the ran says the first year that they left MIM said didn't tell them when they had no idea when they would get the Tyra it could have been in a day it could have been in 10 days it could have been in 100 years no information was given to when they would get the T so they couldn't count 49 48 47 they just counted one 2 three where they're just counting until that faithful day whenever would decide when it would be now there are mid that say they did know there's even a that they would serve hm on the 50th day but there is a medish that they had no idea when they would get the T they knew the three days May in other words yeah when they got to the when they got to the you know seventh inning stretch so then uh they knew it was coming to a close but possibly when they started counting they had no idea so how are they going to start they didn't know the the bigger number so they started 1 2 3 4 and we right we're just emulating what clell did when they left M which was to count 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 cuz they didn't know so maybe for us it would be reasonable to do it the other way but we're merely emulating our forefathers when they left MIM who did not know when when the day of would be and ultimately in bottom line the purpose of we should try to engender these that we're counting it's not just a Mitzvah we're trying to engender a feeling of Yearning For so right there's a famous remes we'll ends with this of the we say kale is gatria 31 K is gatria 18 31 and 18 is 9 in other words what's the purpose of it's to to engender a a yearning of a thirst for the re and then then on the 50th day will be everyone should have a 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