Sefiras HaOmer: Finding Menucha in Chaotic Times

2:24 It's my son's birthday tonight. I know you're very embarrassed right now, but that's okay. It's your son's. It's my son's birthday, and I want to do something special for yeshiva. So we're so thankful to your parents who know that a birthday is a time where a person celebrates their birthday to be able to say what am I accomplishing? Not only what have I accomplished, but renewing my commitment to accomplish. And I want to wish you, on behalf of every guy here in yeshiva, happy birthday. The food downstairs tonight comes from your parents. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear. Happy birthday to you. How old are you? Scale. Good hug. I also want to say one last thing. We're holding now in the period of Shavuot Simur, so we don't get the usual beautiful music that Reb Shimon brings every week with his guitar. But in all seriousness, when we were singing that last, final, very beautiful niggun All the niggunim tonight were beautiful, but that last, final niggun Had the opportunity just to sit back for a second and watch.

3:57 Here we are. It's late on Thursday night. And guys singing so beautifully. It's so good to be back in yeshiva. It's so good to be here with the guys. So much nachas from seeing how much you guys have grown. So tonight Instead of speaking of the parsha as we usually do, let's try to gain a couple of insights into the nature of Sviras Oimer. The pasuk says, "Usvarte lachem miMacharas Shabbos miYayim Haviachem es Oimer haTnufa." Shav Shabbos tomi matianna, and from the day on which you will bring the Omer offering Which is mimacharas hashabbos, the day after Shabbos Shav Shabbos tomi matianna It should be you count off seven weeks. Ad mimacharas hashabbos as shviyas tisbiru chamishim yom vikravte mincha hadasha l'Hashem. They must be complete. You must count until the day after the seventh week, which is fifty days, and then you will bring a new mincha to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, a mincha chadasha.

5:03 What does this word mimacharas Shabbos mean? Does that refer to Sunday, to Yom Rishon, to the day after Shabbos, or does it refer to the day after Pesach? So we know what we do Which is what's appropriate to do based on the Torah Shabbat. Shabbos here doesn't mean Shabbos; it means the first day of Pesach. We count the Omer starting on the second night of Pesach. The Baisusim, the Gemara Menachos tells us Took it differently. The Baisusim interpreted Shabbos literally as the seventh day of the week, and therefore the Omer began not on the second day of Pesach. But rather they always started counting the Omer on a Sunday. Shaila is Why leave any room for confusion? We have a Torah Shabbat pet, and the Torah Shabbat pet tells us what to do. And the Baisusim didn't have the Torah Shabbat pet, so they didn't know what to do.

6:05 But if the Torah meant the second day of Pesach Then let the Torah have said the second day of Pesach. Why does it say Mimacharas Shabbos? Why use that ambiguous terminology? Clearly, there seems to be some sort of connection. Between counting the Omer and Shabbos So what's the connection between Shabbos and the counting of the Omer? Why does it start me Macharas Shabbos on the day after Shabbos, even though we know that the day after Shabbos is really referring to the day after Pesach? Clearly, there is a connection to Shabbos because otherwise, it would have just said count from the day after the first day of Pesach. What's this notion that Sviras Omer is connected to Shabbos, and that we specifically start counting the day after Shabbos, the High Noon, the day after the first day of Pesach. The pasuk in Shmays tells us that we did not leave Mitzrayim stamped to be free.

7:05 That's not why a Jew left Mitzrayim. The goal of Yisias Mitzrayim is Matan Torah. The point of leaving Mitzrayim was to get to the level of Matan Torah, which means that it's not just stam; there is a time period between Pesach and Shavuos. It's not just filler time. There is a process of Hachana. There is something that we're meant to be doing in these forty-nine days in order that we should be worthy of arriving at Shavuos in a way that we could be makabel the Torah. There's a transformational quality to the time that we're living in. Shaila, what is the nature of this transformation? What are we meant to be doing in these 49 days to prepare ourselves for Kabbalah Satora? And how does that tie in to the notion of Shabbos? So I want to share with you an unbelievable word. Imagine you're a slave in Egypt.

8:09 A slave in Egypt was not just a slave. For three years, five years, or ten years. But if you were born a slave In those final moments, those final years before Klal Yisroel went free That meant your father was a slave. It meant your grandfather was a slave. It may have meant your great grandfather was a slave. Two hundred and ten years, depending on the time you were born. So you were a slave, the son of slaves, the grandson of slaves, the great-grandchild of slaves. And imagine Moshe Rabbeinu comes. And he has a message of hope, and he says, "Chevra" The time that we all knew was coming has arrived. We had a havtacha from the times of Avram Avinu that we were going to go down to be strangers in a strange land, that Gollas Mitzrayim was going to happen, but that ultimately we would be redeemed.

9:04 It seems even that they were aware of the time frame that they would be redeemed in. They knew that it was going to be four hundred years. Bnei Ephraim left a little bit early because they have a different cheshbon of when the four hundred years came. Maybe they didn't cheshbon in extra years because of the Mechiras Yosef. There's a lot of hack about that in the world of Kabbalah. But they knew that there was a time when it was going to come to an end. And Moshe Rabenu comes and says he giasman. It's not random that it was Moshe Rabenu. If you were a yid living in that time You knew Yocheven and Amram were the Gedolei Adar. You knew Aron and Cain. You knew Miriam and Aviva. You knew there was a story that their child grew up in the house of Paro. And you knew the story that happened after that—he was chased away to Midyan.

9:53 Probably One who was living in that time might have assumed, on some level, they might have said Unbelievable! The child of Hamram returns from Midyan with a message from Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we're going to be redeemed. What's Klali Yisrael's reaction? Moshe Rabbeinu comes with a message of hope. They can't hear him. Imagine being so broken that somebody comes to you and says, "Higi Asman, we're leaving Shibon Mitzrayim, we're leaving slavery." They can't hear him. Why? Mikaytz eruach or may avoid the kasha? Because they were short of breath and the hard work. What does kaitzer ruach mean? What does it mean to be short of breath? So Rashi tells us they were literally too short of breath from the avoydakasha From the labor that they went through. They pasha couldn't catch their breath. There was a physical depletion, and as a result of their physical depletion, there was an emotional collapse. They were not capable of hearing words of hope, and so pasha even though it made sense, and even though they were waiting for this moment They couldn't hear it.

11:08 There are a chayim a kadosh. Says a different pshat Perhaps expanding on the pshat of Rashi, but he says a different pshat. He says kaitzer is from a latinization of katzar Which means narrow. It means not shortness of breath. It means narrow-minded thinking. Small thinking. Some people think big. Some people think small. Big people. Who have expansive vision They have big vision. They have big hopes, they have big dreams. They expect opportunities to present themselves. Greatness is always right around the corner. And then there are people who are so broken They have a very narrow-minded vision. They don't expect anything good to happen. They certainly don't grab opportunities that come to them. A person with this type of narrow-minded vision that the Arachaim Hakadosh is describing—if somebody would come to them, and he would say, 'You saved my life. Ask me for anything. I'll grant you any wish that you have' They would say, "Maybe you could take me out to a nice restaurant."

12:22 If you meet with Bill Gates, you have the opportunity to spend time with someone who has tens of billions of dollars, and the only thing you could think of is to take me out to Smashburger. It's narrow-minded thinking. It's a small way of thinking. Big people grab big opportunities. Narrow-minded people don't expect greatness, and when greatness presents itself They're so broken that they ask for small things. It's like Kaviyachol. I don't mean to say anything negative, but it's like Kaviyachol, that high school kid who comes to his rebbe and he goes, "Rebbe, can I daven for the Knicks?" For two reasons, you shouldn't daven for the Knicks. Number one, what a small thing to daven for! You're standing in front of Melech Malchay Am Lachem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Want to talk to Hakadosh Baruch Hu about the Knicks? And second of all, the Gemara says you're not allowed to have a tefillah shav. You're not allowed to stop davening for things that can't happen.

13:18 What? Your Pistons fan? Benny's here. He's from Detroit. Narrow-minded thing. I get to start the conversation. You get to finish it, Benny. We believe that as bad things are going to happen to New York, so don't worry. In the end, you'll be laughing last. To sit in front of our Kadosh Baruch Hu and to daven for something so small It's a product of narrow-minded thinking. It's a product of narrow-minded thinking. You're sitting in front of the Rebbeinu Shlom. You could ask for anything. Moshe Rabbeinu comes and he says, "Chevra, we're going to leave." The avodah kasha All of those years of slavery It turned them into narrow-minded people. People who didn't expect redemption anymore. It's a state of brokenness that's beyond just physical exhaustion. It's the complete collapse of a person's identity. How do you redeem such people? How do you take small people and train them to think big?

14:34 How do you take a guy who comes to yeshiva and he says, "My goal this year" Again, I don't want to say even a goal because I don't want to be mezazel in anything. Every goal, Baruch Hashem, is meaningful. But if a guy comes to yeshiva and he has talent up the wazoo, and he comes to you and he goes, 'Rebbe, this year I really hope that I am going to stieg in putting on tefillin every day.' How do you take that guy and say to him, 'The Rebbeinu Shlom gave you a brain.' The Rebbeinu Shlom gave you the capacity to sit and learn in a serious way, and to ingest his Torah in a transformational way that's going to make you into a new person. The Rebbeinu Shlom gave you energy. You know what a balchesed you could be. You could transform somebody's life if you have a kind and compassionate ear. It's a beautiful thing to put on tefillin every day. Don't get me wrong; I'm not being mezalza, but you could be huge and you think of yourself as a very narrow, small person.

15:25 How do you transform such a person? The Medrash in Vayikra Rabba says, "Ein Yisrael negalen elu bescho Shabbos." The reason why we were redeemed is in the merit of the fact that we kept Shabbos. What does Shabbos mean here? The Slonim Rebbe explains as follows: Etzem Hagalus, he histalkus hadas. What does it mean to be an exile, Rabbi? What does it mean to be disconnected? You know what the pesha is. You're removed from das. You're removed from the world of thinking. Everything is cloudy to you. You know what that comes from? It comes from a lack of menucha. A person who lives in a state of tranquility A person who lives in a state of serenity They can think. When a person is going through gehenom They can't think. They have to get to a state of menucha. Many years ago. A young man who's not in our yeshiva found his way into the yeshiva to come visit.

16:36 He sat with me. And we spoke about what was going on in his life. And it was very clear that he was suffering from very serious trauma. I have a chaver of mine, a dear chaver of mine, who's a phenomenal therapist and who specializes in working with people who have gone through very serious trauma. So I started working with this boy to try to get him to the therapist. And it took months. It's okay. You don't have to be afraid. He's really good. I understand the vulnerability. I understand not wanting to go to that place. Finally, after working on him for months, I convinced him. And he went for a couple of sessions. And the therapist called me and he said "He's not ready to go to therapy. I think it's important that he stop coming." I said, "Please don't do this to me. I've mamish spent the last couple of months trying to get him into your office."

17:27 He said, "Mordechai, you don't understand." If a person was in World War II And they're in a bunker in World War II, at that time there was chemical warfare. There were all sorts of crazy things that were going on in World War II. Bullets are flying over your head. Imagine a therapist comes to sit with you in your little bunker. Bullets whizzing over your head, mortars exploding all around you, and a therapist sits down with you, an excellent therapist, and he sits down with you and he goes What's going on for you right now? What's coming up? How are you experiencing this? What parts of you are presenting themselves in this moment? You can't do the therapeutic work in that moment because there's no manucha. There's no state of tranquility, no state of serenity in order to do the work. The matzav that this kid was here in Eretz Yisrael, what he was going through was so traumatic There was no room for him to do therapy.

18:23 The therapist said the best thing right now would be to get him out of Eretz Yisrael. To get him to a place of tranquility, and then by Hashem we'll set him up with a therapist in America, and by Hashem he'll do the work then. And that's exactly what we did, and Baruch Hashem it worked out pretty good. Ain negalin ella bescho Shabbos. If Klal Yisrael is in a state of koytzer ruach, like the Arachaim describes, not just Rashi's physical labor, which is of course true But the Arachaim's development of that physical labor was so oppressive. That a person couldn't think of themselves as redeemed; their definition was a slave. How can a person be transformed in that moment? The answer is Shabbos, Menucha. Tranquility is what allows you to step back in your life and say, "Who am I?" A person with small goals, when they reach a state of tranquility, naturally begins to become an expansive person.

19:23 Guy comes to yeshiva. He might come with very small goals, but if he feels comfortable. If he has a rebbe, if he has a chevra You know what he does? Takes a breath And all of a sudden he starts to imagine himself. Maybe I could also be a guy who goes to basic medrash. Maybe I could also be a guy who comes up with a svarah and shir. Maybe I could also be a guy who helps other guys. Maybe I could also be a guy who runs to help in the chadar ocho for setup or runs to help in the shul for mishmar. In a state of serenity, people become expansive. There are two types of people. There are thermostats And there's thermometers. A thermometer is someone who reflects the environment. A thermometer measures the temperature. Some people are thermometers; they're always asking themselves, "How do I feel?"

20:20 If you're always asking yourself how you feel It means you're not in a state of serenity; you're in a state of chaos. Some people are thermostats; they're okay. So they decide with clarity How do I want to show up to this environment? What temperature will be around me? What do I create that comes from a state of being in menucha? Zayra Kadosh says a very deep thing. Talmidei Chachamim are called Shabbos. Why is it Talmud Chacham called Shabbos? Note the Tetz says to be Shabbos stick doesn't mean that you keep Shabbos. Shabbos is something that you take with you into the week. Hayoyim rishon leShabbos. Hayoyim sheni leShabbos. Hayoyim shlishi leShabbos. With all the chaos in my life and all the things going on around me I'm in a state of menucha. The environment doesn't dictate my emotional reality. My emotional reality is dependent ach v'ra'k on me. And Baruch Hashem, I'm in a state of Shabbos. That's a lifetime achievement award. To become a tamu chacham means wherever I go, I come with an okayness. I come with a serenity.

21:42 Sviras ha'omer is the process through which we take someone from being a slave to being an eved Hashem. To be a slave means to live mikoitzer ruach, narrow-mindedness. The goal is to get us fifty days later to a state of being I'm an eved Hashem, to be mukabbul the Torah. That means that we're going from a state of absolute chaos to a state of utter serenity, because somebody cannot be mukabbul the Torah unless they're in a state of serenity. So what do we do? We start when Right after Shabbos Right after Shabbos. It's Pesach, it's Shabbos. The Torah is telling us a clear message. Torah Shabbat tells us it's Pesach, so we know that we start not like the Bei Susim. We start right after Pesach, but the pasuk tells us it's not an accident. It's Mimacharas Shabbos, the beginning of the work is Ain Negalin Ella Beschos Shabbos. You started off with serenity. What do you do? You start counting days. You start counting weeks.

22:46 One day, then another Shabbatik day, and then you've completed a Shabbatik week. And then another week, and another week until you reach seven weeks. Seven weeks of Shabbat. That means forty nine days. Forty nine means the ultimate expression of teva, the ultimate expression of this world. Seven days is the week. Seven times seven, which means the ultimate expression of the week, the ultimate expression of being engaged in the material world. But you did forty nine days of Shabbos. And because you started mimachar as a Shabbos, one level above Shabbos, we finish one level above Shabbos. We don't count forty-nine days to matan Torah. We count forty-nine days, and then we get, because we're in a state of serenity, a gift from above, not something that you can earn. A person cannot earn matan Torah. They can only prepare themselves. They can only become the vehicle to receive matan Torah.

23:45 I heard a ma'isim. We'll finish with this. Of certain young Talmud that he went to study by a makubal He showed up. This great makubal was there. And talmidim were there. A new guy walks into the room. And the makubal calls him over. And he reaches out the makubal with an apple And so this brand new talmud thinks to himself. He's offering me an apple, so he does what anybody, any of us would do. He sticks his hand out to grab the apple, and the talmidim grab him. They pull him back. He doesn't know what happened. He offered me the apple. And the makubal is standing there, holding out the apple. So once again He goes to reach his hand out to grab the apple. The talmidim grab him. You don't grab the apple. What are you doing? Doesn't know what to do. The makubal is motioning to him, "Come, I have an apple for you."

24:44 He doesn't know what to do at this point. So one of the talmidim said to him You don't take the apple from the makubal. You stick your hand under and allow him to drop it in. We do not receive the Torah by grabbing the apple from the makubal. We hold our hands open. We allow Torah to drop into our lives. In a state of serenity In a state of menuchas anefesh A person can receive the Torah. Forty-nine days of chaos." A person could go through Gehennom, forty nine days of chaos Forty nine days of serenity. He figured out how to locate himself within all the chaos of all the world. He figured out how to be okay even when everything around him was not okay. Which is the biggest avodah in the world—to be okay when everything is terrible. I know how to be okay. There's a rebbeinu shalom in this world. I'm living in a state of Shabbos.

25:40 Forty nine days. A person wants to reach out and grab that apple. After 49 days of finding manucha, he says, "I'm okay with everything that's going on around me. I'm okay." He holds out his hands. He allows Torah on the 50th day to drop into his lap. Rabbi Yisai, this year More than this year Since October 7th of that Simchas Torah a year and a half ago We have been living with unbelievable chaos in our lives. You're going to tell your kids that you lived through this. Yesterday was Yom Hazikaron. We saw chaos, Rabbi Isaiah. If yesterday meant nothing to you If you could live in this country and just ignore that siren, and I'm not here to talk about all the different politics. I'm just talking about something deeply human. To know that yesterday, so many parents were on Har Hutzel. So many children were on Har Hutzel.

26:43 So many brothers and sisters were on our Herzl. So many grandparents were on our Herzl. Grieving the death of those that gave their life al Kiddush Hashem, so that we could be here tonight in Mevaseret and Mevaseret Mishmar. If you could go through that and not understand that we are living in absolute chaos Then you are not living in reality. The last year and a half in my life. I've never seen anything like this. We lived through COVID. COVID was child's play compared to what we've been living with in this country for the last year and a half. How are we okay? How are we doing this? How do these people get up every day, not knowing if their husbands are going to come home from war, or if their children are going to come home from war, or their brothers are going to come? How do we do it?

27:42 The Talmud says there's a Rebbeinu Shalom. We cultivated emuna. We know how to live. Anchored deeply Even with all the chaos around us. Beis Hashem, in just a couple of weeks from now We have Lag BaOmer. A couple weeks after that, we're going to have Beis Hashem, a beautiful Shavuos together. We're going to be zeicher to matan Torah together. But it will be because we worked on ourselves. To go from being avodim who live in a state of koitz ruach To finding menuchas a nefesh in the chaos, and beez Hashem will be zeicher to kabbalas atarah together.