Sefiras Hamoer Series - Proud to be a Yid | Rabbi Nachum Binder

[Music] The Torah tells us the mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer that we have to count 49 days. The Torah describes it we have to count seven weeks. And Orach Chaim Hakadosh and other seforim tell us that the reason why the counting is described by the Torah as a counting of seven because the counting process is really a form of taharah that we as a nation are experiencing leaving Mitzrayim, coming to Matan Torah. We know that when it comes to the taharah process of different tum'ahs the taharah takes seven days to be complete. And here the taharah of leaving Mitzrayim and coming to Matan Torah also takes place in sevens, not seven days, but seven weeks. What is this taharah that we experience during Sefiras HaOmer? When we look at the Yehi Ratzon that's printed in most siddurim after Sefiras HaOmer we see that there are many many sodos, secrets of the Torah that are involved in the seven weeks of counting and how each week corresponds to a different middah and each day of the week corresponds to a different sub-middah of that middah. Things that are beyond the comprehension of most of us. We know that it's true. We say it but we don't really know what it means. And I'm not even going to try to explain what these things mean. I don't have any asic b'nesstarus. I'm not going to try to bring out the inner meaning of what it is. But let's try to think on a practical level of what the taharah that we're looking to experience is. Klal Yisrael as a nation was in a situation of mem tes sha'arei tum'ah. Klal Yisrael in Mitzrayim was amongst the vayis'orvu bagoyim, they were amongst the in a way that they were totally connected, living a goyishe life. Yes, we had a few things that kept us that we didn't fall totally into the tum'ah of Mitzrayim, but all in all, as Chazal tell us, halalu ovdei avodah zarah v'halalu ovdei avodah zarah, we were very similar in bad middos and in bad things to the Mitzriyim that were around us. The Ribbono Shel Olam promised Avraham Avinu eschem li l'am. I will take you to become mine. What does that mean that Klal Yisrael became the Ribbono Shel Olam's? That means to say that we as a nation and every Yid as an individual even though we're living amongst the even if one is chas v'shalom assimilated with the around him but something took place on that night of Yetzi'as Mitzrayim that allowed us to become the Ribbono Shel Olam's. U'l'kachti eschem li l'am. We developed a koach, a ruchni'ustik strength to be able to be larger than our surroundings around us and be able to become godly, getlich, ruchni'ustik in a world that's so migusham, so materialistic. The ultimate of that u'l'kachti eschem li l'am, when does that take place? Matan Torah. That is when it happened, when the Ribbono Shel Olam made us something else. But the 49 days of Sefiras HaOmer, the taharah of the 49 days of Sefiras HaOmer is trying to peel off the goyishkeit that surrounds each and every one of our neshamos. It's trying to peel off the materialism the ta'avos, the pursuit of olam hazeh that the world around us defines their life with and make us into people who are looking and are aiming for something higher, something ruchni'ustik, something bigger. That is the taharah of u'l'kachti eschem li l'am. When it comes to days of Sefiras HaOmer, many different seforim describe different avodos that one should work on. And of course we're familiar with the fact that we're supposed to work on the kinyanei Torah because the kinyanei Torah are things both in learning Torah and in middos v'ta'avos which perfect the person that is able to be that keili, that vessel that's able to be mekabel the Torah. And of course that's something that's recommended as the ba'alei mussar tell us to work each day on a different middah of kinyanei Torah. But there's something a little bit more fundamental that we have to work on first. We first have to develop in ourselves the pride of being a Yid. The world around me might idolize and might run after and might make great gashmi'us, olam hazeh, ta'avos and in my mind those things are hevel havalim and my goals in life are higher, are bigger, are larger. And yes, we can become larger than life. We can become different type of people on these days of Sefiras HaOmer and we can be zocheh to stand by that mountain again on Shavuos and hear again that Anochi Hashem Elokecha asher hotzeisicha mei'eretz Mitzrayim, I took you out of the boundaries of Mitzrayim, I brought you somewhere else, I elevated you, I made you into a different type of people because we worked for these seven weeks of sefirah and realizing and recognizing what life is all about. [Music]