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The Jewish Home | APRIL 28, 2022
Self-Mastery Academy
Sefiras Ha’omer Achieving the Impossible by rabbi Shmuel reichman
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OctOber 29, 2015 | the Jewish Home
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magine a teenager lying on a grassy field, gazing into the night sky. As he stares up at the stars, he thinks to himself, “Look at how enormous the universe is. The sky just expands endlessly.... It must go on forever.” After sitting with that thought for a few moments, he becomes uncomfortable. “How can anything go on forever? Everything must stop eventually.” But after a few moments of relaxation, his thoughts intrude again. “But how can the universe stop? What exists on the other side when the universe ends? It must go on forever...” And this inner dialogue continues as he struggles to contemplate the infinite within his finite mind. This struggle is not a childish one; it is a challenge that confronts any finite being who tries to connect to the infinite. Younger children, however, do not face this struggle. They are dreamers, living in a world of fantasy where anything is possible. Just ask a group
of children what they want to be when they grow up, and you’ll get some of the most fantastic, unrealistic responses imaginable. “I’m going to be an astronaut fireman, so that I can save people on the moon,” or “I’m going to become a great tzaddik and learn how to speak every language so that I can teach Torah to everyone.” Children live within the infinite, the realm of endless possibility. However, as we grow up, we begin to experience the struggle of reality, where our notions of the infinite start being challenged. We then face the question: How do we, as physical and limited beings, transcend our finite dimensions? How do we relate to the abstract, to the infinite, to the spiritual? Let us approach this question through the lens of sefiras ha’omer, the counting of the omer.
Our Yearly Counting We are commanded to count the days between Pesach and Shavuos, a pe-
riod known as sefiras ha’omer (Vayikra 23:15-16; Devarim 16:9). At first glance, this can be understood on a very simple level: as we approach Shavuos, we excitedly count down to Matan Torah as we anticipate our acceptance of the Torah. This can be compared to a countdown toward a wedding, a vacation, or some other exciting event. However, there is a feature of the sefiras ha’omer count that is markedly different: rather than counting down toward the destination, Shavuos, we count up from the starting point, Pesach. We don’t mark how many days remain until Shavuos; we count how many days have elapsed since Pesach. What is the meaning behind this strange method of counting? And more generally, what is the purpose of counting in the first place? By no other holidays do we count the days between them; we don’t count the days between Sukkos and Chanukah. Why then do we specifically count the days between Pesach and Shavuos?
In truth, we are not counting down to Matan Torah, but rather are building toward it, ascending one day at a time. We do not wait for Shavuos to arrive; we actively bring it ourselves through the time and effort we invest as we count the omer. If Shavuos — and its accompanying Matan Torah — is a skyscraper, each day of the omer is a brick. Each day we place the next brick in our building, and each day we build ourselves one step higher. The extensive halachic emphasis on counting each and every day of the omer highlights the fact that every single brick is essential and that every single day is fundamental (Tosafos, Menachos 66a). If, while building a staircase you miss one step, you simply cannot build the next step up. Each step requires a foundation to rest on. The same is true of counting the omer. Each day builds upon the previous ones, ascending toward our ultimate destination. Matan Torah does not come after forty-nine days – it comes
