Counting the Omer in the Geulah - Rabbi Menachem Cohen shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Hello and welcome. Today, with Hashem’s help, we’ll discuss—as everyone knows—a central and important subject, especially in connection with Sefiras HaOmer. One of the Rebbe’s central sichos, perhaps the central sicha about studying the subjects of Geulah and Moshiach, was during Sefiras HaOmer, on 28 Nissan: “Do everything in your power to bring the true and complete Geulah in actual practice.” A week later, on Shabbos Parshas Tazria-Metzora 5751, the Rebbe spoke again. That day’s sefirah was Malchus shebeTiferes. Each day of the count, we say, for example, “Today is twenty-one days, which are three weeks.” According to Kabbalah, each of the forty-nine days of Sefiras HaOmer corresponds to one of the middos as it is included within another middah. It begins with Chesed shebeChesed, then Gevurah shebeChesed, Tiferes shebeChesed, and so on, until the last day, Malchus shebeMalchus. There are seven sefiros: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchus. We begin with Chesed shebeChesed, then Gevurah shebeChesed, and continue all the way to Malchus shebeMalchus on the final day. That week, the count reached three weeks, twenty-one days, and the sefirah was Malchus shebeTiferes. So what is Malchus shebeTiferes? The Rebbe explained: Tiferes is... It says in Pirkei Avos: “Which is the right path that a person should choose? One that is a credit to the one who follows it and earns him credit from others.” The Gemara says, “Tiferes refers to the Giving of the Torah.” The Giving of the Torah is Tiferes. Tiferes is Torah study. Torah study connects things: just as Tiferes brings many different colors together, Torah study connects and combines the very highest holiness with the very

02:19 Speaker 2 lowest world. It teaches us how to do what needs to be done in every place and in every matter. That is Tiferes. And Malchus shebeTiferes—Malchus refers to King Moshiach, to the Geulah. So Malchus shebeTiferes is studying Torah on the subjects of Geulah and Moshiach. The Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, then said that the best way, the easiest way—as the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos says, “Which is the right path that a person should choose?” What is the most direct, easiest, and fastest path among all the Torah’s paths to bring the true and complete Geulah in actual practice? The Rebbe says the answer is: “One that is a credit to the one who follows it and earns him credit from others.” Through Torah study, through Tiferes, and especially Malchus shebeTiferes—studying Torah, particularly its teachings about Geulah and Moshiach—that is the most direct, easiest, and fastest path among all the Torah’s paths to bringing the true and complete Geulah in actual practice. So today, with Hashem’s help, we have the privilege and the opportunity to study Geulah and Moshiach, especially in connection with Sefiras HaOmer. As we said, Sefiras HaOmer is also the time when the Rebbe urged and continues to urge the study of Geulah and Moshiach. So what could be more fitting than studying Torah on Geulah and Moshiach in connection with Sefiras HaOmer? There are several very interesting things about Sefiras HaOmer. Every day, we count the Omer. In the counting, we say, “Today is four days,” “Today is five days,” and so on. First we say a blessing. Someone who has not missed a day says the blessing, and after the count we say: “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash to its place speedily in our days, amen, selah.” And the question is: Why do we ask

04:22 Speaker 2 for this specifically here? Why don’t we mention it on other occasions? When someone takes a lulav, after saying the blessing on the mitzvah of lulav and finishing the shaking, he doesn’t say, “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash.” When someone blows the shofar, he doesn’t say it afterward either. Why, specifically with Sefiras HaOmer, do we say, “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash to its place speedily in our days, amen, selah”? That is one question. Another question arises when we look at the order and wording of Sefiras HaOmer: we notice something very interesting. There is no Shehecheyanu blessing. We don’t say, “Who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this time,” and then begin counting. No. We go straight to the blessing on Sefiras HaOmer. Even the first time, on the first day of the count, we don’t begin with “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, Who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this time.” Why not? For matzah, we say Shehecheyanu. At the Seder, we say Shehecheyanu once during Kiddush, intending it to cover all the other mitzvos we fulfill that night as well: eating matzah, eating maror, telling your child the story, and of course Kiddush itself. So why do we do that on Pesach, at the Seder? It’s the same with taking the lulav: the first time, we say Shehecheyanu. When blowing the shofar, we say Shehecheyanu. Why don’t we say Shehecheyanu here? The answer to these two questions is really one answer. The reason we don’t say “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash to its place speedily in our days”—the Alter Rebbe writes in his Shulchan Aruch, section 489, explaining why we say

06:32 Speaker 2 “May the Merciful One restore it to us” immediately afterward. Do you know why? Because today we count only as a remembrance of the Beis Hamikdash. This counting is not a fulfillment of the Torah mitzvah at all, because the mitzvah is to count from the Omer offering, and today we have no Omer offering to count from. Rather, the Sages instituted the counting as a remembrance of the Beis Hamikdash. That is why we pray for the Beis Hamikdash to be rebuilt, so that we can fulfill the mitzvah properly. In other words, Sefiras HaOmer is a very important mitzvah, and we observe it every day from Pesach until Shavuos. But today we don’t actually fulfill the mitzvah as it should be fulfilled. Why? Because today we have no Omer offering. What is Sefiras HaOmer? It is counting from the time we bring the Omer offering. The Omer offering was a meal offering of barley brought in the Beis Hamikdash. There was an entire procedure for the harvesting, as the Rambam describes. The person who was going to harvest would arrive and ask everyone present—the gathering was a large one, with everyone there together—“Shall I reap? Shall I reap? Is this a sickle? Is this a sickle? Is this a sickle?” And so on. He would ask whether it was Shabbos that day, and all the other questions before harvesting the Omer. Incidentally, this was done even in the Shemitah year, as the sources state, because it was a mitzvah, and even on Shabbos. After he finished harvesting the Omer, they would take it and sift it through thirteen sieves until it became what is called geres karmel, thoroughly sifted. Once it had been sifted properly, they would offer it on the altar—a barley meal offering. That was the Omer offering, and afterward

08:30 Speaker 2 We begin counting. It is a count from the omer, “from the day you bring the omer of the waving.” “Seven complete weeks shall there be,” until the day after the seventh week, until the day of the first fruits, until Shavuos. Today we do not have the omer offering, so we do not fulfill the mitzvah on a Torah level. According to most halachic authorities, at any rate, there is no Torah obligation to count the Omer today. That is how the Alter Rebbe rules, and that is the view of most halachic authorities. There is another opinion, a minority opinion—the Rambam’s. The Rambam holds that even today we are obligated to count the Omer on a Torah level. But according to the Alter Rebbe and many, many halachic authorities—the Baal Hamaor, the Ran, and others—the mitzvah of counting the Omer today is rabbinic. So immediately after we finish counting the Omer, which is a rabbinic mitzvah today, we are stirred with longing and anticipation for the time when we will be able to fulfill the mitzvah on a Torah level. That is why we ask: “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash to its place, speedily in our days, amen, selah.” The Ran says that this is also the reason we do not recite Shehecheyanu the first time we count the Omer. The Ran and the Baal Hamaor explain it this way. With the mitzvah of lulav, pidyon haben, and so on, as we mentioned, we do recite Shehecheyanu. The first reason is that, as we said, you recite Shehecheyanu when you perform a mitzvah. You perform a mitzvah, so you recite Shehecheyanu. Here, you are not performing the mitzvah in its full form; it is only a remembrance of the Beis Hamikdash, a remembrance of what took place when the Beis Hamikdash stood. It is not a mitzvah in its own right today, so we do not recite Shehecheyanu. The second reason, he says, is that Shehecheyanu applies only to something that brings joy. The mitzvah of

10:21 Speaker 2 lulav—“and you shall rejoice before Hashem your G-d.” The Megillah on Purim, for example, is also about thanking Hashem for the miracle of deliverance on Purim, and so on. But counting the Omer, say the Ran and the Baal Hamaor, recalls no joy; rather, it recalls our sorrow and the destruction of our Beis Hamikdash. Incidentally, it would seem that according to this, in the future, with the true and complete Geulah, when the mitzvah will be on a Torah level, we will recite Shehecheyanu when counting the Omer—according to these opinions. Now, according to the Rambam, counting the Omer is on a Torah level even today, as we mentioned. But even according to the Rambam, we still need to ask, “May the Merciful One restore the service of the Beis Hamikdash.” Why? Because counting the Omer is, in essence, an anticipation of Shavuos, of the Giving of the Torah. So this is the most fitting time to ask for and anticipate the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash as well, when we will merit “a new Torah shall go forth from Me.” The Rebbe also explains in several places that, in the Geulah, there will be an additional completeness in fulfilling the mitzvah of counting the Omer. As is known, there are different levels of completeness in counting the Omer. There is the ordinary counting of the Omer, which is also “complete”: When is it complete? When we count seven full weeks. There is another opinion about “complete,” an additional level of completeness: when the count begins on a Sunday and ends on a Shabbos. That, too, is a kind of completeness, with each week of the Omer ending on Shabbos. There is a further level of completeness. The Gemara says: “When are they complete? When the Jewish people do the will of Hashem.” There is also a source that says, “When are they complete? When Yeshua and Shechanyah are among them.” It says that this refers to particular groups—there were twenty-four groups of kohanim. Two of those groups were Yeshua

12:25 Speaker 2 and Shechanyah. There are several explanations of what “when Yeshua and Shechanyah are among them” means. But one explanation is that the wording is not actually “when Yeshua and Shechanyah are among them,” but “when the salvation of the Shechinah is among them.” When there is salvation for the Shechinah, when the true and complete Geulah arrives—then, “when are they complete?” It adds completeness and wholeness to the counting of the Omer. So that is regarding the counting of the Omer. As for the mitzvah of counting the Omer today, we mentioned several halachos about it and its connection to the true and complete Geulah: how that connection is expressed in counting the Omer, in our saying “May the Merciful One,” and in whether we recite Shehecheyanu. From here we come to an interesting question. Now we will move beyond anticipating the Geulah to what happens if Moshiach arrives during the counting of the Omer. Moshiach arrives, Melech HaMoshiach is revealed, and the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, comes and redeems us all, taking us all from exile to an everlasting Geulah. What happens if this is in the middle of counting the Omer? Clearly, once the Geulah arrives, counting the Omer is a Torah mitzvah. We can then count the Omer on a Torah level. As we said, there are opinions, such as the Rambam’s, that it is on a Torah level even today, but the halachic ruling is that counting the Omer today is rabbinic. In the true and complete Geulah, according to all opinions, we will once again count the Omer as a Torah mitzvah. Seemingly, at least according to certain opinions, we will also recite Shehecheyanu over it. But the question arises: if Moshiach arrives in the middle of counting the Omer, can we even continue counting the Omer on a Torah level? Can the count be disconnected like that? Until now, we were not obligated by the Torah. From this point onward, we have a Torah obligation, so seemingly the two do not go together. We cannot carry over the count we made before into our present situation, because

14:29 Speaker 2 now it is a new reality. There is a similar question discussed by halachic authorities about a minor who becomes an adult, a servant who is freed, or a non-Jew who converts. What happens? Can they count the Omer? I had a case like that. Two years ago, my son became bar mitzvah in the middle of the counting of the Omer. What happens when he becomes bar mitzvah in the middle of the count? Can he continue? Until then, his counting was under the law of chinuch, the obligation to educate a child. Granted, the obligation is rabbinic in any case, but until then, before his bar mitzvah, it was the law of chinuch. From that point onward, in the middle of counting the Omer, he becomes obligated in the rabbinic mitzvah himself. It is no longer only because of chinuch. In halachic terms, until now it was “twice rabbinic”; now it is only “once rabbinic.” Can he continue counting with a blessing? There are indeed those today who argue that he should continue counting without a blessing. But many halachic authorities—and this is how the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, rules—say that he can and should continue counting with a blessing. Why? Because the very fact that you counted due to a mitzvah gives significance to the counting you did. The same applies to a servant who was freed. It does not apply to a non-Jew who converted. He cannot continue counting with a blessing; he must count without a blessing, because he has converted and only now becomes obligated in mitzvos. Until now, he had no obligation at all. But a servant who was freed, or a minor who became an adult during the counting of the Omer, can continue counting with a blessing. Accordingly, the same applies in the true and complete Geulah. The count we made before the Geulah can complete the count we will make afterward, in the true and complete Geulah, very soon. That is one point. But a question arises here.

16:31 Speaker 2 Otherwise. After all, as we said, it is written that the mitzvah begins “from the day you bring the omer of the wave offering.” The Torah’s mitzvah is to count from when the omer offering was brought, but we have not brought the omer offering this year. If Moshiach comes, for example, on 22 Nissan or 15 Iyar, we will not have brought the omer. Since we did not bring the omer offering, we seemingly cannot count the Omer as prescribed by the Torah. Next year, we will be able to count the Omer as prescribed, but this year the counting would apparently still be rabbinic, not a Torah obligation. The Minchas Elazar addresses this question. The Munkatcher Rebbe says that when Moshiach comes in the middle of the counting, we will be able to continue counting with a blessing as a Torah obligation. Why? He explains: It is true that we did not bring the omer offering. The verse says, “From the day you bring the omer of the wave offering,” and we did not bring it. That presents a problem. But what does the Torah go on to say? “From the day you bring the omer of the wave offering, seven complete weeks shall there be. Until the day after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days, and you shall bring a new meal offering to Hashem.” So the purpose of counting the Omer is not only to count from the offering of the omer. It is also to reach the day of the firstfruits, when we bring the new meal offering to Hashem on Shavuos—the two loaves. We will be able to bring the two loaves in the year Moshiach comes. Since Moshiach will have arrived, we will be able to bring that firstfruits offering, the offering of the two loaves. Accordingly, we will be able to count the Omer as a Torah obligation in order to reach the fiftieth day and bring the firstfruits offering then. We will be able to do that even if Moshiach comes in the middle of the counting of the Omer: we will be able to bring the

18:32 Speaker 2 offerings on Shavuos as prescribed. This is also one of the reasons, the Radbaz says, that we do not recite Shehecheyanu when counting the Omer. He says that the Shehecheyanu blessing we recite on Shavuos also covers the counting of the Omer, because the whole purpose of counting the Omer is to reach Shavuos. That is what the Radbaz says. Accordingly, we will be able to continue counting the Omer with a blessing as a Torah obligation as soon as Moshiach comes. The Rebbe adds another point: The Torah does not say to count seven weeks “from when you bring the omer.” The omer is brought during the day, on 16 Nissan, while we begin counting the Omer the night before. Rather, it says, “from the day you bring the omer of the wave offering.” In other words, it must be a day on which the omer can be brought. Today, in our present situation, it is not a day on which the omer can be brought, so we cannot say that our counting is a Torah obligation. But with the true and complete Geulah, even if Moshiach comes, say, two weeks after the counting of the Omer began and after the time for bringing the omer, his arrival will make the preceding time count as a time when the omer could have been brought. Since it is a time when the omer could have been brought, it qualifies as “the day you bring the omer of the wave offering,” and we can continue counting as a Torah obligation. So even today, when we count the Omer, we should know that, according to most halachic authorities, our counting today is a rabbinic obligation. But we should have in mind that this counting can become part of our fulfillment of the Torah obligation to count the Omer when Moshiach Tzidkeinu comes immediately, right now. Amen.