U'Sefartem Lachem - The Avodah of Sefiras HaOmer - Rabbi Asher Parkesh

00:03 There was a chossid named Reb Gavriel Nosei Chen. He was a chossid of the Alter Rebbe and lived in Vitebsk. The Frierdiker Rebbe tells his story: He was a very wealthy Jew whose livelihood was good. Together with his wife, he did a great deal to welcome guests and give tzedakah. Whenever the Alter Rebbe’s shluchim came to collect for his charitable causes, he gave generously. His name was at the top of the list of donors to the causes the Alter Rebbe needed to support. There was one thing they did not have: children. Nearly twenty years had passed since their wedding, and they still had no children. They were deeply brokenhearted as they watched the years go by. Then came a time when his livelihood declined. Debts piled up, he began to suffer losses, and he reached a point where he could no longer give the amount he had always given to the Alter Rebbe’s charitable causes. When the Alter Rebbe’s shluchim came to collect the money, he had nothing to give them. He had reached a point where he simply had nothing to give. He was terribly embarrassed. He held the shluchim in high regard, and they, too, held him in high regard and did not want to put him in that position. His wife knew the whole situation, and it pained her deeply that she could not take part in this tzedakah. On her own initiative—her husband had not asked her—she took the jewelry she owned. Some of the pieces were very valuable gifts her husband had bought her from time to time. She went and sold

02:40 them all, and with the money she received she had a sack full of gold coins. She took the gold coins and cleaned them, washing them with water and doing whatever else was needed, until they shone brightly. They looked just like new coins fresh from the mint. She put the clean coins in the sack and brought it to her husband. She said she wanted to give her share toward the Alter Rebbe’s tzedakah. All the while she worked, cleaning and polishing the coins until they shone, she prayed: “Rebbe, help our fortune shine too, and may we have all the blessings we need.” Her husband was astonished when he saw this. The question arose whether to send the sack with the shluchim or go himself to the Alter Rebbe and hand it to him personally. He put all the coins back into the sack and traveled to Liozna, to the Alter Rebbe, to give them to him. When he arrived, he went in to the Alter Rebbe and placed the sack on the table. The Alter Rebbe opened it and saw how the coins shone, how they had a special brightness, just like fresh, new coins. The Alter Rebbe was very struck by this and asked him to tell the whole story of what had happened. The chossid told him that his livelihood had declined and that he had no money to give. His wife, of her own free will, had gone and sold her jewelry, and with that money she

04:54 bought the coins. She cleaned and polished them so they would shine and so he could bring them to the Rebbe to use for tzedakah. When the Alter Rebbe heard this, he told him: Of all the things the Jewish people brought for the Mishkan, the only thing that shone was the washbasin. The verse says that the washbasin was made from the mirrors of the women who assembled. These came specifically from the women of Israel: the righteous women of the House of Jacob gave their mirrors, which they had polished. Moshe Rabbeinu used those mirrors to make the washbasin. Of those mirrors, Hakadosh Boruch Hu said, “These are more precious to Me than anything else.” In the same way, the Alter Rebbe said, what she did here is precious to me: she took the coins, polished them until they shone, and gave all the money. The Alter Rebbe said that in the merit of the mitzvah she had done, their fortune would indeed begin to shine again. The Alter Rebbe told him to sell the business he had until then and deal instead in precious stones and pearls. The Alter Rebbe

06:28 also promised and blessed him and his wife with extraordinary wealth and a long life filled with good years. They would have children, too, and he would find favor in the eyes of everyone who saw him, in the eyes of all people. And all these blessings of the Alter Rebbe came true in full. Reb Gavriel returned home and did as the Rebbe had instructed. He sold the business he had owned until then, began dealing in precious stones and pearls, and enjoyed extraordinary success beyond the natural order, becoming exceedingly wealthy. A year later, a child was born to him, and more children followed. He went on to live many more years; both he and his wife lived past the age of one hundred. His wife lived several years longer than Reb Gavriel. And the name by which he is known, Reb Gavriel Nosei Chen, comes from the Alter Rebbe’s blessing that he would find favor in the eyes of all people. That is the story. Our Rebbeim tell this story; it appears in the Reshimos, and the Frierdiker Rebbe relates it. Following it, he recounts that once, at a farbrengen of the Tzemach Tzedek during the days of the Omer, around Shavuos, many chassidim came and there was a great awakening. The Tzemach Tzedek

08:04 said they should sing the Alter Rebbe’s niggun. During the farbrengen, the Tzemach Tzedek repeated a teaching he had heard from the Alter Rebbe, which the Alter Rebbe had repeated in the name of the Maggid of Mezritch on the verse “And you shall count for yourselves.” The Alter Rebbe explained “you shall count” as related to the word “sapphire.” “You shall count” means to count, but it is also related to sapphire—to shine, to radiance and brightness. He said: “You shall count for yourselves”—you need to illuminate the “yourselves,” to make yourselves bright and clear. We need to illuminate ourselves. He then went on to explain several more details: “Seven weeks”—the seven middos. We need to work on and refine our middos, so that “seven complete weeks there shall be,” and so on. But the central point, following the story, was that the coins shone, those shining coins—all of this is about bringing light, about “you shall count for yourselves.” So what is the work of Sefiras HaOmer? A person must take the “yourselves”—his own self, his middos, his animal soul, his affairs, the powers of his soul—and the work of Sefiras HaOmer is “you shall count,” in the sense of radiance and brightness: to illuminate himself. There is a question about the verse “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after Shabbos, from the day you bring the Omer of waving; seven complete weeks there shall be.” The holy Ohr Hachaim asks about the passage: What does “you shall count” mean? And it also says

09:54 “you shall count for yourselves”—what does “for yourselves” mean? We need to explain what “for yourselves” means, that each person must count, and so on. But the holy Ohr Hachaim cites the Zohar, which explains that “you shall count for yourselves” is connected to the Jewish people’s departure from Egypt. They had been at the forty-nine gates of impurity. The Jewish people had been immersed in Egypt, in all the impurity of Egypt, sunk in the forty-nine gates of impurity. Therefore, after leaving Egypt, their work in Sefiras HaOmer was “you shall count for yourselves,” so that they could receive the Torah. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to give the Jewish people the Torah immediately. From His perspective, as the verse says, “When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain.” When the Jewish people left Egypt, “you will serve G-d”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu was ready to give them the Torah. But the Jewish people were not ready. They needed to purify themselves. That was the “you shall count for yourselves,” and those were the “seven weeks.” Over those seven weeks, corresponding to the seven middos, the Jewish people worked on themselves, refined themselves, and became purified. Through the “seven complete weeks,” they truly became radiant, fit to receive the Torah. That is why it says “you shall count for yourselves”: “for yourselves” means from your side, as the...

11:31 holy Ohr Hachaim explains. From Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s side, He was ready to give the Torah immediately upon their departure from Egypt. But since the Jewish people were not yet ready, they still needed to refine themselves and be cleansed of the filth and impurity. So “for yourselves” means that you need to prepare yourselves. That is why they were given Sefiras HaOmer as preparation for receiving the Torah. The holy Ohr Hachaim adds that this is the meaning of “you shall count.” The word “you shall count” is related to “sapphire.” The holy Ohr Hachaim says that the Jewish people needed to become like the Tablets. The Tablets are described as “sapphire,” made of that kind of stone. What is sapphire? A stone with radiance and light. And the Jewish people, Knesses Yisroel, are Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s tablets. They needed to purify themselves, to remove all the impurity and filth from within, so they could become clean and like sapphire. That is the work of the days of the Omer. During these days, the work must be “you shall count for yourselves.” We need to purify ourselves in a way of “you shall count”—to illuminate, to bring light and clarity into the “yourselves,” into ourselves and our middos. The meaning is to illuminate. And as we can understand from the story we are telling, from the story we are telling about

13:06 “You shall count for yourselves”: Mitzvos and the service of Hashem, particularly the mitzvah of tzedakah and acts of kindness, need to be done in a way that shines, with light in them. A person can give money, give tzedakah, but he can give it in the way the Rambam describes, with “his face cast down toward the ground”—he gives tzedakah because he has to, because he must give. But what is the idea of “you shall count for yourselves”? Light, radiance, clarity—the sefiros. In other words, when you give tzedakah to a Jew, when you do a favor for a Jew, it should be done in a way of “you shall count”: with clarity, light and beauty. And that is what we see here. Not only did she give the money; she gave up her jewelry and used it to buy the coins. She also polished the coins so they would be clean and shining. This is the idea of doing a mitzvah properly, with a pleasant expression, with light, warmth, beauty, self-sacrifice and joy. That is the idea of “you shall count for yourselves.” In serving Hashem, and particularly during these days, this is what we mean when we say that the work of Sefiras HaOmer is refining our middos. The work of refining the middos—the seven middos, corresponding to the seven weeks. And each of the seven middos includes all seven: kindness within kindness, strength within kindness, and so on and so forth. What

14:37 is the work of refining the middos? This is the meaning of “you shall count” in refining the middos: not merely to correct them, but for the middos to truly shine. When you do a favor for a Jew, it should be done with vitality, warmth and joy. This is the path of Chassidus, which teaches us what the real work of refining the middos should be. On the verse “You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbos,” Chassidus explains—and this is what the Alter Rebbe brings—that “you shall count for yourselves” means that the sefiros and radiance of the ten sefiros above, the ten sefiros of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, must shine within a person. When a person works on his own middos during the weeks of Sefiras HaOmer, refining them and working on himself to develop good middos, particularly in all matters between one person and another, he makes use of this time, which our Sages tell us is the primary time for refining the middos. This is the well-known matter of Rabbi Akiva’s students, who “did not treat one another with respect.” During these days, the main work required is refining the middos that govern our relationships with others, working on Ahavas Yisroel. And in this,

16:04 particularly when we say “you shall count for yourselves,” the intention is not merely to act from one’s natural middos, but to do a favor for a Jew with vitality, warmth, a shining face and all one’s heart. That is the work of “you shall count for yourselves.” Chassidus explains the verse “Draw me; after You we will run.” The verse in Shir Hashirim says: “Draw me; after You we will run. The King has brought me into His chambers; we will rejoice and be glad in You.” This verse in Shir Hashirim alludes to the service of the days of Pesach, Sefiras HaOmer and Shavuos, the Giving of the Torah. The verse begins with “Draw me,” in the singular. Then it says, “After You we will run”—“we will run” is plural. Shir Hashirim is, after all, a parable about the Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, about the Jew, the Jewish people, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu, like a husband and wife. This is the idea of the Giving of the Torah, when the wedding, the marriage of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the Jewish people, took place. The verse tells us the order. First came “Draw me,” in the singular. “Draw me” comes from above—Hakadosh Boruch Hu draws the Jew to Him. Then, “After You we will run”—the Jews run, and here it is written in the plural. Then it says, “The King has brought me into His chambers”—the King brings one into His chambers—“we will rejoice and be glad in You.” What are these things? Chassidus explains that they are three stages, three times: the time of Pesach, the time of Sefiras HaOmer

17:50 and the time of Shavuos. On Pesach there was the experience of “Draw me.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu drew the Jews to Him. The Jews were in exile in Egypt, as we say, at the forty-ninth gate of impurity. They were sunk in materiality, physicality, darkness, and all the filth and impurity of Egypt. Hakadosh Boruch Hu came to them and “revealed Himself to them,” as the Haggadah says: “The King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, revealed Himself to them in His glory and by Himself.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, in His glory and by Himself, descended to Egypt, to the most depraved place, and brought the Jews out of there—“Draw me.” This was an awakening from above, called in the language of Chassidus isarusa d’le’eila. There was a revelation of light that came in the month of Nissan, on Pesach, when He “revealed Himself to them.” There was a revelation of G-dliness. The revelation of G-dliness from above reached the soul, the G-dly soul. When there is an awakening from above, when G-dly light shines, a Jewish soul perceives and feels it. At that moment, at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the G-dly souls of all the Jews perceived and felt the “Draw me,” the love that Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed. As a result, a desire awakened in them, and they wanted to flee Egypt. That is why it is specifically in the singular: the G-dly soul, the Jewish soul, awakened, perceived and felt the revelation of G-dliness that took place at the time of

19:26 Pesach. Consequently, it was a flight; the Jews fled Egypt. But this happened only in the G-dly soul. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, chapter 31, that it was the flight of the G-dly soul—they fled to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The animal soul, however, was still deeply immersed. It had not yet changed; it remained in its previous state and condition. Then came the work of preparation for the Giving of the Torah, of “After You we will run”—“we will run” in the plural: not only the G-dly soul, but the animal soul too. This is the work of refining the middos—to refine the animal soul, to work on each and every middah and refine the middos, so that there will be genuine love of Hashem and genuine Ahavas Yisroel. The same applies to every middah: awe of Hashem, the middah of tiferes, the middah of compassion. Each middah must be refined; one must work on it and make it more sensitive. This is the work of Sefiras HaOmer: to illuminate the person himself, to bring light into the animal soul. This is the meaning of “we will run” in the plural: not only the G-dly soul. Sefiras HaOmer affects the animal soul. From this we can also understand why the Omer offering is made from barley. Usually, meal offerings are made from wheat. There are other meal offerings made from barley, such as the sotah’s offering; this too is connected to Tractate Sotah and Sefiras HaOmer, and these matters are related. The sotah’s meal offering is made from barley, because, as

21:16 the Gemara says in Sotah, she acted like an animal; therefore her offering is animal food—barley. The Gemara in Sotah says that barley is animal food. Usually a meal offering is made from wheat, which is human food. But since she acted like an animal, the offering must be brought from animal food, from barley. But why is the Omer brought from barley? Chassidus explains, based on the Zohar, that this expresses the refinement of the animal soul. The work of Sefiras HaOmer is to take the animal soul and correct it, cleanse it, illuminate it and refine it, so that it will be entirely devoted to Hashem in all its needs. The animal soul, too, must have love and awe of Hashem; we work on the middos. That is the work of Sefiras HaOmer. The verse says, “After You we will run,” in the plural. The work of Sefiras HaOmer is to refine the middos of the animal soul. The verse says, “After You we will run”—to run. “We will run” means with force, with fervor and enthusiasm, because this is the work of the animal soul. The animal soul is, after all, an animal. The nature of an animal, of the middos, of the inclination, is specifically to act with enthusiasm. Generally, a person’s nature is to be intellectual, and because he is intellectual, he approaches everything calmly and deliberately. That is human nature. The nature of an animal, by contrast, is the nature of the middos. What are middos? Feelings, enthusiasm, force and fervor. This is the difference between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. The G-dly soul is “the wise man’s heart is to his right”; it is a matter of wisdom, mind and intellect. For the G-dly soul, the work proceeds calmly and deliberately. The animal soul, as its name indicates, is an animal; for it, things happen only with enthusiasm. When it wants something, it comes with the force of nature, with force

23:13 The doing comes with enthusiasm, with a drive to act. When that enters the service of Hashem, it is “we will run.” When the G-dly soul acts upon the animal soul, the animal soul must be refined and sanctified. Then a person’s service with the animal soul is also “we will run.” The G-dly soul runs together with the animal soul, and the service is carried out with enthusiasm—great enthusiasm. The verse brings out that the service during Sefiras HaOmer must be filled with soaring enthusiasm. He cites the Kedushas Levi: the Kedushas Levi of Berditchev explains the significance of the offering, and the fact that it is made from barley. We spoke earlier about its being made from barley. He explains its meaning and says: What is the point? At the Exodus from Egypt, Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed miracles and wonders. Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed all the attributes, all the sefiros. What was revealed at the Exodus? It was a revelation of the supernal miracles, of Hashem’s kindnesses, and likewise of all the sefiros and attributes that Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed. Through this came the Ten Plagues and the “striking of Egypt,” followed by “healing for Israel,” the Exodus from Egypt, Shavuos, and all the lofty revelations of the days of Pesach. This is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu, on His part, shone into the souls of the Jewish people. Then comes Sefiras HaOmer, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells the Jews, “You shall count for yourselves.” I want you to awaken the thirst. I want this to be service on your part. This is somewhat similar to what the holy Or Hachayim says, and likewise to what is said in Chassidus. Yes, he explains “After You we will run,” but explains it in this

24:58 way: During Pesach, Hakadosh Boruch Hu performs miracles for the Jews, and all the miracles and wonders, all the kindnesses and all these things, flow down to them. Then the Torah comes and says, “You shall count for yourselves.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks the Jews: I want it to come from you. That you, on your part, “shall count”—that during the days of the counting, you must awaken. The Kedushas Levi says: Sefiras HaOmer must be recited with vitality and enthusiasm. Accordingly, the service of Hashem during the days of the counting must also be carried out with vitality and enthusiasm. A Jew must show that, on his part, when he counts the first week, the attribute of chesed, he seeks and wants Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is love, the attribute of chesed and love. On his part, he works on himself so that love of Hashem will shine in his soul. In the second week he works on the attribute of awe, so that awe will shine within him. In the third week he works on the attribute of tiferes, whose theme is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes pride in the souls of the Jewish people. He sees beauty in them, takes pride in them, and praises them. And since Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes pride in him, he too should rejoice that Hakadosh Boruch Hu rejoices in him; he should share in Hashem’s joy. Likewise, in each week of the seven sefiros, the service must be for him, on his part, to awaken love and thirst within himself, because he wants to be a vessel

26:22 for these things. When a Jew works on himself during the days of the counting—this is “After You we will run,” so that the animal soul, too, becomes refined and a vessel for holiness—then the time of the Giving of the Torah arrives, after seven complete weeks. And we merit “The King has brought me into His chambers”: the revelation of the Giving of the Torah, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings the Jews into His chambers. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brings the Jews to the revelation of “We will exult and rejoice in You”—in You Yourself—with the Giving of the Torah and all that was drawn down then, when a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu become one. This is the greatest bond between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu at the Giving of the Torah, and it comes through the service of the Exodus from Egypt and Sefiras HaOmer. From this we understand that the time and the service required during the weeks of Sefiras HaOmer are the meaning of “You shall count for yourselves”: a Jew must work on himself and beautify his character traits. And “for yourselves” means that he must work on his own traits, on his own animal soul—so that “we will run” brings about an inner refinement of the faculties of his soul and of his animal soul. Through this, we merit the revelation of the Giving of the Torah and all the revelations we receive afterward. In practical terms, the point is this: when a Jew is in the days of the counting,

27:53 refining his character traits becomes important to him; he must work on them. And in refining those traits, the main thing is that the work be done with light. Not merely doing things as a matter of course, not merely fulfilling a mitzvah, but doing it with light, with warmth and vitality, and feeling pleasure in observing Torah and mitzvos. This is the well-known saying brought in Chassidus, the well-known account told by the Alter Rebbe, as he received it in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov told one of his earliest disciples, Reb Mordechai the Tzaddik, who was among the first of the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples in Russia, that a soul descends into this world for seventy or eighty years in order to do a favor for a Jew materially, and especially spiritually. In other words, the purpose of a soul’s descent is for a Jew to come down here, into this world, to do a favor for another Jew materially, and especially spiritually. And in this, too, one must feel pleasure. [unclear] repeated this saying, these words of the Baal Shem Tov, and said that one can study a great deal of Chassidus and spend many hours on spiritual service. And the purpose of all the study of Chassidus and all the

29:32 spiritual service is for a person to develop a feel for, and take pleasure in, doing a favor for a Jew. This is what the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching tells us: a soul descends into this world for seventy or eighty years in order to do a favor for a Jew materially, and especially spiritually. And this is the time: during Sefiras HaOmer, one must work on oneself, but do so with light. One must shine light so that the animal soul, too, becomes refined and comes to love Hakadosh Boruch Hu, love Jews, and love the Torah. And likewise with the other character traits: work on them so that they are filled with vitality, pleasure, and joy. In this way we truly prepare to receive the Torah with joy and inwardness. And we prepare to merit receiving not only the Torah as we have had it until now, but, very soon, the “new Torah will emerge from Me,” said of the Torah of Moshiach. May we merit, in these days, the great days leading up to Lag BaOmer, as Shavuos draws near, to receive the new Torah, the inner dimension of the Torah, the Torah of Moshiach. May it be speedily in our days, amen.