Everything You Wanted to Know About the Omer | Rabbi Shmuel Goldin | April 14th 2026

Consider obviously the portion of the Torah that comes to mind is the portion at the end of remember what did to you. The Torah continues they came upon you by happen stance. They attacked the weak. And then the Torah says, "The time will come when you will be at peace within your land." And at that point, you will erase, you will eradicate the memory of don't forget. And at face value, it seems that this commandment is self-contradictory. remember remember should eradicate the remembrance of so what is it am I supposed to remember or am I supposed to forget so the answer is that there is a fundamental difference between forgetting and erasing when you forget something it's still there you forgot it you forgot it but it still exists and it's going to come back and haunt you again if you don't do something about it. When you are successfully able to be mo when you are when you can do when you eradicate then you eradicate and that's the difference between forgetting and erasing the world after the shawah number one we were in a bit of a bubble we were in a bubble because it was not that fashionable to be anti-semitic after the shawah That lasted for a while. The bubbles burst and all those people who told us during the bubble, well, forget about the show. Forget, you know, move on, move on, move on. We kept saying, "No, what what we don't think we can because we think it's still there." And it is. And we've seen it. And now we're seeing it in spades. And we're seeing the way the world is turning on us. And we're seeing the way things are getting tough even in the golden medina, even in America. And you know that it's it's really frightening. It's really frightening. And I think that that is the lesson that we've learning that we're learning and the lesson that we have to teach the world that there's a fundamental difference between forgetting and erasing. And we're waiting for the point where we can say it's been erased. and we're far from it now. All right. So, anyway, that's uh just an introduction given the fact that it's Yoma Shawat today and that we should not we should not ignore that. >> What are sheets are outside? Yeah. >> Outside. >> Okay. We're going to turn our attention. This week is a nightmare for rabbis because it's the week of tasria mitzah. It's the week of uh those parote. Uh thank god the calendar is coming to ravenic survival and that is it's roesh as well. So probably most of the rabbis in the p pulpit will speak about roesh as opposed to tazriam et nonetheless we're going to speak about the omare. We're going to take a look at spirat omer at the mitzvah of counting and at what has happened to the omare period and what it means to us and how we deal with it. So let's start. The Torah says in two different places that we are supposed to count the days between and Torah says Shabbat you should count from the day after Shabbat which we interpret to mean the day after the first day of the second day of the >> I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. From the time that you bring the waved omare, the omare is a grain sacrifice, barley sacrifice. Seven complete weeks shall you count. Now, we're going to parse that p a little bit later, but there's a lot to learn from it. But there's another P that says you shall count seven weeks from the beginning of the barley pro harvest etc etc two different places that's why we count days and weeks according to most but the question is the following what's missing >> why You ever stop to think this is a very strange mitzvah, right? Count the days between my last year my wife put on our Alexa. Please remind us to count the Omr. But we were never able to erase it. So throughout the year at about 8:00, Alexa said, "Barbara, please remember to count the omer." So we got to the point where it it's fine now. It works. It works. All right. But we had to listen to it all year long to hear hear it now today too. All right. Anyway, what is the rationale for this mitzvah? And there are a variety of different suggestions that are made by Kazal. When you know that there are a variety of suggestions, it means that we don't know which one is right. Or maybe they're all right. But now let's take a look at some of them. The first is that we are counting towards we are moving from pes to shaveot and the counting of the omarr is the linkage between those two festivals and to support that do you know what shot is called in in the talmud it's which should ring a bell for us righter and shu are very much alike. Very much alike. Number one, they are each attached somehow to a festival that came before. In fact, the rabbis say that should have been as distant from Sukkot as shuot is from Pak. Why? Why wasn't it? Because had mercy on us. We'd have to come back for another another y in the middle of the winter. So therefore, we waited. Therefore, we waited and gives user immediately as opposed to is which is later. What other aspect is and it's on your sheets later. I'm going to talk about it now and shàuote are very much alike because they both those holidays in our world at least do not have a specific mitzvah. Shàuot other than the bikurim and the mitzvot that were unique to it in the days of the BT in our day has no individual unique mitzvah. the mitzvot that guide us on shabot or the generic mitzvot that guide us on every h there are there are traditions that have come up that you stay up all night learning that you do these things but that's none of those are mitzvot none of those certainly are no mitzvot >> cheesecake I understand yeah right okay I'll count that as a mitzvah if you'd like but the fact is that that sween and what it what it seems is that Both these festivals are constructed to celebrate the totality of Jewish experience as opposed to a particular mitzvah. And there are other reasons why Shauvo doesn't have its own mitzvah. When we compare it to what's happening is in the in the fall >> what >> that there the Ramban says that the spir of of P right to right now the point though is that if you look at those two um paths if you will in the beginning of the our year a tish year what do we do we have a personal path towards chuva which ends within which is that day which celebrates our relationship with on a personal level later on for the roashana of Nissan we we're put through a different path and what's that path that path is through the con through the uh exodus theatim to matan tora and that is the path that gives birth to the Jewish nation. The two fundamental signposts for the birth of the Jewish nation areat mitzim and matanora. They're you have to we've said this before you if someone converts to Judaism the first thing you say to them is why do you want to become part of this people so the first thing we had to do is we had to be willing to throw our lot in with this fellow who we don't even know go into the midbar and only then could we what get to hari so those are the two signposts and sir Omare according to this position is the connection between pesak and shot. I'm counting towards this period should be a period of anticipation. I'm moving towards hersai. Then there's another position which is exactly the opposite and that is we counting from and then I'm going to go back to to be going to C. Now on page number two, we're not count only counting towards this position says we're counting from we're counting from mitan. And as proof of that, take a look at the first puk in paras mas at the end of safer and at the malim suggestion. These are the journeys the voyage of Star Trek. I I whenever I say that I think about that but the fact is these are the journeys of Ben Israel as who left the land of Egypt. Now says the Malin hold on a minute when you discuss or describe a journey how do you describe that journey? You describe it by the destination. You don't don't describe it by the point of departure, right? You don't say, "I'm going to uh the store, but I'm really leaving my house. I'll get to the store." In other words, which is the more important point. So the malab says this this tells us something about the journey that every step we took in mit in the midbar was a step away from it and that that gives rise of course to the famous medish that we were at the 49 levels 50 left there are 50 levels of tuma then we were at the 49th and a kadeshbar who saved us at the last minute and that's why there are 49 days to the counting of the omare All right. And there's another position which I have on the sheet at page number three which is the um orim who says that the 49 number is counting from but it's not just the levels of tuma he compares it to the cycle of nidon and he says 7* 7 and he says that's why and this that's why I include it this is a very interesting why couldn't I start counting on the first day. He said, "Because you have to have seven full weeks. The first day you're not out of mit yet. You're only out of mit for half the day. So you can't count that day. You can only count the next day, which is the first full day." This is not a beautiful point. Now, let's go back on page number two to section B. There are I love parallels in the Torah. There are parallels between two counts in the Torah. The omare and the counting of years towards Yel. Each of them is a count of 49 to 50. Right? 49 to 50 days for Pakualt. 49 years from one Yov to the next seven and it's seven weeks and then in the case of Yov it's seven groups of seven years now each of these countings may be talking to us about different aspects of the same thing. What do I mean by that? spoken about this when we talk about take a look at the second section on page two. I mean it really sounds very very similar to the counting of the and then in you should cause a on the kipper you should blow a chauffeur throughout the land and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Now I was teaching this in a class in Mishima University and I asked the class where is that sentence found in the United States and the only one who knew the answer was a Canadian that's it is it is inscribed on the liberty belt right now what's drawer is liberty what's liberty liberty is the removal of the negative conr raints. That's what's happening here, right? I'm freeing the indentured servants even if even if it's if it's in the middle of their even if it's in the middle of their six year or sevenyear indenture. I'm freeing them. I'm letting them go. That's draw. Draw is pesak. Pes is draw. But there's another element to freedom. What's that element? Kazal will say the following. It says it's the the word that critical is not found in the Torah, but they say it's all alluded to. The Torah says that the word of was alot meaning what? It was engraved. Say the rabbis with their play on words which always is much deeper than it seems. Don't call it freedom but don't call it engraved. Call it freedom unless you are right. Unless you are. And if you take a look at the top of the page, it actually says Misha Torah. All right? So in other words, only the only free person is someone who is has a higher calling, has a higher purpose in life, has something beyond. And for the Jew, that is Torah. And that's the learning of Torah. And I saw this very clearly. I think I've told you in a number of years ago when I was in the Soviet Union visiting refusnix who told us, you know, rabbis, we were three rabbis, you know, we're the only free people in the Soviet Union because they were saying goodbye to to the to the Soviet rules and they were basically breaking them to learn Torah and that made them free. they were not constrained. So if we what we have therefore is we have two different types of freedom and one is leading to the next. When we look at sasa omare draw the the removal of the negative constraints becomes complete only through the injection of the positive and the injection of injection of the positive is what tora what holiday shav so that's another linkage between these two holidays okay I'll stop for a minute to take two I think two people had answer Just a quick comment rather than question some your explanation here reminds me of what was said by Victor Franco who survived the Holocaust today. >> Right. >> And he realized when observing in the camps people that had a a higher objective, higher purpose, they survived much better than >> Wow. All right. uh for those that are for those that are listening um on the tape wouldn't have heard that that's a beautiful thought and that is that we're talking about having a higher calling Victor Frankle who has his own approach to mental health because of that who survived the shawah actually said that the those victims of the shawah who had a higher purpose who did better did better as a rule not always but as a rule All right. So now we now we we've spoken about counting from and counting towards. We're counting towards and counting from. There's still another position on this and that position has to do with agriculture. What what really was the omare? All right. Yeah. We have to take a step back. The omare was the first barley that I've harvested. In other words, the barley is the first thing to to ripen. And therefore, what was the rule? The rule was you could not use that barley until you first brought a carbon or a an offering to aeshb. It's like the burim on shot. It's like the first fruits on Chevot. That is the explanation by the way for andadesh. When you hear those terms, what does that mean? What that means is there are those who say that there is a the prohibition of grain still is in effect even though we don't have the basic and and also some say even in effect in out in the diaspora. Others say no. It's a it's a it's a debate. I think most say yes, but in terms of practice, most say no. Anyway, means what? Kadesh means new grain that grew since the last omare, right? So that new grain hasn't had a matier. What's a mater coming from the wordare? Something that allows something else. Omar is a matier. Omar is allowing you to eat the grain that's going to come now because it's passing through the omer starts the process. So that's that's what's happening. But the Ramban and others say that that also explains the purpose of sasa omare. It is to connect heaven and earth. And there are different permutations of this. I'll I'll give you one and that is what you're doing is you're taking the farmer who has his gaze at the ground looking at his harvest and looking at the growth and what are you doing? You're raising his sights. You're connecting heaven and earth with the omer. You're trying to say you're going to be preoccupied with this think think loftly ideas as well. And therefore that's another reason that's another reason for the counting of the omare to collect correct connect heaven and earth. Can I ask >> um when did really when did it come into tok that we not only tell but we correct try to correct amigul each week is a different era when did that start >> that's all that's later it's later it's coalistic most met of it and um it's beautiful but it's not we're not >> when did it start >> when did it start I would think the Middle Ages, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I I'd have to look it up, but it's a it's a later aspect to it. It's building on counting from it's building on perfecting your meos each day. I mean, that concept exists. It's made, you know, they make it um more concrete through the statements that we say some say afterwards. Now, take a look at page five. So there are additional messages to the omare in addition to the question of connection. The first one we saw pesak personal passage um from sukkot through national passage through pesak to shuote raikatal says there's a difference between there are two two words that exist in the Hebrew language for counting. One is lispor and one is lunote. Minan is account right and therefore you spirra and minan are different says Raf Salvich Minan is accounting towards a goal and all that matters is whether or not you reach that goal and for example yet nine wonderful men can't be a minion you need to have that tenth right you need to have there has to be you have to reach the goal for the counting to be meaningful. Spher is very different. Spher is to recognize the beauty of each unit that you have. In other words, it's like someone who's counting precious diamonds and he surely wants to know how many he has. But as he goes, he takes a look at the beauty of each one and basks in that beauty. says Ra Solvetic Sasa Omar is teaching us to count our days. Well, the lesson is that and I say I've said often comes from other places in in the in the Torah as well. The concept being we too often focus on the goalposts and ignore the beauty of the of the journey. And the sir um is to sensitize us to the beauty of the journey each day. Then you have grain to bread. And this is this is very interesting. The omare is a grain sacrifice. When we get to shàuote, we offer we offer bread. Say some commentaries. That's an important piece because it's teaching us the role that we have in perfecting God's world. There's a famous quote that's said in the Gomorrah in the name of Herbaka that one of the Roman generals or someone said to him, you know, why did God create you cir uncircumcised and you have to circumcise your children? Why why doesn't he create you perfectly from the start? So Rebecca came back to him and said, "Okay, here's some grain and here's some bread. Which do you think is is more precious?" And the woman said bread that's our participation in perfecting God's world. And that was it's a beautiful answer. And that so therefore moving from grain to bread is a reminder that that's what that's our rule or part of our rule. All right. We spoke about f omeir. Now let's go to the historical overlay. This is something that comes much later and not as late as as the things you were talking about, but it comes much later. This is not from the Torah at all. Right? And that is that in the days of the Talmud, if you take a look at the middle of page number five, Elfimaka, Rebea had 1,200 pairs of students. >> Thou 12,000, right? 12,000 pairs of students. Thank you. from one place, you know, all through the land. They all died. The garra says during this period because they failed to teach each other, treat each other with full respect. And the world was desolate, say the rabbi, says the Gomorrah until Rabbi Haka found new students to teach and then it would continue, which by the way underscores why this is such an important event. Think about it. I mean, it's terrible that they all died, but a lot of Jews have died in other ways throughout the years, and we don't always have a commemoration of the mash. We do, but others, right? Well, this was not only this represented not only the death of those students, but a break in the chain of Torah Shabbal. That's what it means when it says the world was desolate. It was a break. No, nobody was around anymore to learn Torah and to teach Torah. And that break would have had monumental monumental effects. We would not be here today if Rabi Akiva had not persisted, found additional students to teach and the Torah comes back again. So that's that's we need to know that that's a piece of what's happening here. Um we're what what h what do we do what we do when it comes to to this period of aos? So the answer is we've got a number of different customs. We can't, you know, we can't agree on anything. We can't even agree on how to count by the way, lawmare or bare, right? So, you know, I I do both just to be safe. Anyway, so what what's happening here? We have a tradition that this should become a period of mourning for us. But there are different ways to count that period. All right. And some say it's counting from pesak to log mulmer. Some say it's the day after log mr. Some say it's from from rokes to shu. You have all of these different customs. They are based upon one particular point and that is that the num what's what's critical is the number of days as opposed to the days themselves. In other words, you have to observe a certain number of days during this period in aos and that and for for a reason has to do with chabas as well. But one way or the other that's the critical component. Why do I say this is so important? Because this custom is unique in the world of customs. Why? You can switch year to year. In other words, number one, you can you can if you counted till lagba last year and you want to count after log and start later at at Rosh Codes this week, you could do it. You can switch. Not only can you switch, but you if you are invited to something that you wouldn't shouldn't go to if you're an aus like a a during that person's omare count aus and that's not yours you can go in other words you can you can attend a wedding during the position of during the time that you are counting the error. All right. So, what you have here is a very interesting and the being that it's the count as opposed to the actual days themselves. Now, let's go to what I call a halahic laboratory. And this is this is fun. I I enjoy this. Let's let's understand I I I see that the Omr is a laboratory for understanding certain foundations of aloha. Let me explain first. Is the omare count not the aus aos is not aus comes later. Is the mitzvah to count the omr today a biblical or rabbitic mitzvah. Now take a look at the right. You shall count from the day after the first day of Pesak from the t day you bring the Omr. What what will it depend on in terms of my my decision? Do you is the Omar count based upon the Omar sacrifice connected to it so much that when there is no Omar offering there's no mitzvah to count the Omr or do we say what do we say that that's that and that's that and and we're now the Rambam and some others holds that the counting today is Dior there the most of the most of the halists say no say it's the rabbon that we're only do and I'll you'll see in a minute why this becomes important now the I was going to say something just give me a minute all right don't remember all right anyways so uh the the the count itself according to the Rambamist deal right today. It's similar, by the way. Oh, I know what I was going to say. It's similar, by the way, to what we have on Pesak. We have Matzah and Mor, right? Matzah is a biblical mitzvah today. Why? Because it's commanded in conjunction with the Pesak sacrifice and also commanded independently. Morar is only commanded in conjunction with the Pesak sacrifice. So that is mikto. That's what we're doing when we when we eat the mar is we're fulfilling the responsibility of remembering the time of the temple and and living reliving it. That's what's happening here according to most mafarian. What's according to most mafarian? What's happening here is ayah. It's not a mitzvah to count the om anymore. It's a mitzvah to count the in order to remember the glory of the days of the bikd which is why after you count what do you say etc etc. What what does that have to do with the because you're saying according to that position that this is not not the or today I'm doing it because I'm remembering the BTO and that's why that puk is there. All right. Now the question of whether it's rabbitic or biblical is not just a theoretical question. It has practical ramifications because one bib one particular rule in Jewish law and that is all right which means if you have an uncertainty of a on concerning a biblical law then you have to be mir you have to treat it stringently. If you have uncertainty concerning a rabbitic law, then you can take the lenient position. Now, where does this come into play? This comes into play because of a particular phenomenon that happens every day and that is there is a period of the day that is uncertain. It's called bashmote. What's bashmote? Bash Masho is between the suns because it's because the Jewish day starts at night and we don't know when night starts. Does night start with sunset or does night set start with nightfall? This explains by the way why and and most of the time we don't pay attention to it because deals with it. Why do you start shabas early and end it late? Right? Because each point you are confronting Shabas as a mitz or so therefore you have to treat benachos stringently when it comes and that's counting it as part of shabas and then when it ends you've got to treat stringently so you count it as part of shabas again even though it's a contradiction to what you did before right we're not being consistent but we're being consistent in terms of following the law which is when you have a deal you have to be stringent you have to say that's it's still it is shabas now and you have to treat it that way. Now if the riso then we have to treat it stringently if it's durabon then we can be lenient when does this become an issue comes an issue as to whether or not you can count during bay mash can you count sirasa omare in dusk between between sunset and nightfall According to the Rambam, the answer is no. According to the Rambam, this is a biblical mitzvah today and you have to treat it as such and you have to wait until it's fully night to count. According to many of the other postkim, no, you can count. Now, this is critical because many schuls dava and marav together and the marv they're ding is hopefully during bay, right? They're they're basically saying it's but do they do they count at that point? Do they does the rabbi count and and everybody else count by themselves but at least they're one you know they were yo say with his count it's all there all sorts of different positions but that's the issue the issue is do I have to wait till nightfall or can I count at sunset I when I say that the bay ash mashos is dealt with halahically there always is the exceptional cases where you it comes and rears its head for example I may have told you this. My oldest son was born Friday night bay in Hashmote. All right. So when do you do the bris? Right. You can't do the and it's a day, right? So you can't do the bris on Friday because maybe it's a day too early. You can't do the bris on sun on chabas because the only time you're allowed to override chabas for a bris is when you know it's that day. So when do you do it? Sunday. >> Sunday. We had a Sunday bris which was much better than a Friday or a shabas. My my next son was born on shabas just to get it back at us and we had a shabas pigeon. >> Pigeon you ah very good question. Oh very good question. It is is not reliant on the uh the bris. In other words it doesn't push off the pigon. It's 30 days. It's 30 days. Right. Okay. Yeah, that sorry. >> I'm sorry. Say again. >> Well, okay. I'm going to get to that. I'm going to get to that. What does it mean to me? Now here here it gets complicated and I I've tried to explain this to people many times. It's very hard. You may not get it but let me try. All right. There is a debate about one word in this mitzvah. And that debate is right. The Torah says you have to count seven complete weeks. It doesn't have to say complete. All it had to say is count seven weeks. What does complete mean? So there are two positions. The majority position is you have to count each day completely. Meaning that you if you have to count in the in the evening, you have to count at night because if you count during the day, it's not a complete day. That's one position. The other position which is a minority position but more famous because it's more dramatic is toote means it's all one big mitzvah and if you miss a day then you've missed the opportunity to perform that mitzvah period. In other words to means you got to count every day and if you didn't count every day you didn't do the count. Now what do we do when if I forget at night and I count during the day? I what do I do? Count without a braha. Why? Why am I counting without a bra? Because it's a suffic. Maybe means full the full count. I'm sorry. Yeah, maybe it means the full count or maybe it means the full day. If I count if it means the full day then I'm not counting with a braha because a braha is a rabbitic law and suff you are lenient when it comes to rabbitic law. So all braot you're lenient about. So therefore I have to be concerned maybe maybe toote means the day has to be full. I can't I'm counting in a non full day. I have to count without a bra. Then the next if I forget to count completely what do I do? I count from then on without a bra. Why? because I'm look taking I'm taking a a risk when it comes to missing a day that the other position is is is there right and the other position is you have to have complete days a complete count you have to have a complete count so if I miss a day completely I don't have a complete count it's a suffic whether or not I'm still fulfilling the mitzvah so I don't have a bra okay clear now oh what wait what it gets now it gets complicated What happens if you forget at night remember during the day? What do you do the next day? >> Count with or without >> with a why hold on a minute. What's going on here? So the answer is you have to you have to understand any way you slice it you should count with a braha. If the fact is that you need full days, right? then that means the full count is not needed because you're expressing to me moat is each day has to be full and if you believe the count has to be full then you don't have to have full days and you counted during that day even though it wasn't a full day so therefore you can then continue to count with a braha because one way or the other it counts okay good all right I I think I did well that time. Yeah. >> What about four weeks? If I miss a day, then can I count the full weeks? >> That's a there's a debate about that as well. Yeah. Yeah. This is the debate about that and and in fact there's a debate one I I told her there were two positions whether or there's a position also that the days are duraban and the weeks are still why because the tells you about doesn't mention the Omr sacrifice okay now finally I want to end with with what I consider to be what I call an Omar mystery and I think It's it's a powerful mystery and there are I'm sure many answers to it. I'm going to tell you two. The second one is the one I I personally like more. One is what what's the mystery? Rebea's students died shalom, right? Meaning some on some level they didn't treat each other with the respect that they were doing. It doesn't mean like meet and treat or other worth of respect. It means on their level they had fine. But what was Rabaka's central mandate via how is it? It's almost as if our tradition is challenging us because if they would have died because they didn't keep shabas terrible, but that's if they wouldn't have died, if they died because they ate trafe, that wouldn't have the problem. But I have the problem here. They're dying because they didn't perform the very mitzvah that their teacher held to be central to Judaism. >> All right. So, that's one answer. What? >> One. I'm going to say now one answer. Yeah, sorry. >> What? >> Not the same. And are two different things. >> Correct. It's a good answer. Good. I didn't think of that. Right. Baha and Cavote are different things. >> Oh, that's the that's what she said. Okay. So, the first answer I would is temporal. Maybe Rebea came up with the after seeing what happened to his students who were no. That's one possibility. But it occurred to me another possibility which probably may not be right but the lesson is very powerful and that is maybe Rebaka felt that message to be so self-evident that he didn't think he had to teach it. Is it possible that Riyaka said well I don't have to teach that right? So what am I going to do? I'll start from the next stage. And and and if that if that's true, if that's a possibility, then it's a message for all of us, which is as we talk to our children and our grandchildren, we should not assume anything. We should not assume that they look the at the world the way we look at the world. They should not assume we should not assume that what we feel is important they will automatically feel is important. And if we feel there are things that are important then what should we do? We should teach them. We should make sure that we say them. We should make sure that we teach them to our children and our grandchildren because they will not perform those things unless they are taught of their importance. Don't assume. Someone said to me and you know there was a I may have said this before I'm not sure. It was at Yoma Showa a number of years ago in my show and someone came up to me before the uh teas said to me, "Rabbi, do you know and this is already about say 15 years ago children born today at the time of their bar mitzvah boys will be as distant from the Shawah as we were from the civil war at Aritzvah. Now for the Americans, that's that's stark, right? Uh Civil War, that's ancient history. The Shawah is becoming ancient history for these kids. And it's so important, particularly now as we're losing, unfortunately, more and more of the survivors. It's particularly important for us to teach what we spoke about before about the difference between and and the world and that lesson has to be taught. Okay. Now I'll take any comments or questions. Yes. >> Is it that's right? Is it was what central? I'm sorry. >> Oh the con. Yes. Yes. Very good. The concept is said in the Torah, right? You're right. Means you should repeat it over and over again to your child. You should teach them. Don't assume that they're going to see the world. The world is changing so dramatically every single not every day, every hour. That the world in which our children are growing up is is vastly different. Vastly different than our world. And it's important that we try to understand that and that we try to teach the things that we believe are important. >> Can I ask? >> Yes. >> Um what we said about Rabbi uh it's not something that happens overnight. It's something that he would have seen as he's going along. Wow, look how he treated that one. Or wow, look what that person told me. Look how he treated that one. it would have been building up and he would have already known that the needles are problematic and it would have it doesn't make sense but >> okay all right you know the answer to that is I I don't know I you know in other words I her his perception of what was happening with maybe they when they were in his presence they treated each other with cavote maybe it was only when they were out of his sight >> come to him with a problem >> no not necessarily remember that we're talking about a a a cover that's further than we call cover more right so it would have been a nuance yes >> I think as a parent and a teacher more than do as I say is do as I do correct the father gets to sh late he can't say to a son get to sh on time children are very bright nowadays to see what their parents are doing more than what they say >> absolutely absolutely and that's why I've said o over and again, I'm sure I've said it here, the family and the home is the most important unit in the education of Jewish children. And that that I believe if someone were to say to me, what's the greatest failure of diaspora jewelry, it's not assimilation. Assimilation is the symptom. It is the abdication of the family's responsibility to educate the child. >> That's why you put blood on the door. >> That's good. And that's Yeah. And and that by the that's why that's why you you you celebrate the day before going out and becoming a nation with a family meal because it's got the Hashem is stressing the importance of the bias. I mean if someone came to me in my community and said to me, you know, rabbi this school has to teach my child not to cheat. >> Teach your child not to cheat. All right. I had and this I'll end with this story. It's it's funny but it's tragic. I may have told it to you. I you know I never remember what I've said so if I've said it just tell me. Um I w in addition to being the ra a rabbi in PTOIC Maryland for six years. I was al also the principal of the Scholes Hebrew school. Now Hebrew school by the way was a failed experiment. I mean it it doesn't make s now that you look back on it. It doesn't make sense. You're taking kids when everyone else is out of school for more school and you're teaching them things that are alien to them because they're not being observed in their home. So it's it it very rarely very rarely was it perceived by the participants as a positive experience and even more rarely did it did it maintain their Judaism in a powerful way. One mother came to me and this sticks in my mind and she came to me and she said, "You know, Rabbi, you have the Tama Torah. You have three days a week of study. My daughter can only come two days." Why? Because that third day she's taking baton twirling lessons. And she is going to participate in a national baton twirling competition. And don't you think it's would be wonderful to have a Jewish champion baton twirler? I no lie. I'm telling you, right? I didn't know what to say. You're you're at a point where you just don't know what to say. That's the point. The point is we have to recognize our role as teachers, parents and grandparents and we have to teach. Okay, we're gonna end there. I don't want to go over my time too much.