Sefirat HaOmer 2024/5784

The forty-nine days of the Omer period correspond to the forty-nine gates of repentance, and these in turn correspond to the forty-nine letters in the Hebrew names of the twelve tribes. It is through these letters and gates that we must make our return to God Almighty. The festival of Shavuot is the fiftieth gate. This is the gateway of God’s “repentance” — when God himself returns, as it were. That is to say, He returns to us in love. It is possible to reach all these gates and open them by reciting the psalms. You should be careful to concentrate when you recite the psalms. Then you will be able to reach all forty-nine gates. During the forty-nine days of the counting of the Omer we have to cleanse ourselves of our impurity and return to God. Then God will return to us on Shavuot (Likutey Moharan II, 73).

Leviticus 23,15. “you shall count for yourselves from ‎the day following the festival, (Passover) etc.;” we need to ‎understand first of all why the festival of Passover is referred to as ‎‎Hashabbat in our verse. This has been explained by our ‎sages, (Tanna de bey Eliyahu 14) where the author interprets ‎the word ‎בראשית‎ as meaning ‎בשביל ישראל‎, “for the sake of Israel.” ‎Granted that this is true, it did however, not come to the ‎attention of the world until G’d redeemed Israel from Egypt when ‎His love for His people manifested itself. As a result, Passover ‎became similar to the Sabbath. The Sabbath is unique as on the ‎Sabbath G’d abstained from His creative activity, whereas, ‎according to the Zohar, on Passover He abstained from ‎entertaining thoughts. When G’d “rested” on the original Sabbath ‎His work during the preceding six days was revealed for the first ‎time. Similarly, His love for the Jewish people was revealed for the ‎first time on the occasion of the redemption from Egypt, i.e. the ‎day of the Exodus. On the first day of Passover it finally became ‎clear why G’d had bothered to create the universe altogether. In ‎other words, Passover may be looked upon as the logical ‎conclusion of what had been set in motion the moment G’d had ‎first thought of the people of Israel as a project for the future. ‎This is also the meaning of a statement of the sages in Shabbat ‎‎118 that if the Israelites were to observe two Sabbath days, i.e. ‎the terrestrial Sabbath as well as the celestial Sabbath, they would ‎be redeemed immediately. The scholar to whom this statement is ‎attributed quoted Isaiah 56,4 in support, where G’d promises ‎redemption to the eunuchs who keep His Sabbaths, following up ‎in verse 7 with: “and I will bring them to the Mountain of My ‎holiness etc,. etc.” The “two” Sabbaths of which the Talmud ‎speaks are not to be understood quantitatively, i.e. 2 separate ‎Sabbath days, but refer to the ‎שבת תחתון‎ and the ‎שבט עליון‎, ‎observance of the Sabbath with our body, i.e. ‎תחתון‎, and at the ‎same time observing it with our hearts and minds, i.e. ‎שבת עליון‎, ‎the Sabbath in our upper regions, our heads. The more the ‎Israelites engage in serving the Lord, the clearer it will become ‎that G’d only created the universe on account of the Israelites. ‎There is an allusion to this in the letters of the words ‎מן פסח‎ ‎when we reverse the order of the aleph bet, i.e. that the ‎letter ‎א=ת, ב-ש, ג=ר‎ etc. [Magen Avraham on the laws ‎of the New Moon chapter 428, subsection 3 deals with this in ‎greater detail, i.e. that certain festivals must occur on the ‎weekdays corresponding to other festivals preceding them during ‎the same year. Ed.] ...

Another approach to the meaning of the verse commencing ‎with: ‎וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת‎, “count for yourselves ‎immediately following the Sabbath.” Israel is presumed to have ‎requested to be granted the ability to serve the Lord with a pure ‎heart, and while engaged in asking G’d to grant all their various ‎requests they completely omitted any reference to their personal ‎requirements, i.e. to mundane matters.‎
However, there are times when even the Israelites on the ‎highest spiritual level find it necessary to appeal to G’d to grant ‎them such mundane requests as their livelihood. Periods during ‎which individuals or even groups of Israelites are on the highest ‎spiritual level are referred to by the Torah as ‎שבת‎, seeing that the ‎perception of the Sabbath is that it is a condensed version of the ‎world of the future, ‎מעין עולם הבא‎. That world is not directly ‎connected to the world we find ourselves in, called ‎עולם הזה‎, “the ‎here and now.” Our verse tells us under what circumstances it is ‎possible to sublimate the conditions of the “here and now” to ‎such a degree that preoccupation with our personal needs for ‎survival is no longer considered as something mundane or ‎secular. The answer lies in the words: ‎ממחרת השבת‎, “after first ‎having attained the level called ‎שבת‎.” While we are on the ‎spiritual plateau described as ‎שבת‎, we would not even remember ‎such irrelevant concerns as our livelihood. The Torah’s recipe of ‎how to attain such a plateau is the “continuous counting, day ‎after day, of our ascent towards that goal.” During the 49 days of ‎the counting we are still on the level that prompts us to ‎approach G’d with requests to make our lives on this earth ‎comfortable. With the advent of the festival of Shavuot, we ‎have attained a higher level, one that is earmarked by our offering ‎a new gift offering,” ‎מנחה חדשה‎, (Numbers 28,26). The reason the ‎Torah calls it ‎בשבועותיכם‎, “on your weeks,” is that this offering ‎reflects our own spiritual progress achieved during the weeks of ‎counting. Seeing that this is so, we are bidden to offer this to ‎‎Hashem, Who will accept it in this spirit.‎

The words ‎וספרתם לכם‎, “you shall count for yourselves,” ‎need further analysis, [as in all instances when the Torah ‎adds the apparently superfluous ‎לכם‎.] In this instance ‎the word ‎לכם‎ may be understood as G’d reiterating that although ‎it is our task in life to serve Him, each one of us must decide to do ‎so of his own free will. He is not to feel coerced, as if he felt that ‎way he could never qualify for the reward that the Torah ‎promises us for observing G’d’s commandments.
The first of the “seven” weeks we are to “count,” measuring ‎our spiritual progress, are devoted to 1) digesting the fact that ‎finally, after close to 2500 years of human existence, the human ‎race had come to acknowledge its Creator and the fact that He ‎had a favorite people, whose three patriarchs had somehow ‎sustained them sufficiently so that they had accepted Moses as ‎His prophet. As a result our people learned to relate to G’d with ‎love. 2) The second of the seven weeks is devoted to embracing ‎G’d with reverence and awe, recognizing in Him the greatness of ‎the Originator of all existence. The third week is devoted to ‎ensure that G’d will have reason to “boast” of His people and their ‎spiritual accomplishments.‎
The fourth and fifth week of our counting is devoted to ‎deepening our faith in the Creator, our ability to withstand ‎anything that might make us doubt His being the only G’d in the ‎universe. The sixth week is devoted to strengthen our ties to Him ‎through the intensity with which we serve Him. Finally, the ‎seventh week is devoted to declaring Him as our King, enthroning ‎Him as the King of Kings of the entire universe.‎
In light of the fact that theses attributes are derivatives of the ‎Essence of G’d Himself, during the days when we observe the ‎commandment of counting the days and weeks, it is especially ‎important that each one of us will set aside time for ‎contemplating these holy thoughts and serve the Creator by ‎doing so, as the sages have taught us that ‎בדרך שאדם רוצה להלוך ‏מוליכים אותו‎, “that people who wish to travel along the right path ‎will enjoy heavenly assists in doing so.” (Makkot 10) Seeing ‎that the redemption occurred on Passover, (15th Nissan) we know ‎that each year at that time, G’d is singularly prepared to reveal ‎Himself as He did on the occasion of the first Passover, ‎‎[actually, according to tradition already on the night when ‎Avraham defeated the four mightiest kings with his 318 men, ‎compare Genesis 15,15 Ed.] The period between then and ‎the festival of Shavuot is especially suited for anyone who ‎wishes to experience spiritual progress to do so by means of ‎observing this commandment of counting with especial ‎devotion. The word ‎לכם‎ therefore is best translated as “for your ‎personal benefit,” suggesting that this period more than any ‎other should be exploited by the pious to elevate themselves ‎spiritually.‎ ‎

“Count for yourself seven weeks, from the time the sickle is first put to the standing corn shall you begin to count seven weeks.” (Devarim, 16:9)
“From the time the sickle is first put to the standing corn.” That is to say, at a time when man begins to march on towards victory he must possess a settled mind and make careful deliberations, for seven weeks represents great refinement. This is as it is written (Tehilim, 12:7), “seven times refined.”

Each day of the Omer period is associated with a different aspect of the Sefirot. And on that day everything which everyone in the whole world is talking about is purely an expression of the particular aspect with which that day is associated. A person with understanding can hear and recognize this if he pays attention to what people are saying (182).