Shemini: 5785 - The special explanation that the Rebbe gave in yechidus to the Temimim who completed 'Kvutza' 54 years ago, about 'counting time' in the month of Iyar. Presented by Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld, at the conclusion…

00:02 Speaker 1 This Shabbos is Shabbos Mevarchim for the month of Iyar. It says in the seforim that Iyar is an acronym for “I am Hashem, your healer.” What is the difference between healing by Hakadosh Boruch Hu and healing by a human being, by flesh and blood? The difference is that a human being can heal only from now on. But with Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s healing—“Any of the diseases that I placed upon Egypt, I will not place upon you”—He removes the illness as though it had never been there. A human being can only heal from this point forward. Not so Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Rabbi of Jerusalem once explained: Whenever we find the word for healing in the Torah or in prayer, the letter peh is always pronounced softly. There is one place in the Torah where the peh has a dot: “Verapo yerapei”—“and he shall surely heal.” Rashi says that the Gemara derives from this: Permission was given to a doctor to heal. A doctor is permitted to heal. Seemingly, if Hakadosh Boruch Hu caused the illness, how can a doctor heal it? But the Torah gave him permission to heal. When a doctor heals, though, there is a dot. Some little point, something, remains. But when Hakadosh Boruch Hu heals, the peh is soft. There is no dot at all. Nothing remains. That is the difference. Exactly fifty-four years ago, it was a Thursday night. We were a group of bochurim who had spent an entire year with the Rebbe, the year 5731. It was Shabbos Mevarchim for Iyar, Parshas Shemini, and our group of bochurim, who had studied at 770, was returning to Israel. Before we left, the whole group went into yechidus with the Rebbe. It was Thursday evening, exactly fifty-four years ago. The Rebbe gave us a brief sicha, then gave each of us a dollar and wished us a successful journey. What was the point

02:31 Speaker 1 the Rebbe made in that yechidus? The Rebbe said this: We are in the period of Sefiras HaOmer, and the month of Iyar, which we are blessing now, has something special about it. What is special about it? Every single day has the special mitzvah of counting the Omer. That is true only of Iyar. We also count during Nissan, but not for the entire month. We count for a few days in Sivan too. But in Iyar, every single day has this special mitzvah of counting the Omer. The Rebbe asked: Seemingly, what is the point of counting the Omer? Why do we count time? We count something when it can decrease or increase, when it can change. Then we count it to see how much there is, whether anything has been taken away or added. Time is constant; it is fixed. So what does it mean to count time? The Rebbe explained that counting time is like counting something individually: it gives it importance and a special preciousness. When a person treasures something, he counts it. Even if it cannot change, he counts it because it is precious to him. This mitzvah of counting the Omer teaches us how precious time must be to a person. Every day, every hour, every moment is a whole world of its own. We can make that time into a day of mitzvah, a day in which we fulfill a mitzvah, or, G-d forbid, the opposite. So counting shows us how precious time is. That is the point of counting the Omer. We count because we cherish the mitzvah we have each and every day, and it teaches us how much a person

04:47 Speaker 1 needs to value and cherish time. Every moment, every hour and every day that passes without our doing what we needed to do, without fulfilling a mitzvah, is an opportunity we have missed. “Days were formed, and one of them is His.” We cannot bring that time back. As the well-known saying goes: The past is gone; the future is not yet here. In other words, once that time has passed, you cannot bring it back if you did not make use of it. That is what we learn from counting the Omer, which is what is special about the month of Iyar. And that is the meaning of “I am Hashem, your healer”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s healing is such that “I will not place it upon you” in the first place. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu heals, nothing remains. May we have a good month and a peaceful Shabbos.

05:40 Speaker 2 Amen.

05:40 Speaker 1 May we hear only good news. Amen.