Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Truth Behind The Counting of The Omer

Okay, everybody. I thank you for coming and uh we managed to miss uh at least and share all of the significant Yom Ha'atzmaut and and and the like and uh some of the war which you know, Baruch Hashem, uh I hope uh we will be zocheh to shalom and peace. And uh this shiur is dedicated, as always, praying for the protection of Am Yisrael, the unity of Am Yisrael, and which will lead to ultimate victory. And uh we pray for all of those whose health has been affected by terror and the war. Refuah shleimah for Leah Shoshana bas Yerasela Yerasela or Yisraela? Oh, Yisraela, yeah, the letters are reversed. Leah Shoshana bas Yisraela sura. And then an aliyat neshama for Yishael ben ben Chaya. Again, may all the derech tov be le-iluy nishmato. >> Amen. >> Um so uh it's very interesting that the parsha of that's coming up this week uh does contain the mitzvah that we're involved in and that is the actual mitzvah of counting of the omer. The mitzvah of sefirat omer is in parshas Emor. Uh let me just mention uh some introductory points that um the obvious purpose of counting of the omer is stated by the Sefer HaChinuch. And that is Pesach is the holiday of freedom and Shavuot is the holiday of Torah. And Sefirat HaOmer is a way of connecting the two holidays. In fact, the way the Ramban puts it, the period of Sefirat HaOmer is like a long Chol HaMoed that is connecting the holiday of freedom with the holiday of Torah. Now, do not take the Ramban too literally. Uh if you tell your boss that you don't work during Chol HaMoed and he accepts that, but you don't show up uh from Pesach to Shavuot's, uh the job will probably not be waiting for you. But the Ramban actually does say that Sefirat HaOmer is a Chol HaMoed because essentially what the Torah is saying is freedom only has its meaning when it's connected to submission to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And in fact, Chazal make the point by noting that the Omer offering is a barley offering. And on Shavuot's, we have an offering of wheat. And barley used to be primarily animal food. And wheat was human consumption. And that is when you have freedom without Torah, you are simply a wild animal. And the transition from Pesach to Shavuot's is the transition from animal liberation to human dignity. In fact, a little point about uh maybe maybe maybe it's peripherally connected to Yom HaAtzmaut. If you look at the Hatikvah, and again, I have nothing against Hatikvah, you know, I I even know the words by heart. Uh but it says um lihyot am chofshi be'artzeinu. To be a free nation, chofshi. Now, chofshi is a biblical term. But it's very interesting. For example, when it says an eved, if an eved works for six years, he go right in the seventh year, chofshi, he goes free. So, chofshi is a bonafide biblical term, which means freedom. And yet, we do not refer to Pesach as zman khofsheinu. We We refer to Pesach as zman kheiruteinu. Ben khorin. So, what is the difference between kheirut and khofshiut? In other words, are are they different words? Are they just synonyms? So, many have pointed out that khofshi means a freedom without a responsibility, like the slave. I was a slave, now I'm khofshi. I owe this master nothing. Kheirut is connected to the message of Pirkei Avot, that you're only a ben khorin if you're connected to Torah. And therefore, we don't accept the idea that we are khofshi. In fact, some have suggested that the Hatikvah be amended. Instead of saying liot am khofshi, it should say something like liot am kadosh. Same number of syllables, so it fits the fits the tune, right? What is the idea? So, that's Again, that's part of the issue of Yom Ha'atzmaut, meaning freedom is a wonderful thing. Freedom is a wonderful thing. Independence is is a gift from God, and one needs to be grateful for it, but it has to be an independence that is rooted in submitting ourselves to something higher. And the counting of the Omer is the great thing that links freedom and responsibility. This This is a point that's even made in secular sources. Erich Fromm, who happened to be Jewish, but Erich Fromm was the great talmud of Sigmund Freud, who also happened to be Jewish. Um Erich Fromm uh used to make the point in many, many uh articles and books that we make a very big mistake when we define freedom from something, cuz that's just a negative freedom from slavery, from oppression. It has to be freedom towards something. Freedom towards a goal. You know, freedom does not give you a purpose in your life. You can't say the purpose of my life is to be free. That's not a purpose. Freedom simply creates the conditions in which my purpose can be realized, but I still have to have a purpose. And that's what again, going back to the safer Hinuch, that is what Sefiras HaOmer is is underscoring. That's like the very, very important, significant idea. And as Hazal say, the freedom without Torah is animal barley. With Torah, it becomes human dignity. It goes from hafshi to herut. To a responsible freedom. I've mentioned I think more than once the beautiful Marshall, the beautiful metaphor of Tagore who was an Indian poet and he was not talking about Jews at all. That he said, the human soul is like a violin string. And within that string, there is the capacity for beautiful music. But paradoxically or maybe counter intuitively, the string can express its music only when it's tied down to a frame. If you have a loose string on the table, totally free, it's not able to express anything. And therefore, it is paradoxically perhaps our submission to the Ribono shel Olam that allows our soul to express the beauty that is within. All right, so that's the general idea of Sefiras HaOmer. Now, as a matter of fact though, there is a big machlokes Rishonim, a very big argument among the Rishonim if the counting of the Omer today is a Torah commandment. Why would there be an argument? Because if you look at the possuk in this week's parsha, it says, "You shall count from the day after Shabbos, which is the second day of Pesach." I'll talk about that at length in a in a moment. From the day that you bring the Omer offering, which is the second day of Pesach, seven weeks. So, most Rishonim actually say that the obligation of counting the Omer is is only when you bring the korban of the Omer, you have a Beis Hamikdash, and you brought the Omer sacrifice on the second day of Pesach, a barley offering, that's when the Torah says you start counting the Omer. Since today we don't have a Beis Hamikdash, uh as Hashem we will have, but we don't have, and therefore we didn't bring the Omer this uh this year, uh there's no mitzvah to count the Omer. Deoraisa, Deoraisa. And according to those Rishonim, it would only be a mitzvah derabbanan, zecher lemikdash. Zecher, to remember the way things were when there was a Beis Hamikdash. So, according to most uh commentators, most poskim, the counting of the Omer bizman hazeh is midrabbanan, zecher lemikdash. The one exception is the Rambam's opinion. The Rambam's opinion is that uh even without a korban of the Omer, the counting of Sefiras Omer remains a Deoraisa. Now, there is a big difference practically between the Rambam and Tosfos, and that is um are you allowed to count the new day of the Omer in the twilight period? Meaning you know, in in many many shuls, particularly in uh outside of Israel, uh counting of the Omer is counted after sunset but before you see three stars. Now, halachically, the period of time between sunset and say say call carbon between shkia and say say call carbon is called bain hashmashos. Bain hashmashos, halachically, it is a suffolk if it belongs to the day or belongs to the night. That's why on Shabbos you got to air on both sides, meaning I got to start Shabbos no later than sunset because maybe it's night. But I can't end Shabbos until the stars come out because maybe that period is day. That's why Shabbos is not 24 hours, it'll always be a little longer than 24 hours. Yom Kippur, Shabbos, all of these things. So, bain hashmashos is a suffolk if it's day or night. That's why, for example, if the baby is born after sunset, let's say it's Monday and the baby is born after sunset, so we don't know if that's a Monday baby or a Tuesday baby. So, I can't do the bris on Monday because if he's a Tuesday baby cuz bain hashmashos is night, Monday is day seven, too early. So, I got to do the bris Tuesday and even though Tuesday might conceivably be day nine, but if I have a choice between a possible day seven bris or a possible day nine bris, I I got to go with day nine because a bris that's too early is possel. A bris that's late is still a valid bris. By the way, I don't want to get into too many halachic technicalities, but this raises a fascinating question. When a baby is born Friday afternoon after sunset, because the halacha is we do a bris on shabbos but only if it's the eighth day. We do not do a bris after the eighth day on shabbos. So, here's the issue. The kid is born Friday afternoon after sunset before the stars are out in that period of time. So, I don't know I do not know is he considered to be a Friday baby or a shabbos baby? Now, if I knew he would be a Friday baby, I do the bris on Friday. If I knew he was a shabbos baby like he's born Friday night, I do the bris on shabbos. But here I actually am disabled from either of those days. I can't do the bris on Friday because maybe he's a shabbos baby so the bris is too early. But I can't do the bris on shabbos because maybe he's a Friday baby and shabbos is day nine not day eight. So, I got to do the bris on Sunday. Now, the funny thing is Sunday is for sure the wrong day. Sunday is either day nine or day 10. I am not doing the bris on the eighth day no matter what. But I have no choice. In such a situation, I I I lose the mitzvah of doing the bris on the eighth day and I'll either do it day nine or day 10 depending on bein hashmaashot simply because I don't have any choice. All right? So, that's why uh a woman should pray that she should not give birth to a baby bein hashmaashot Friday because that will deprive the mitzvah of milah on the eighth day. It'll be an unavoidable uh problem. Okay. So, the reason I'm bringing this up is uh can you count the counting of the omer in the bein hashmaashot period? So, if I say that counting of the omer today is only rabbinic so for a laws you're allowed to give yourself the benefit of the doubt and be lenient. Suffolk to rabbinan a maker. So, I would be able to count early. According to the Rambam, I could not because I have to be strict and say uh I have to wait until it's definitely night. So, that's why the advice is that a show is allowed to count ben hash mashot, but I meticulous individual should try to follow the Rambam's view and not count the Omer until it is definitely definitely dark. Again, in Eretz Yisrael, again, I want to just clarify just a little bit of astronomy, very basic astronomy. Um the length the length of twilight is not dependent on the seasons. You know, we know, you know, summer is longer day, winter is shorter day. Twilight does not vary with that. Uh twilight, meaning from sunset to darkness, is a function of how north or south of the equator you are. So, the closer you are to the equator, the shorter is the twilight period. The further you are from the equator, the longer is the twilight period. That is why the appearance of three stars in New York will be later than the appearance of three stars in Eretz Yisrael. The Shabbos ends earlier in Eretz Yisrael, and this is true in summer and winter, because we are closer to the equator than New York, Paris, London, where Shabbos right This is a thing a lot of people don't realize. A lot of people think intuitively, well, summer is a longer day, so the twilight period will be longer as part of a longer day. Uh not true. Uh twilight depends on north-south. Uh it does not depend and that's why at the equator itself, at the equator itself, uh twilight is very very short. It might be 10 minutes from the sun setting till total darkness. Very very quick. Uh and then as you go further north or south, the twilight period uh gets longer. That way. Okay. Um So that's a little bit about that. But but the main thing I want to talk about is is is the very very interesting disputes between our Hahamim and the Sadducees. Cuz look at what the Torah says. The Torah says you start counting the Omer from the day after Shabbat. Uswartem lahem mimaharath hashabbat. That's a little peculiar. Most of the time when the Torah says the word Shabbat, it means Saturday. And mimaharath hashabbat with their form means Sunday. So this was exactly the position of the movement of the during the Second Temple known as the Tzedukim. They're called Tzedukim simply because they were followers of Zadok. The English term is Sadducees. Uh do not confuse the Tzedukim with the Karaites, which still exist even today. These They do have a common philosophy, but they're not connected to each other in any physical way. The Tzedukim were a movement of Jews during the Second Temple period who were largely Hellenistic, and they denied the authority of the oral law, and they tended to interpret the Torah in a very literal way. And these were Tzedukim. And there were many many disputes between the Hahamim and the Tzedukim. Uh the Tzedukim uh were actually wealthy. Many many were wealthy. Many were politically well well connected. And there were even times where even the Sanhedrin itself was controlled by Tzedukim. Strangely enough, it would almost be like, you know, communists taking over the United States or or what what whatever it would be. Now, the Tzedukim as a movement maybe there were individual Sadducees, but the Sadducees as a movement died or they they were finished at the destruction of the Temple or later the Bar Kokhba revolt. So, Tzedukim did not survive as a movement. Uh the only part of Judaism that survived are called the Pharisees, the Perushim. And again, Pharisees have a bad rap. In the Christian Bible, the Pharisees are the bad guys. In our tradition, the Pharisees are the Tannaim. They are They are the the They are Chazal. Uh so, the Tzedukim became extinct. Later in like the 9th century, 10th century another movement arose. And this is after the Gemara. This is the time of the Geonim. Uh which gave itself the name Karaim. Karaites and Karaites are still around. And they are not connected to the Tzedukim, but they had a very similar philosophy of treating the Torah in a very literal way and not accepting uh Chazal. Uh and even though Karaites today are a very very small little group but there were times in our history where there were tens of thousands of Karaites. In fact, in the Rambam's time, when the Rambam was in Egypt uh there were tens of thousands of Karaites and the Rambam had to spend quite a lot of effort in combating different heresies uh that were being that were being spread. Now, it happens to be though that both the S'dukim and the Karaites they interpret me macharath ha shabbat in a very literal way. That you start counting the Omer the Sunday after Pesach, me macharath ha shabbat. The day after shabbat, the Sunday after Pesach. Right? Because that's what the Torah says, me macharath ha shabbat. The P'rushim our Chachamim do not accept that interpretation. And the P'rushim say that shabbat in this verse does not refer to shabbat. But shabbat in this verse refers to the Yom Tov of Pesach. Which is also a shabbat because you can't do melacha. And me macharath ha shabbat does not mean the day after shabbat. But it means the day after the Yom Tov of Pesach, i.e. the second day of Pesach. And the Gemara in Menachot has all sorts of discussions how the Chachamim tried to prove this. But that's our 100% definitive tradition that me macharath ha shabbat in that pasuk is the day after Pesach, meaning the second day of Pesach as opposed to Sunday. So, the question that one needs to explore Actually, I'll mention two questions. Question number one is if the Torah means you start counting the second day after Pesach then why why why does it say shabbat at all? Why why say me macharath ha shabbat? Say me macharath ha Pesach or whatever. Meaning, why use a term that's so fraught with uncertainty. Now, the Eben Ezra gives what I think is only a partial answer. The Eben Ezra says the following. Well, Mimochorat ha Shabbat is could be confusing because it could mean Sunday. But what's the alternative? Mimochorat ha Pesach the day after Pesach. But that's confusing, too, because here's the thing. Pesach in the Torah does not refer to the 15th of Nissan. Pesach in the Torah refers to the 14th of Nissan when you brought the Korban Pesach. So, if the Torah would have said you start counting the Omer the day after Pesach you would have made a mistake and you would have started counting the Omer on the 15th because Pesach is the 14th. Mimochorat is the 15th. Therefore, it said Mimochorat Shabbat, the day after a holiday where you weren't allowed to do work. That's the Eben Ezra's answer. But the truth of the matter is that that doesn't help you because if Mimochorat ha Pesach is ambiguous because you might mean turning it to be 15, Mimochorat ha Shabbat is ambiguous because it might be Sunday. I mean, you're substituting one ambiguity for another. And if the Torah wanted you to be clear, it could have been very clear. It could have given you a date. It could have said, "On the 16th of the first month, which is Nissan, you count the Omer." That would have avoided any problem. So, why does the Torah use the very confusing idea of Shabbat? Why is Pesach called Shabbat in this possuk? That's question number one. Question number two is if we go back to the basic philosophical idea that the purpose of counting the Omer is to link the holiday of freedom with the holiday of Torah, then why do we do it the second day? Why don't we start the first day? Why don't I count the Omer on day one? Why is it me machar us? Why is it the day after? Right? So, these are our two questions. Question number one is why does the Torah refer to the first day of Pesach as Shabbat? And number two, why is the mitzvah of Omer me machar us ha Shabbat instead of being on the first day itself? Right? These are the two questions. So, with respect to the first question, why is Pesach called Shabbat? Uh we have an explanation from the Meshech Hochma, the Or Sameach, and he says the following. He says, if we look at the difference between Yom Tov and Shabbat, there are two basic differences between Yom Tov and Shabbat halakhically. Difference number one is that on Shabbat we have 39 melachot you're not allowed to do unless it's a matter of life and death, pikuach nefesh. On Yom Tov, although Yom Tov also has melacha restrictions, but we do have a heter to do melachot for food preparation or other Yom Tov needs. So, I can't do melacha Shabbat, that's true, but the many melachot are going to be permitted for what is called ochel nefesh, food preparation and the like. So, that's difference number one. Difference number two is the method of how you sanctify Yom Tov. Now, we we don't see this so much today, but it's still true. Shabbat is an automatic kedusha. God sanctified Shabbat. Shabbat was created um basically Well, not before human beings cuz Adam was created on Friday, but God sanctified the Shabbat and every 7 days it's Shabbat. It is Shabbat whether people know it or not. Even if God forbid nobody in the world would be keeping Shabbat. Shabbat would still be Shabbat. We do not sanctify Shabbat even though we recite kiddush, which literally means sanctification. But we do not sanctify Shabbat. We are acknowledging Shabbat as a holy day. Yom Tov is very different. Yom Tov depends on dates. The 15th of Nissan, the 1st of Tishrei. And dates depends on Rosh Chodesh. And Rosh Chodesh is proclaimed by the Sanhedrin that takes the testimony of witnesses. And the Gemara tells us even if they got the the astronomical date wrong the holidays are going to be measured from the mistaken Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh determines the holidays. And Rosh Chodesh is determined by the Sanhedrin. Now, even today, even today when we don't have a Sanhedrin the only reason why we observe the Yamim Tovim is because the last Sanhedrin in around the 4th century calculated all of the Rosh Chodesh in advance and sanctified them until the year 6,000. Again, I want to make it clear. The fact that astronomically we know when Pesach is, that does not make it Pesach. What makes it Pesach was the sanctification of the Sanhedrin. That is the meaning of the well-known statement that I'm sure you've heard that the Jewish calendar expires in the year 6,000. In other words, the Jewish calendar goes up only to the year 6,000. Now, what does that mean? In truth, the calculations of the Jewish calendar, which are very intricate, can easily be extended indefinitely. If you were to ask me what day will Pesach fall out on in the year 10,020, we could cal- I mean, I don't know if I could calculate it, but we could calculate it. We could calculate Pesach a million years from now because the patterns and the calculations are all there. So, what do you mean the calendar expires? Very simple. The last Sanhedrin only sanctified the Rosh Chodeshes up to the year 6,000 because they had Emunah Shleimah that Mashiach will come before the year 6,000, and we will go back to witnesses testifying. Which means actually, counter- no, counterfactually, counterfactually, if Mashiach would not come by the year 6,000, we would no longer be keeping Yom Tovim. >> Right. >> Because without the sanctification of a Beit Din, there is no Rosh Chodesh. And without the sanctification of Rosh Chodesh, there is no holidays. It's a very critical point. Yomim Tovim depend on a Rosh Chodesh being proclaimed and sanctified. Astronomy is not enough. Yeah, we know when new moon is. That's not enough. There has to be a Sanhedrin that was Mekadesh. And even today, it's only because there was a Sanhedrin that calculated and sanctified. This is why when we make the bracha in davening for Shabbos, we say Baruch Ata Hashem Blessed are you God Mekadesh HaShabbos. Who sanctifies Shabbos. God sanctifies Shabbos. When it comes to Yom Tov, we say Baruch Ata Hashem Mekadesh Yisrael v'hazmanim. He sanctifies Israel who then is given the power to sanctify the Yom Tov. Very exact. You don't say by Shabbos Baruch Ata Hashem Mekadesh Yisrael v'haShabbos. It's only Mekadesh Yisrael v'hazmanim. And when Yom Tov falls out on Shabbos, the text is very exact. Baruch Ata Hashem Mekadesh HaShabbos v'Yisrael v'hazmanim. Okay? The The sequences are not by accident. We don't say Mekadesh Yisrael v'haShabbos v'hazmanim. It's Mekadesh HaShabbos v'Yisrael v'hazmanim. Which means when the year 6,000 comes, and of course we'll have Mashiach, but if not for shalom, counterfactual we don't, we will not keep Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, Pesach, Shavuos. We will keep Shabbos. Shabbos will keep on keep on coming. So, these are two nafka minas, two practical halachic differences between the holiness of Shabbos and the holiness of Yom Tov. One is Yom Tov has the dispensation for food preparation. Shabbos does not. Number two, the holiness of Shabbos comes from Hashem. The holiness of Yom Tov comes from K'lal Yisrael acting through the Sanhedrin and the like. Now, the Meir Simcha of the Meshech Chochmah then says that these two differences between Shabbos and Yom Tov emanate from a third difference that explains those two. And that is Shabbos commemorates an event that actually has nothing to do with the Jewish people. Shabbos commemorates Hashem creating the world in six days and resting on Shabbos. That was a phenomenon that predated the Jewish people. It has nothing to do with us. God gave it to us as a gift, but it's a gift. It's nothing that came from us and it's not connected to us. Yom Tov is very different. Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos exist only because of a Jewish people. There is only a Pesach because of Yetzi'as Mitzrayim. There is only a Shavuos because of Matan Torah. There is only a Sukkos because we bask in the clouds of glory. Um Yom Tov only exists because of the Jewish people. Shabbos exists even without a Jewish people. Now, my only question is I do have a question on this because I It's true virtually every Yom Tov exists only because of Am Yisrael, but there but there's one exception that's problematical. Pesach, Shavuos, Sukkos only because of the Jewish people. Yom Kippur also because of the Jewish people because Yom Kippur is the day that Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the second tablets, and that signifies forgiveness of the hate or anger. I got it. But there's one more Yom Tov under Torah which does not seem to be connected to anything that happened to the Jewish people. That is the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The holiday of Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of Adam Harishon. But there's nothing intrinsic in Rosh Hashanah that is linked to any historical event of Am Yisrael. And yet we would still say that the Jewish people took over the spiritual function of Adam Harishon, so in a sense what happened to Adam Harishon we treat as our event as well. Now, says the Meshech Chochmah the following idea. Since Yom Tov exists only because of Am Yisrael, that's why number one Yom Tov bends to our needs because it only exists because of us, so we can cook on Yom Tov. You can't cook for a non-Jew. But since Klal Yisrael is the reason for Yom Tov, Yom Tov becomes nullified to us. Shabbat does not. Since the reason of Shabbat predates Am Yisrael, we bend to Shabbat rather than Shabbat bending to us. Similarly, since Yom Tov exists only because of Klal Yisrael, Klal Yisrael was given the power to determine its holiness as opposed to Shabbat, we were not given that power. So you see the structure here. There are two halachic differences between Shabbat and Yom Tov. One is Ochel Nefesh, food preparation, and the other is the source of the holiness. And those two differences emanate from the fact that there's no Yom Tov without a Jewish people, but there is a Shabbos without the Jewish people. Therefore, Yom Tov bends to us and we control the holiness as opposed to Shabbos, which does not bend to us and we do not control the holiness. Okay? So, that's an overall perspective on the difference between Shabbos and Yom Tov. So, now says the Meshech Chochmah, of all of the If we understand that Shabbos represents a gift from Hashem that we didn't earn, then of all of the Yomim Tovim, Pesach is the closest to Shabbos. Now, it's true that without a Jewish people, there wouldn't have been Pesach. That much is true. That's why it's a Yom Tov. But it is the most, as we might say, Shabbos-tic of Yomim Tovim. Because remember, at the time of the Exodus of Egypt, we were not deserving of redemption. We had reached the 49th level of impurity. And by the way, that's referring to the 1/5 that survived. 4/5 died and they hit the level 50. And not Kedai Kach, that even though we were supposed to have been in Mitzrayim for 400 years, that's what God told Avraham, and we were only in Mitzrayim 210 years, if we would have stayed another few minutes, we don't even understand what that means, we would have hit the 50th level. And that would have been it. The Arizal says that's the meaning they didn't have time to have their dough rise and they had to bake it as matzah. So, the simple p'shat is Paroh was kicking us out. But the Arizal says it's not just Paroh. Hashem says, God like like he said the loaves, God will leave now. If you stay in We don't even know what that means. You stay another minute or the small amount of time it takes for dough to become chametz. It's only 18 minutes. You're going to be lost. So in truth, we didn't deserve the redemption. We were given to us a gift because of God's promise to the others. Even by the splitting of the Red Sea, the angels in heaven said to God, "Why are you saving the Israelites and killing the Egyptians? One is no better than the other." And Hashem had to give an answer. Well, right now that's true, but things are going to change. Hashem did it on credit, so to speak. So Pesach is what is called a matnat chinam. It is an unearned gift. And therefore, it is analogous somewhat to Shabbat. Now, it's still a Yom Tov because without us it wouldn't have existed, but it's called Shabbos because it represents a gift that we had no role in earning. Unlike Unlike, let's say Shavuot, where we prepared ourselves to receive God's Torah. And Yom Kippur, where we did shuvah. And Sukkot, where in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur shuvah, we receive God. Pesach was a matanah that we didn't deserve, that we didn't earn. And indeed, we are told that the lowliest maidservant experienced at the splitting of the Red Sea greater divinity than the navi Yechezkel, who actually saw the divine throne of glory. So that's why Pesach is called Shabbos. Because it represents a gift from Hashem that was not connected to anything that we did. Unlike the other regalim where there's always this action that we did. Now, let's take this and now let's go to the second question a little bit. So, the second question we raised is why do we start the day after this Shabbos? Meaning Pesach. Why don't I start Why don't I start on day one? So, here I want to share with you a very intriguing mashal that Reb Nachman of Breslov brings. Reb Nachman of Breslov was the uh great grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. And he actually brings this mashal in the name of the Baal Shem Tov himself. And it's a mashal that can resonate with people, that people can maybe apply in their own life depending on their history. And that is the problem of diminishing returns in spiritual life. What does that mean? Sometimes a baal teshuvah will describe the following phenomenon. They will say, he or she will say, "When I first came to Judaism, everything was so beautiful and exciting and inspirational. Every Shabbos was unique. Every attendance in shul was amazing. And then with the passage of time, it becomes routine, it becomes rote. There's less excitement. In fact, there's all sorts of um jokes, they're kind of sad jokes, but they they may express some truth and that is you know, the goal of of of let's say the frum world is we want baalei teshuvah to fully integrate into the religious community, right? They say, "The goal would be that you walk into an Orthodox shul and nobody knows you're a ba'al teshuvah." Like, that's the goal. You're mainstream. So, how do you know when somebody's mainstreamed? So, the joke typically says, "Well, when they can bench in 2 minutes, uh when they talk during shul, uh baruch Hashem, they're mainstream. Because if they're davening a long, passionate Shmoneh Esrei, mhm there's something funny about them." Very sad, but there's a lot of truth to that. Fact, a few years ago Not Not a few years ago, maybe 20 years ago, you know, Lincoln Square Synagogue, very very prominent Modern Orthodox uh shul in in New York, Rabbi Riskin and the frater used to be the was the founding founding rabbi of of Lincoln Square, or at least he took a Conservative synagogue and he made it Orthodox. So, uh they have a very uh very very long-standing outreach program. Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, he should be well, has been running this program for more than 50 years. One of the great pioneers of Jewish outreach. So, uh they have a banquet every year. And one year they had an honoree, and the honoree gave a speech. It's a classic speech, you can get this on the internet. Says, "Why I hate ba'alei teshuvah." And you know, it sounds like a negative thing, but it's really a brilliant speech. He was saying, "I hate ba'alei teshuvah because when I come home Friday night and I have these guys coming in and the guys or women coming home, I want to finish my meal in a half an hour and go to sleep. And you're making progress, and all of a sudden this ba'al teshuvah says, 'Can you say something on the parsha of the week?' Or we haven't said zmiros yet. Says, 'I hate it. I want to go to sleep.' And they want to talk Torah, and they want to sing zmiros. Again, you understand that he's making actually very positive statement. They want to learn, they want to grow, they're excited, they're passionate. And I just want to get out of there so I can go to sleep. But he was making the point that we become jaded. And sometimes the baal teshuvah becomes jaded. Now, how could that be? How did I lose my passion? How did I lose my excitement? How did I lose the joy that I had when I was doing mitzvahs? Now, you may give me a very simple answer. Well, everything when it becomes habitual. You know, when something is new, it's exciting. And then it becomes habit. Well, that makes sense in a lot of things, but it shouldn't make sense when it comes to mitzvahs. Because if every mitzvah brings you closer to God, how can it be that the more I do it, the less I feel? You know, it it doesn't make sense. If every mitzvah I do brings me closer to Hashem, how can I become less close? The more I do it. I mean, why should the guy who's keeping his first Shabbos have more passion than I'm keeping my my thousandth Shabbos? Right? And yet, that's the way it is. So, this was a question that the Baal Shem Tov raised. We'll call it the problem of diminishing returns in avodas Hashem. And he gives a beautiful beautiful beautiful mashal that Rebbe Nachman brings. And the mashal is, a baby who's learning to walk. Right? So, the baby is whatever it is, 18 months. The baby gets up. And initially, he's kind of rocking, very unsteady. And the parents are holding the baby by the shoulders. The baby takes one step and another step. And at some point, the parents feel the baby is kind of ready, they let go. As soon as they let go, the baby plops down. Plop, plop, plop. Now, if the baby could articulate their thoughts, the baby might wonder, "Why was walking so easy a minute ago, and now it's so hard? Am I regressing? What's going on?" By the way, I I do want to say that children learning to walk, or even crawl at an earlier stage, is one of the great, great, great lessons. Because, you know, it's an amazing thing, no matter how many times the kid falls down, they will get up again. I remember when my son was learning to crawl, before he was learning to walk. Crawling at some stage is very, very hard. I'm thinking to myself, "What it was whatever whatever I remember the age six months whatever the age was, I was thinking, why are you working so hard? You got a nice crib with with toys there. Go to your crib. Why are you straining and stressing and What is all that?" The answer is, Hashem made us hardwired to achieve, to accomplish, to grow, to not give up. It's an amazing thing. The kid does not give up. So, if in our later years, and by the way, later years can be as early as 4 years old, unfortunately, we can absorb failure very, very early in life. But if in our later years, we give up, you got to know that's an acquired bad habit. For whatever the reason is, it's not human nature. The nature Hashem gave us is to never give up. And when you watch a child learning to do all of these different things, you see and again, it's not a conscious thing. It's not the child says, "I never give up." Child can't talk yet. It's just the nature. That's who you are. And if I become a person that's not that, that's because things happened to me to make me that way. And we have to try first has to try to undo it and it's very hard sometimes, right? Some people might be in therapy when they're 70 years old trying to undo things and just get back to where they were at 1 year. Set back the clock. So, that's an amazing thing. Looking at a child learning to walk or even crawl can be a very, very inspiring thing. In fact, there was a publicity stunt. I think that I think this goes back to the 1930s. There was a famous American Olympic athlete, Jim Thorpe. Uh he won some gold medals and I think there was a publicity stunt that he would follow a baby around and imitate a baby for 1 day. Okay, I mean thing. Like Thorpe could only do it half the day. He got uh he was totally he was totally exhausted following the baby around. He couldn't uh he couldn't he couldn't do a whole day like that. Okay. So, but be it as it may, let's go back to the idea though that when I with the parents were holding on to the baby's shoulders, walking was easy. And now it's hard. So, what's the answer? It was easy because your parents were supporting you. But now you have to take what your parents gave you and make it your own. And that's going to be more of a struggle. Sanz of Nachman in the name of the Balshemtov. When a person first comes to God, he is so far from Hashem. He doesn't have the mitzvahs. He doesn't have the background. So, God carries him. God carries him. And when God carries you, there's a certain ease and a certain beauty. Shabbos is wonderful. Shuls are wonderful. Mitzvahs are wonderful. Everything is so exciting and so sweet. But then, at some point, Hashem says, "I've shown you what you can become. Now, I'm putting you on the ground. And your job is to become it." Now, that's going to be harder. And there may be failures. And there may be setbacks. And there may be backsliding. But says the Baal Shem Tov, paradoxically, that's a sign of God's confidence in you. Because God is basically saying, "I've shown you what you become. And I'm still here. Just like Abba and Imma are still here to be sure that you don't get hurt. But I'm letting go a little bit. So, you can internalize it and make it your own. And this is the phenomenon of diminishing returns. It's Hashem telling you, "I'm letting go a little bit because I want you to internalize what I've shown you. I was carrying you. And now, I want you to learn to walk." Based on this moshol, the Baal HaTanya, actually, he doesn't quote this moshol, but but Baal HaTanya develops a thought that's very similar. This is the difference between Pesach and Shavuos. Pesach is where God carried us in a way that we were not deserving of and even in a way that we didn't fully earn. He lifted us He showed us the greatest miracles. He showed us Kriyat Yam Suf. He showed us as as the Hazal I mentioned before that even the lowly lowliest maidservants saw visions of the Shekhinah greater than Yehezkel the Navi. But then Hashem puts us down. And he says, "I've shown you what holiness is. I've shown you what relationship is. I've shown you what kedushah is. Now put it down. I'm putting you down. And you're going to go through a a a a laborious process. That's why Pesach is called Khipazon. Now Khipazon means hurriedness. When you do something b'khipazon, that means you're skipping a lot of the intermediate steps. God simply took us from zero to a thousand in two seconds. Let's skip the intermediate stages. Omer is a gradual incremental process. God showed you the whole picture on Pesach. Sefirat HaOmer is the gradual incremental step-by-step-by-step-by-step climbing the mountain. And in spiritual growth sometimes there will be two steps forward one step back and indeed sometimes it'll be one step forward and two steps back. But you got to keep going. You got to keep going. It's frustrating because God is here always. But he's letting go a little bit because we have to internalize the lesson and make it our own. And that is why the Baal HaTanya says the counting of the Omer is the day after the Shabbat because it's a new stage in life. Pesach is the gifts that God gives you that you didn't earn. But there's a tomorrow. The tomorrow is the beginning of the process of internalizing those gifts and making it your own. Me Macharath, it's the next stage, the next day. That's when the work begin. Now, I know Pesach, of course, has plenty of work, but but in a spiritual sense the spiritual uh travail of Pesach is given as a gift. Sefirat HaOmer is earning that gift by an incremental process. You know, that's why it's it's an interesting thing. Um we don't have time. Maybe we'll talk about it next week a little bit with Lag BaOmer. But, you know, um the seven weeks of Sefirah are linked to the seven Kabbalistic lower Sefirot. Loving kindness, etc. And every day of the week is linked to them as well. And there are actually calendars and books that try to identify a practical spiritual exercise for every day of the Omer based on the Kabbalistic combination of week and day. Again, I know I'm not explaining this so well, but I I I maybe next week I'll I'll talk about it more. But, it does emphasize that this is a period of avodah, a period of spiritual work in tikkun, in rectifying our middot. And these And these calendars are great are great ideas because they literally, for example, uh you know, uh there may be a day that's uh the loving kind the day of loving kindness in the week of strength, but there's also the week the the of strength in the week of loving kindness. There's chesed of gevurah and gevurah of chesed. What's the difference and how do you translate it into action? And there are actually books and calendars that give you some practical exercise. It's worthwhile to look at those things to see what what the avodah of Sefirah will be. Now, the Baal HaTanya says, this explains an interesting passage of the Zohar. The Zohar on Shir HaShirim, if you remember Shir HaShirim, >> Mhm. >> which is written as an ecstatic love poetry between a woman and and a man that she loves deeply, is said to be an allegory for the love that Hashem has for the Jewish people. Hashem is the male lover and the Jewish people are the woman and all of the romance and eroticism in Shir HaShirim is referring to the passion between God and the Jewish people. Remember, this was an interesting controversy. There were rabbis who did not want Shir HaShirim in the Tanakh. They said, "This is, you know, pornographic or obscene or whatever it would be. It does not belong in Kitvei Hakodesh." And the great savior of Shir HaShirim was none other than Rabbi Akiva, who said, "If all of the poetry in Tanakh is kadosh, Shir HaShirim is kodesh kodashim because it represents the love of Hashem and Am Yisrael." And that's our standard understanding of Shir HaShirim. And in the beginning of Shir HaShirim, the woman who is yearning for her lover calls out. And it's not clear that she's talking to anybody. It's really she's calling out to herself. But she says, as if she's talking to her lover, "Mashcheni acharecha. Pull me after you. Pull me with you. Narutza. So, we will run together through the fields. So, the Zohar says the following, "Pull me is a reference to Pesach. So, we run together is a reference to Shavuot." So, says the Baal HaTanya, the word Moshcheini is like you drag a sack of potatoes. So, Pesach, we were a sack of potatoes. We were not deserving of redemption, but God pulled us. All the work came from God. But, through the Omer, we internalize those madregas. We become God's partner. We run with Hashem. Moshcheini acharecha Narutsa. Right? So, that's the idea. And that's the avodah of Sefirah. And that's why it is Mimochoras Shabbos, because it is the day after. It's the day after. It's a new level. It's a new stage in avodas Hashem. And it's a stage that's a hard stage, and a stage that sometimes is not immediately as rewarding as the earlier stage. But, ultimately, it is very, very important, even more important, as the you know, as the old saying goes. I think it's a secular saying, but it fits here very well. He says, "Um what you are is God's gift to you. What you do with what you are is your gift back to God. Pesach is what I am. Sefirah and Shavuot is what I become by taking what God gave me and making it truly my own through my own divine service. So, these are just some thoughts about Sefiras Omer. So, I wish you all a good week and a Shabbat Shalom. >> Sure. >> And you find me by name, by day, by year, by season, by eternity. Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Hallelujah,