Rising Above the Limits of Nature - the Profound Meaning of the Month of Iyar and Sefiras HaOmer

00:00 We’ve passed through Nissan and entered Iyar. Many of us feel a certain sense of having missed an opportunity. Nissan is the month of Geulah, the time of our freedom. A Jew lives in a different atmosphere—an atmosphere of Geulah, an atmosphere of Pesach. Especially when we reflect on the teaching of our Sages in the Gemara, Rosh Hashanah 11a: “In Nissan our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt; in Nissan they are destined to be redeemed.” Nissan is the month of Geulah not only because of the Exodus from Egypt, but also because of the future Geulah, the Geulah of Moshiach. Throughout Nissan, a Jew lives with hope and confidence, with the feeling that each and every day could be the day of Geulah. And suddenly Nissan ends and we enter Iyar. What now? Especially since the difference between Nissan and Iyar is very great, even quite stark. Throughout Nissan we don’t say Tachanun. It’s a month when, as we said, we live with the atmosphere of Geulah surrounding Pesach. Then suddenly, in Iyar, it feels as though we’ve fallen into a fairly ordinary month—a month with no festivals commanded by the Torah, at least. True, there’s Pesach Sheini and there’s Lag BaOmer, also a great day whose significance emerged later in the history of the Jewish people. But looking at it from the perspective of the Torah, Iyar seemingly has nothing special about it. And here the question arises: What gives us strength? What gives us fortitude? What should our outlook be so that, far from feeling as though we’ve fallen with this transition, we’re actually strengthened and gain added strength and energy to keep going, from strength to strength, specifically in Iyar? So today I want to share with you a sicha I had the privilege of hearing from the Rebbe at a farbrengen I attended. It was in 5750, on Shabbos Parshas Tazria-Metzora, at the beginning of Iyar.

02:10 The Rebbe spoke about a message and an explanation that would give us strength. What we’ll discuss today is what Nissan gives to Iyar. We’ll also look at Sefiras HaOmer, the special mitzvah we fulfill during this period. In this respect, Iyar is a unique month: there’s no other month like it all year. If we think about it, the only month in which we have a special mitzvah on every single day is Iyar: the mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer. We began counting on the second day of Pesach, so in Nissan we counted for only two weeks, half the month. In Sivan we’ll have about a week of counting. But in Iyar, from the beginning of the month to the end, we count the Omer. There’s no other month of the year in which we fulfill an additional, special mitzvah every single day—a mitzvah that, according to several opinions, is a Torah obligation that we fulfill each day. Even Tishrei, which is described as abundant in festivals, a month full of holidays and festivals, has breaks in between—before, after, and in the middle. But in Iyar, the entire month is Sefiras HaOmer. So Sefiras HaOmer tells us something very powerful, also about Iyar’s relationship to Nissan. And there’s another remarkable thing specifically at the beginning of Iyar, which will give us the explanation for everything we’re discussing today. On the second day of Iyar, just when we seemingly return to our regular routine—because until and including Rosh Chodesh Iyar, we don’t say Tachanun; for more than a month we haven’t said Tachanun, meaning that we’ve been in special days, days of joy—and then suddenly we go back to saying Tachanun. What happens on the second day of Iyar? It’s the birthday of the Rebbe Maharash. Of course, that’s no coincidence either. Why is the Rebbe Maharash’s birthday specifically on the second day of Iyar? I’ll actually start with the conclusion, with its significance. What does the Rebbe Maharash teach us? That’s what the Rebbe discussed in that sicha, and from there we’ll understand and gain the strength to enter Iyar and understand what this time is about. The Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel, was the fourth Rebbe of Chabad Chassidus. There are extraordinary stories about him and his very distinctive conduct—in Torah and mitzvos, in serving Hashem, and also in worldly affairs. He was an outstanding leader in Russia during extremely difficult times, about 130 or 140 years ago, or more. It was a very difficult period—and when was there ever an easy period in Russia?—but there were pogroms then, along with all kinds of other terrible things, and he fought with tremendous self-sacrifice to have decrees rescinded. As is well known, people would say of the Rebbe Maharash in particular that he was, so to speak, the Baal Shem Tov of Chabad Chassidus. In other words, among all the Chabad Rebbeim, his conduct was especially reminiscent of the Baal Shem Tov. We all know that when we speak of the Baal Shem Tov, we mean a tzaddik whose life was filled with miracles and miraculous conduct beyond the bounds of nature. There are thousands upon thousands of stories about the Baal Shem Tov. The same kinds of stories are told about the Rebbe Maharash. There’s a saying the Rebbe would always repeat when mentioning the Rebbe Maharash, a saying the Rebbe Maharash often used. He would say, “The world says that you first try going from below, and if that doesn’t work, then you go

04:18 We’re in days of joy, and then suddenly we go back to saying Tachanun. What happens on the second day of Iyar? It’s the birthday of the Rebbe Maharash. Of course, that’s no coincidence either. Why is the Rebbe Maharash’s birthday specifically on the second day of Iyar? I’ll actually start at the end—with its meaning. What does the Rebbe Maharash teach us? That’s what the Rebbe spoke about in that sicha, and from there we’ll also understand and gain the strength to enter the month of Iyar and understand its essence, what this time is telling us. The Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel, was the fourth Rebbe of Chabad. There are extraordinary stories about him, about his very distinctive way of conducting himself—in his observance of Torah and mitzvos, in his service of Hashem, and in worldly matters too. He was an outstanding leader in Russia during some of its most difficult times, roughly a hundred and thirty or a hundred and forty years ago, or more. It was an extremely difficult period—though when was there ever an easy period in Russia? But there were pogroms then, and all kinds of other terrible things happening in Russia, and he fought with tremendous self-sacrifice to have decrees rescinded. As is well known, people would say of the Rebbe Maharash in particular that he was, so to speak, the Baal Shem Tov of Chabad Chassidus. In other words, among all the Chabad Rebbeim, his conduct was distinctive in a way that resembled the Baal Shem Tov. When we speak of the Baal Shem Tov, we all think of a tzaddik whose entire life was filled with wonders, with miraculous conduct beyond nature. There are thousands upon thousands of stories about the Baal Shem Tov, and similar stories are told about the Rebbe Maharash. There’s a saying the Rebbe would always repeat when he mentioned the Rebbe Maharash, a saying that was often on the Rebbe Maharash’s lips. He would say, “The world says that first you start from below, and if that doesn’t work, then you go

06:29 from above.” We’ll explain that in a moment. “I say,” said the Rebbe Maharash, “that you can go from above from the outset.” In Yiddish: lechatchila ariber, right? From the outset, skip ahead, leap over from above. This was an expression the Rebbe Maharash used in many different ways, as we said, both in serving Hashem and in dealing with the Russian government at the time. There are many chassidic stories and remarkable accounts of miracles the Rebbe Maharash performed in this spirit of lechatchila ariber, as it’s called. In serving Hashem, it means not following the usual order, starting from below and trying all sorts of diplomatic approaches, but going from above and bypassing all the intermediate stages. For example, there are quite a few stories about how he worked to have decrees rescinded. Other tzaddikim might pursue various diplomatic avenues: hold meetings, consider whom to send, who would be suitable, where to send them, how to arrange things, how to approach different offices—starting with the lower-ranking offices and working their way up, trying to reach the right people. With the Rebbe Maharash, it was from the outset: he would go straight to the highest place he needed to reach, the highest level of government, walk right in, and say what needed to be said—even if it required boldness and daring. To such an extent, as the stories tell, that government officials were somewhat afraid of the Rebbe Maharash, because they knew it was best not to argue with anything he said. That was in matters of government, and of course the same applied to serving Hashem: how he guided chassidim to live their daily lives and serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Don’t get drawn into all sorts of small-scale battles, as they’re called, with the yetzer hara and the animal soul, dragging yourself into endless arguments. Instead, place yourself on a higher plane from the outset, rise to a higher place, and from there a person can much

08:45 More secure, and from the outset, all the evil, all the darkness, disappears. In other words, this is a path in serving Hashem. So it’s interesting that this message was given by the Rebbe Maharash, whose birthday is on the second of Iyar, the day we begin saying Tachanun. That, too, calls for an explanation. We know that nothing in any Jew’s life, or anywhere in the world, happens by chance. The Baal Shem Tov taught us about hashgachah pratis, Divine Providence. And of course, when we’re speaking here about the Rebbe Maharash and his life, the birthday of a tzaddik—and on any birthday, the Gemara says, a person’s mazal is strengthened. With a tzaddik especially, his mazal is strengthened, and that affects the whole world, all of the Jewish people. So this message of the Rebbe Maharash—not to do as the world says, but to leap over from the outset, to go from above—is a message we need precisely as we enter the month of Iyar. So what is really going on here? What is the story? What is the point? The central idea is this: Nissan, as its name suggests, comes from the word nes, a miracle. Nissan is a month when the quality of miracles shines within every Jew. A Jew rises above nature. The well-known Midrash says that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose His world, He established the years beginning with Rosh Hashanah, the month of Tishrei: life according to nature, the way nature works—day and night, summer and winter, the pattern of everyday life, the natural order, through which Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives His bounty. But Nissan, the Midrash says, was given as a month of Geulah by the One Who chose Yaakov and his children. Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose the Jewish people and raised us into a world of Geulah, a world above nature, a world of miracles. The way Hakadosh Boruch

10:49 Hu deals with the Jewish people is entirely different. From the outset, it comes from a place where a Jew is, in essence, above the world. The Jewish people preceded the world, as the Midrash says at the beginning of Midrash Rabbah on Parshas Bereishis, in its discussion of things that preceded creation. That doesn’t mean earlier in time. Before the creation of the world, there was no time; time was created together with the world. When we say they preceded the world, we mean that they are on another level, in another place. The Jewish people are rooted on a much higher level, above the world, above nature. The Exodus from Egypt expresses what Nissan is: a month when every Jew’s power to be connected to what is above nature is revealed. And that is the deeper meaning of what we call “the time of our freedom”—a time of Geulah, a month of Geulah. Geulah does not mean only something physical: we left Egypt and moved somewhere else. In its essence, Geulah is freedom of the soul, when the soul is free of all kinds of limitations imposed by nature, by circumstances, by what the world says, what the world thinks, what the world will say. It is freedom from that fear each of us sometimes has when we’re in the middle of it all: What will people say? What will others think? That applies both to serving Hashem and to life in the world. We are surrounded by seventy wolves—as the Midrash puts it, one sheep among seventy wolves—with all the nations of the world around us, especially in Eretz Yisroel. Then the question arises: What can we do? We have to satisfy this one, bow to that one, find favor in someone else’s eyes. What will that government say? What will they say? And so on. We’re surrounded by all kinds of calculations that seem to stop us, to leave us stuck—again, both in each of our personal lives, facing the yetzer hara, and in our service of Hashem, as well as in our material lives and our livelihoods. The fear of what will happen tomorrow, of what the forecasts say, of what the calculations based on nature indicate—

13:01 and all the fears a person can surround himself with. Then the message of Nissan comes and says: No, a Jew does not belong to any of that. In the very first section of the Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe writes, in chapter 1, section 1, the first halachah: “Yehudah ben Teima says: Be bold as a leopard.” What does “bold as a leopard” mean, the Alter Rebbe says? Not to be ashamed before those who mock you. Be strong and don’t be ashamed because of what the world says. Not being ashamed means that, from the outset, it carries no weight with me. Why? Because, in essence, I am in an entirely different place. A Jew is elevated above nature; he lives on an entirely different plane. He lives a life of Geulah. He is connected to the Infinite. He is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu in a place where nature, circumstances, the world, the nations of the world, the yetzer hara, and all those calculations carry no weight. That, in essence, is Nissan. But what is the deeper purpose? It is not to be disconnected from the world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu took our pure soul, which is “literally a part of G-d above,” and brought us here into this physical world. The purpose is not for a Jew to live cut off from the world—to live in a beis midrash or a shul, sit there twenty-four hours a day, day and night, studying Torah, and say, “I don’t care what happens in the world.” The soul did not need to descend into the world for that. It could have remained in Gan Eden. The soul descended into this world, into a physical body with a yetzer hara, surrounded by a world—and in the language of Chassidus, the word olam, “world,” is related to he’elem, “concealment.” The Divine light is concealed in it; the Divine light does not shine openly in the world. That is because we have a task. Our task is to bring this awareness, to bring this truth—Hashem’s truth—into the world. To take the truth of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that shines in a Jew’s soul and bring it into everyday life, into ordinary life, into the life of

15:07 the world. Notice that the word Geulah is made up of the word golah, “exile,” with an aleph added. That is the whole difference: golah, Geulah. The difference is an aleph. The aleph represents Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Alufo shel olam, the Master of the world. Our task is not to escape the world. Our task is to bring the aleph, the Master of the world, into exile. There is exile, there is a reality, there is galus, there is nature, there is a world. And within the reality of the world, a Jew lives above the world. He is not overwhelmed by it; he is not shaken by it. He isn’t trapped, he isn’t enslaved, he isn’t stuck. On the contrary, he is essentially above the world, and he brings that very thing into everyday life, into ordinary life. So the Rebbe pointed out: Pay attention to the Rebbe Maharash’s saying. The Rebbe Maharash did not simply say, “From the outset, go from above.” No. He began with an introduction. He said: “The world says that you have to go from below, and when that doesn’t work, you go from above. I say you have to go from above from the outset.” Why do I need the whole introduction? What does the world say, and then what do I say? Just say what you have to say. Why refer to the world at all? But that is precisely the point. The Rebbe Maharash’s message is: I come from within the world. There is what the world says; there is a world, a worldly reality. And within the world there are the bounds of nature, rules, laws, and all kinds of things. The world exists; it is real. “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth,” and there are day and night, summer and winter, cold and heat, which will not cease. There is the natural order. A Jew does not break the world or flee from it. A Jew brings the light of Geulah into the world. That is what the second month adds over the first month. In the Torah, Iyar is called “the second month,” in Parshas Bamidbar. “The second month” is not just a number; it is

17:11 Second, in terms of understanding what we are doing now: Nissan, the first month, was the Exodus from Egypt. It was an escape. That was the process. The Jewish people first fled Egypt—fled the world, fled nature. Our task is to bring the light of Geulah from the first month into the second month. That means taking the freedom, the feeling of freedom, joy, vitality, and Geulah that a person gathered over the thirty days of Nissan and bringing it into everyday life in the second month. Even as he returns to his routine, he knows that he belongs somewhere else, on another level. He is a Jew of Geulah, and he brings that awareness into everyday life. That is the essence of Sefiras HaOmer. If we consider its deeper meaning, as we discussed, throughout the month of Iyar we are immersed in this mitzvah. Sefiras HaOmer is precisely this point: “You shall count for yourselves from the day after Shabbos.” A person counts the days. It seems like the simplest mitzvah: today is one day, today is the second day. But Sefiras HaOmer begins “from the day after Shabbos.” In other words, on each of these days, a person feels: Where am I coming from? I am coming from the day after Shabbos, from the wonderful, elevated time of Pesach. Here, “Shabbos” refers to Pesach. As explained in Chassidus, the verse calls Pesach “Shabbos” specifically to emphasize this freedom. Shabbos and rest for everlasting life: Shabbos symbolizes Geulah. “A song for the day of Shabbos” refers to that Shabbos and rest for everlasting life—the life of Geulah. Pesach is a kind of Shabbos, when a Jew is in a state where there is no world, no

19:32 other concerns, no mundane matters, no involvement with anything in this physical world. That is Pesach, with its meaning of Geulah and freedom: a Jew with matzah, living a life of faith, a life completely removed from material and physical concerns. And from the day after Shabbos, there is Sefiras HaOmer, bringing that atmosphere into everyday life, into every weekday and every day of the year. This is also why it is called Sefiras HaOmer. Chassidus explains that the omer was barley—animal food. The omer was an offering of barley brought in the Beis Hamikdash. The Gemara in Pesachim says that barley is animal food, and it is precisely the omer, this animal food, that we must count. “To count,” says the Alter Rebbe, is also related to shining and clarity. To count means to make something clear, to illuminate it, to give it brightness. There is a special stone among the stones of the breastplate called sapphire. The Alter Rebbe says that “sapphire” conveys brightness and light. We bring light into the omer, into material life, even into the animal soul and the yetzer hara, transforming its love of this world into love of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is what we say every day: “Today is one day of the Omer”; “Today is two days of the Omer.” Each day, a Jew works on himself to refine and illuminate his material side, his body and animal soul, and to improve his character traits day by day. In this way, a Jew prepares for Shavuos, the days of the Giving of the Torah. This also explains what we discussed: it was precisely on the day we begin saying Tachanun, the day we return to our routine, 2 Iyar, that the Rebbe Maharash was born. What was his watchword? What was his saying, as we discussed? The world says there is a plan: you must proceed in order from below, start

21:54 slowly, see how things work out, and only at the end, if they do not work, look for other ways. “I say,” the Rebbe Maharash reveals to us, that a Jew rises above the material. A Jew is a Jew of Pesach all year round. A Jew is a Jew of Geulah all year round. That is where we truly are. From the outset, we begin from above. From the outset, we recognize our strength. Who are we? We are Jews of Geulah. We are Jews with a soul, “an actual part of G-d above.” That is the essence of a Jew, and we then bring it into every day of the year. This is the message of the transition from Nissan to Iyar: to bring the light of Geulah into exile, to bring the alef, the Master of the World, into everyday life. And so, during Sefiras HaOmer specifically—and this is interesting—each day after we finish counting the Omer, we say a special prayer that the Beis Hamikdash be built speedily in our days: “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash to its place, speedily in our days, amen, selah.” In other words, specifically during Sefiras HaOmer, we offer a special prayer for the building of the Beis Hamikdash in our days. Why do we do this specifically when counting the Omer, and not with other mitzvos? It is as we discussed: this is the essence of the Beis Hamikdash for which we are all waiting. It is the essence of moving from Nissan into Iyar through the mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer: bringing clarity and light into material life, into the daily routine, turning an ordinary day into a holy day. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu give us the strength as we go forward this year. May everyone have a healthy, joyful, happy summer. May we truly merit to care for both our bodies and our souls, so that they are whole, and may we soon truly merit the light of the complete Geulah

23:54 through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.