Parshas Emor: The K'sav V'hakabala Revoutionizes Sefiras HaOmer

This Torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com. Welcome everyone. I hope everyone is having an amazing day. We have a fantastic subject Sefirat HaOmer. This is my favorite part of the day. Learning together with you, teaching Torah, it's the most enjoyable part of the day. And I'll share with you something. The most difficult part of the day is what I had to do recently what I what I I have a responsibility now and that is we are Baruch Hashem building a Makom Torah to broadcast our Shiurim for our Kehilla, for our live Shiurim, for all the operation of Harbatzas Torah. Um it is not an easy or enjoyable job to fundraise, but it is unfortunately or fortunately very necessary. So if anybody could help us out, um even if you don't live in our neighborhood, this is going to be the center from where all the Shiurim are going to be given from. There are building dedications available. You could go to our site rabbidg.com and you could have a partnership in the Harbatzas Torah, whatever you could do to help us out so that we could quickly get back to focusing on the Shiurim. Um it would be a great Zchus and a very personal favor. Okay, Parshas Emor. We know Parshas Emor is a Parsha of the Moadim. We have two major Parshios of Moadim in the Torah. We have Parshas Emor in Vayikra, we have Parshas Pinchas in Bamidbar. And the difference between Emor and Pinchas, Emor tells you about the Mitzvos of the Yom Tov, Pinchas tells you about the carbonas of the Yom Tov. And in parshas Emor, we have um what happened here? In parshas Emor, uh in parshas Emor, we have the uh subject of Sefiras HaOmer, as if Sefira is one of the yamim tovim, it's part of the sequence of Yom Tov, beginning with Pesach, going through the yemei hasfirah, ending in Shavuos, then Rosh Hashanah, Yom HaKippurim, Sukkos, where according to the Ra'avad after the Sukkos, and it says "They are Hashem mikra'ei kodesh." So, we have the uh remez to Chanukah and to Purim. And in the parsha of the yamim tovim, we have the mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer, "Shabbos shabbasos." "Mi'om havi'achem es ha'omer hatnufah, you should count from the day after the Shabbos, from the day that you bring the omer of waving, omer of course is a measurement, "Sheva shabbasos tihiyenah temimos." Seven Sabbaths that should be "Ad mimachras hashabbos hashvi'is, until the day after Shabbos, the seventh one, "Tisberu chamishim yam." You should count 50 days, "Vehekreivtem minchah chadashah laHashem." And then you bring a new offering to God. And as is well known, there was a very basic machlokes between the Tzedukim and the Perushim regarding the proper um We have machlokes between the Tzedukim and the Perushim regarding the formulation of uh the Yom Tov of Shavuos, and when do we start counting Sefira, because the Perushim and uh mesorah of Klal Yisrael that we begin counting Sefiras HaOmer mi mochoras ha Shabbos, which is the day after the Yom Tov of Pesach without any break, without any separation. And of course, the Tzedukim said mi mochoras ha Shabbos is that uh we start counting Sefiras HaOmer Sunday, the day after Shabbos. They read the pasuk literally. And that is why the Mishna Menachos says in sama hey that the process of cutting the Omer was done with great pomp and ceremony. And the shluchei Beis Din would go out on Erev Yom Tov, and they would make a bundle while the grain was still attached to the ground, so it should be easy to cut. And all the cities would gather b'eisek gadol. And once it became dark, once um once the dark came, as soon as dawn came, they would say "Nu ba hashemesh, ba hashemesh." This sickle, this sickle. They would ask each question three times. "Kupa zu? Kupa zu?" This box, this box. And they would answer three times. "Yes, yes, yes." And then if it was Shabbos, they would say "Shabbos hayom? Shabbos hayom? Shabbos hayom?" This Shabbos, this Shabbos. They would say "Yes, yes, yes." They would say "Yes, yes, yes." And the the Mishna asks why they have to do it with so much pomp and ceremony. Because of the Baitusim, they would say Ktziras HaOmer was not doche Shabbos, but Ktziras HaOmer instead was always done on Sunday. In other words, the Chachamim said Ktziras HaOmer is mi mochoras ha Shabbos. It's the day after Pesach, even on Shabbos itself. And the Tzedukim would say no, it's only on Sunday. And uh the Gemara tells us a humorous account that somebody asked Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai, said "Rabbi, um Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai said "You fools, why would you think that Shavuos would always be a Sunday and you count the omer always on a Sunday? He said, "Ah, I know your your Rabbi Moshe, he loved Jews and he you knew that Shavuos was only one day, so he wanted to give the Jews a long weekend, so he made sure Shavuos was always scheduled on Sunday. This way he would give a much longer vacation." But we have this ancient machlokes, ancient dispute between the chachamim and the tzedukim, between the perushim and the tzedukim, whether ketziras ha'omer is done on the day after Pesach, or is it on the day after Shabbos? Is it always on a Sunday? So we want to try to understand what is the basis for the machlokes, al pi machshava. What was the philosophy of the tzedukim? Why do they insist that it's always on a Sunday? And why is our tradition that it's always the day after Pesach? We know the famous Ramban on this week's parsha, observing the fact that the yemei ha'sfira are discussed in the parsha of the yamim tovim, because at first glance, why is sfiras ha'omer discussed in the parsha of the mo'adim? This is not a zman of yom tov. We're not in a time of yom tov now. And the Ramban says that Hashem commanded us in bechag hamatzos seven days, and kedusha in the beginning, the yom tov of Pesach, kedusha in the end, the yom tov of Shavuos, 49 days in between, and the 49 days in between Pesach and Shavuos are like chol hamoed. They're like uh the days of chol hamoed in between the first day of Sukkos and Shmini Atzeres. In other words, there's this even though we know there are two separate yamim tovim, there's yom tov of Pesach and there's yom tov of Shavuos, but we can actually view it all as one binyan, one entity. In a certain sense, there's a one entity of a 50-day period beginning with the first days, we'll call them Pesach, the last days, we'll call it Shavuos, and the days of Sefirah are akin to a a dimension of Chol HaMoed. This is the beautiful idea advanced by the Ramban that the Ramban gives the analogy of HaYomim HaSefurim bein Chayim b'Chol HaMoed bein Rishon v'HaShmini. And just like the eighth day of Sukkos is called Shmini Atzeres, the eighth day of this entity of 49 days, Shavuos is also called Atzeres. So, when I had the privilege to speak in Manchester, I spoke in a kollel, and I met the Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Wittler, and he gave me his sefer, it's called Ma'agal HaShanah, and on page Resh Yud Aleph, Rav Wittler brings that from this Ramban, we see that although Pesach is stands on its own and Shavuos stands on its own, but in a certain sense, it could be reckoned and considered a one an entity of Yom Tov, an entity called the 50-day period of Sefirah. Let's analyze that. Let's delve into that, and I think we're going to glean a very important principle in this manner of the year and in Avodas Hashem in general. Rav Wittler has a beautiful de'ok. We know when the Jewish people left Egypt, b'tseis Yisrael miMitzrayim, when the Jewish people left Egypt, they sang Hallel. And in Kuf Lamed Ches of Tehillim, they said, "Hallelucha. Hallelu es Shem Hashem. Hallelu avdei Hashem." Says Rav Wittler, this is a very telling phrase, hallelu avdei Hashem. Hagba'at smicha. Let's imagine for a moment here you had people who were enslaved for 210 years. They didn't wake up when they wanted to wake up. They couldn't oversleep. They couldn't relax. They couldn't rest. They had no freedom, no freedom to go where they wanted, to do what they wanted, to live how they wanted. They had no freedom of expression, they had no freedom of family life. They were completely subjugated. And someone who's in jail for 210 years, completely enslaved, and they get out of jail, and they sing halleluka. The last appellation you would think they would ever apply to themselves would be avodem. We've been there, done that. Enough with the avdus. What about the cheirus? It should say halleluka hallelu hallelu ge'ulei Hashem. No, hallelu avdei Hashem. That means the we see a wondrous thing that it was the desire of the Jewish people not to be free and liberated, but to have the privilege to be avodem takadosh baruchu, and that is a very fundamental element of this time of the year. I want to share with you two very important questions. These are the questions of the safer haktsav v'hakabala of Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, who was a from the talmidei hagoin. And in his era uh his emphasis in his commentary on the Torah was to show the seamlessness of the Torah shebichtav with the Torah sheba'al peh. And how the or the written law cannot exist and stand on its own without the oral law. And this was the approach of the Shamshir of all Hirsch and the mayor of and the mayor the Malbim of mayor Leibish that these lived in an era where the authority and the authenticity of the oral law was challenged and they fought the Hashem to show the veracity and authenticity and fundamental nature of the oral law and the Jacob Mecklenburg asked two very basic questions on Omer and these are questions that are enunciated also in the safer of motion. Question number one. Baruch atah Adonai asher in his sight and all Sefiras HaOmer We say we make a bracha that we're counting the Omer. Who's counting the Omer? You you counted the Omer? The Omer was the carbon. You counted the carbon? The Omer was the carbon mincha. What kind of you don't count the carbon. You count the days. I mean what do what are you counting? You're counting the number of grains in the in the carbon? You're counting number of days. You start counting from the day that the carbon Omer was brought. But it should say asher kideshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al Sefiras HaOmer. I mean you're counting days you're not counting Omer. Why do we count why do we refer to it as Sefiras HaOmer? Why is the bracha Sefiras HaOmer? The Rambam says Sefiras HaOmer tamua The madu'a nikra'as Sefiras HaOmer from the day of the Korban Omer. Question number two asks the Hava Cabala. When do we ever name a carbon based on the measurement of how many ounces the vessel that holds the carbon contains? Omer is a measurement. Omer is an Asira Saifa. So, what we could count it Asira Saifa, but Omer is the term used for a tenth of an Efa. The clea, the the measuring stick that they use for the carbon Omer measure was called an Omer. It count it contained a Asira Saifa. So, why is the name of the carbon a Minchas Omer? I understand sometimes we name the carbon after the clea Ma'afe Tanur Marches but we don't name it after the A lug, do we name it after the lug, the sa'ah? Why we calling the name of the carbon Minchas Ha'omer? Omer is a measurement. It's not a name. So, the Hava Cabala offers a very important idea. He says first of all, we wave the carbon Omer up and down and back and forth. Why do we do that? He says as follows. What is the most dangerous threat to the Jewish people? You ready? Marv Avosai, what is the most dangerous threat to the Jewish people? Is it anti-Semitism? No. Is it threat of annihilation? No. Is it persecution? No. It's money. M O N E Y Kasef Gashmius Nothing makes a person sin. Nothing makes a person more arrogant. Nothing makes a person more corpulent. coarse than money. Money. Like it says, Yeshurun Vayishman Yeshurun Vayivat. And they rebelled. And they said, "It's my money. I You know I am wealthy cuz I'm smarter than everybody else. Cuz God gave me better ideas than anybody else how to make money. You know why he doesn't have money? Because he's lazy. And I'm better than him. And therefore, I run the world." That is the biggest threat to the Jewish people. Money. That's why the Gemara tells us, Yaffe Anios L'Yisrael. Poverty is good for the Jews. Now, I know what everyone's thinking. They're You know, "I'll take that challenge. Bring it on." Ribbono shel Olam, I think I can handle it. I think I'm ready for that one. But that's the reality. The reality is that the biggest threat to Judaism is financial success, material success. And therefore, comes the Yom Tov of Shavuos, and we take our fruits, we take our material possessions, and we wave it up and we wave it down. We say, "Ribbono shel Olam, everything we have, we wave it in the four directions. The entire world, God, belongs to you. And everything that I have, you're mashpia on me. My My silos, my threshing floors, my storehouses, my 401ks, my all my repositories, it's all from you. That's the idea of the Tenufas Ha'Omer." Says the Ksavas Ha'Ari, "Why would we name Isn't it odd? Why would we name a carbon after a measurement? That's the name of the carbon. How how ounces it contains, how many efa it contains. But says the Kabbalah, the word omer has another meaning and this is the primary meaning of the word omer. And if you never heard this before, it's never too late to know what Sefirat HaOmer means. There's a parsha in Ki Teitzei, "Ki yimtze ish, you will find a man goneiv nefesh me'achav, who kidnapped his brother, umnesa, him, umacharo, and he sells him." The word omer is a lashon of enslaving. Avdus. V'hischamer bo. Somebody steals someone and he enslaves the person and sells him. Says the Kabbalah, omer is a lashon of avdus. Let's get something straight. Why did God take us out of Egypt? That we should be able to go free and move out to the island and build a big house and enjoy life? No. God could have left us in Egypt. Why did he take us out of Egypt? He took us out of Egypt because he wanted to transition us from being slaves to Pharaoh to being avadim to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That we are enslaved, we are subservient, we are subjects of the almighty king. That means from the moment the alarm goes off in the morning, it is set in a way that we come on we come early to his service. Not we roll in when it's convenient for us. And our entire day is we are subject to the Melech Malchei Hamlachim. From the moment we get up, we don't we don't take care of our business before we davening. Well, I want to send out an email and I want to check the news. No, no, you're What do you mean you you want to? What do you mean you want to? Isn't it This is not your world? We're avadim. We're avadim to Hashem. And our first responsibility is to the Melech. So we get up and we don't even take four we don't even walk four cubits before we wash our hands and our first thoughts are dedicated to borrow and our first glance is dedicated to borrow and we don't eat until we serve borrow and we don't take care of our personal needs we don't make earn our own livelihood until we serve borrow this is why God took us out of Egypt And this is the concept of all all is the washing of of those and we are not counting the days like people count you like you're counting jelly beans in a bottle cuz you want to know how many jelly beans there are in the bottom one day past two day past but says the Kabbalah Like we find throughout the God now my footsteps you should count the it's not to know how many footsteps you take the point is to recognize the value of every footstep is ordained by the almighty so we count each day to make each day count so to speak to to dedicate each day in the service of today I dedicate this day as a day of to today is a day of service to and this fits in well with the ballet Kabbalah that each day corresponds to a different dimension of the but in principle the concept is we're not counting how many days past we are trying to give significance to the day that this day should be this is a day of servitude to the almighty now the grand finale is at says the Kabbalah is a washing of shavoi, captivity, restraint. In other words, we are dedicating ourselves in the service of Hashem until the great day of atseres. And atseres is so to speak the ultimate binding and restraining every emotion, energy, talent to Hakadosh Baruch Hu the kabbalah Torah. Now, although it would have been nice, Maran Rabbeinu zatzal, God could have taken us out of Egypt. And it would have been nice to have like a little downtime. You know, maybe go to Florida for a week. You know, spend a few days in Orlando after everybody left after Pesach. And uh you know, it's a little bit more more air to breathe. You could go to Disneyland then. But no, God said, "Don't go to Florida after Pesach. Actually, after 200 years of slavery, now I am enlisting you into my program of avdus. And this program of avdus will enlist you in such totality that it will culminate in Shavuos, which is the absolute shavoi, where you are sheva shavuois milashain shavoi. We are you are ma'aser, where you are completely bound to my will." And this brings us to something very important. If I were to ask you, "Why do we drink four cups of wine on Pesach?" You would say, "Well, we all know the Yerushalmi, the Medrash, the four cups of wine correspond to the four languages of geulah, the hotzeisi, the hitzalti, the ga'alti, the lakachti." And that's the language of the Yerushalmi, and that's the language of the Bereishit Rabbah, and that's the language of the Rashbam in Pesachim. Comes the Gra and the Gra says, "Wrong, wrong. Those are not the four Lashonot of Geulah. The four Lashonot of Geulah are Veheitzalti, Vegalti and Vegalti is two. Vegalti is big Zro'a Netuyah Biyad Chazakah Uvizro'a Netuyah. Um Bizro'a Netuyah Uvishfatim Gedolim. So it's Veheitzaiti, Veheitzalti and Vegalti Bizro'a Netuyah Uvishfatim Gedolim. I, it says everywhere in the Yerushalmi and in the Bereishit Rabbah and in the Rashbam and in all the Midrashim Veheitzaiti, Veheitzalti, Vegalti, Velakachti. Tosafot Sofer Bakhol Makom, says the Gra. All the printers are in cahoots. They all got it wrong. There's no such thing as Velakachti. Velakachti. You know why, says the Gra? Because if you're going to count Veheveiti, you got to count Veheveiti. And since Veheveiti is not counted because Veheveiti is bringing us into land of Israel, we're not going to count Velakachti. And I took you for a people. That's very nice. It's nothing to do with Yetzi'at Mitzrayim. Veheitzaiti, I took you out. Veheitzalti, I saved you. Vegalti, I redeemed you and I redeemed you Bizro'a Netuyah Uvishfatim Gedolim. But take out Velakachti. I, there are about 10 different authentic Jewish sources. Yerushalmi, Midrash, Rashi, Rashbam in a few places. Midrash in a few places. That is Veheitzaiti, Veheitzalti, Vegalti, Velakachti. Tosafot Sofer Bakhol Makom, says the Gra. They're all wrong. Now that's very hard to swallow. Number one, in kindergarten they told us Veheitzaiti, Veheitzalti, Vegalti, Velakachti. So the what happened? The Morah was wrong? It's very hard to accept that. But that's what the girl says, all the printers got it wrong. But the in the Hagoyis Evan Shlema on the Ra'avan, he says, how could such a thing be that all the printers got it wrong? Do you show me the Medrish, Rashi, the Rashbam, the Ra'avan, the Shiltis, all the Rishonim? And therefore, it behooves us to try to answer the question of the girl, well, doesn't it have to be wrong? Because if we're not going to count for Heveisi, then we shouldn't count for Lakati. But the answer is that while we don't have to necessarily count for Heveisi, because the Heveisi is entering the land of Israel, and of course the land of Israel is the greatest gift God has given the Jewish people, and it's the purpose and the place where the Torah is meant to be observed. It is possible to observe the Torah outside of Eretz Israel. But Vilakati is specifically referring to the giving of the Torah. And that is part and parcel, a component of Yetzias Mitzrayim. The Ben Ezra says, Vilakati, I will take you as my people when you're Mekabel the Torah. The Sforno says, I will take you as my people at Ma'amad Har Sinai. The Sefer HaChinuch in his explanation for the mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer says, why is it so important to count the Omer? Because the Sefer HaChinuch says, the whole function of the Jewish people is the Torah. The Torah is the reason why God created heaven and earth. The Torah is the reason why God took us out of Mitzrayim. God said, this is the sign that I'm taking you out, when I take you out, you'll serve me on this mountain, which means that the ikar is the Yetzias Mitzrayim, and the taking out of Mitzrayim is only a way of getting to Yetzias time. So, yes, it's so important, but it's not part of the redemption from Egypt. But the giving of the Torah is part of the redemption of Egypt. And here's a very important idea. You know, why did God bring us to Egypt in the first place? I don't understand. Why couldn't we, you know, we had a beautiful family in Israel? And they were we were up to 70. So, we should have, you know, continued to procreate until we were about 3 million. And then God could have taken us to the desert for a weekend and given us the Torah. What do we need to go to Egypt for? And in Egypt we what? We fell to the the 49th level of toman and we remained there a moment longer we would have fallen to the point of no return. What was the point of all that? Says the despite the fact that it brought to a very low level and we had a slave mentality and a low morale and we were languishing and wallowing in land of Egypt. Nevertheless, we acquired a very important attitude and perspective. And that is the most important quality needed to serve Hashem is you need to know how to be an eved. You need to know how to serve a master. And we learned that in Egypt. And once we learned how to be an eved, God said, "Okay, you you uh boot camp was successful. Now I'm going to transition you to be becoming my avadim." That's what God says. I know I shall walk out of her. I am your God. I took you out of Egypt. Me base avadim from the house of slaves. You know why I brought you to house of slaves? To be an eved to me. Says the others, that's why Avraham Avinu thought that his spiritual heir would be Eliezer. Why would he think it would be Eliezer? What did Eliezer have? Eliezer wasn't that even Jewish. He didn't even was not his biological progeny. Why would Avraham Avinu think Eliezer would be his spiritual heir? The answer is because the main characteristic needed to be a loyal and faithful member of the people of God is you have to know how to be an eved. You can't be So, you know, I love God, but I'm not in the mood of serving him today. I'll serve him tomorrow. It's the consistency. It's the feeling of obligation, which is the foundation really of serving Hashem. So, Avram thought Eliezer is an eved. He has this characteristic. He has this nature. He has this proper attitude. So, he will inherit me. So, God said, "No, you rush cuz that not this eved, a different eved." Says the Shulchan this is the reason why until today when we've van- vanquished the Kenaanim from the land of Israel, we can still we can we still refer to the land of Israel of as Eretz Canaan. I mean Eretz Canaan, there are no Kenaanim there. I understand once upon a time it was called the land of Canaan. Why do we continue to refer to it as the land of Canaan? The reason is because we God is instructing us and God is demonstrating to us that for this to be a successful land for the Jewish people to be able to maximize the benefit of the land, we have to know it's a land of hachna'ah, a land of humility, a land of avdus. Yeah, the Kenaanim are not there anymore, but they set the tone. Canaan is a lashon of hachna'ah, a land of avdus. It's very interesting the Orach Shulchan in his commentary to the Haggadah. He learns that Mah Nishtanah is not a question. It's not Mah Nishtanah, why is this night different? We mean Mah, since when does the word Mah mean why? Mah doesn't mean why. Mah means how. Like Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov, how goodly are your tents, Jacob? Or how wondrous are your are your works, God? How different is tonight than any other night? And that's why we say To me, the Jewish people are servants. They're my servants. The words are him are extra. Should say the Jewish people are my servants. The Jewish people are my servants. And I took them out of Egypt. Why the words are him? And the explains you can't buy a slave against his will. But if he's already a slave and the first master sold him, you don't need the consent of the of the to be sold. And therefore the passage says The Jewish people are slaves. You know why you know why they're my slaves? Cuz I took them out of Egypt from the house of slavery. So I didn't need their I don't need their permission. I don't need their consent. I took them from the first master. Now this is a very important and beautiful concept and that is a portion that we read at a certain time of the year is very much connected to that time of the year. Even though the only mentions a few different portions that have to be read at a specific time the says we need to read the before and the before the new year. And you would think okay, these portions that we read now during the year you know, are they connected to this time of the year? Well, obviously portions is the portion of Sefirat HaOmer is always read the during this month of Sefirah and moreover this month uh parashat Emor is the uh parasha that we always read before uh Lag BaOmer and of course Emor is the letters Rama who the Rama's yahrzeit was Lag BaOmer. And there are many other remezim to Lag BaOmer in Emor. If you want to see some of them you could see there's a beautiful uh shiur Emor the incredible remez to Lag BaOmer in the Lech Lecha column. You could check out TorahAnytime. But what parasha do we read this idea of Ki Li Bnei Yisrael Avadim? That's in parashat Behar. That's next week's parasha. Cuz that's the central idea of the Sefirah. Uh Sefirat HaOmer. Omer does not just refer to the korban Omer. We're going to name a korban after a measurement? No, it's Sefirat HaOmer. Counting, making important these days that we commit ourselves to the avodas Hakadosh Baruchu until we reach the crescendo on Shavuos which is Atzeres where we're bound to the will of Hashem. The Bnei Yissachar has a wondrous idea. We know there are only two mitzvos assei that failure to perform them is a chiyuv kareis. That failure to perform them is there any punishment at all um ordained in this world? If somebody does not bring the korban Pesach and if somebody does not get a circumcision, the punishment is kareis. Halacha davar hu, why is that? Well, when it comes to any other mitzvas assei there is no onesh associated with it and yet when it comes to the mitzvos of korban Pesach and the mitzvos of milah, there's a chiyuv kareis. So the Bnei Yissachar says a very important idea. Yes, we know that if somebody buys an eved from a gentile, so then the person becomes your eved. But you need to immerse the purchase, the eved, and he has to go to the mikvah lesheim avdus. Because if he goes to the mikvah to be free, he goes free and he's like a regular Jew. And therefore, you need to immerse him lesheim avdus so that this slave of a gentile now becomes your slave. But what if he has in mind that he's going to immerse lesheim uh uh ben ben chorin, then he goes free. So therefore, the Gemara says that if you're buying a slave from a gentile, you need to exert authority over the slave in the mikvah to demonstrate that his immersion is lesheim avdus and not lesheim choris. So the Gemara says you put on his head a slab of cement to show that his immersion is not to go free, but rather to for avdus. Says the Ben Yissochor, we were avadim to Paroh. God was trying to transition us to become his avadim. What if in that transition period when God was taking us out, we say, "Hey God, this freedom, it's really good. We're going to Florida. We're going to Orlando. We're going on vacation. Once you free us, we're going free. We don't want you to take us out to be your avadim. We want you to take us out to do what we want." So God said, "No, no, none of this business. I'm going to exert my authority over you in this transition period to demonstrate that this freedom is to transition you into to segway you into avdus." So God gave us two specific mitzvahs the night of yetzias Mitzrayim, dam Pesach and dam milah. That was the exertion of his influence over us demonstrating he's not freeing us for just mere liberation, but he's transitioning us to be his Avadim. Therefore, the linchpin that ensures that we are committed to God and that we don't go free and do whatever we want. That which keeps us in check is Dam Pesach and Dam Mila. That's why the punishment is so severe. There's a heave chorus cuz those are the two mitzvahs that keep us in place. Says the Benei Yisrael, a beautiful approach. Now, isn't it amazing that this kind of this pasuk Ki li Benei Yisrael Avadim Avodai hem which is really the whole idea of of the Exodus. The whole concept of the Exodus is to become Avadim to Hashem. That means the whole concept of Sefiras HaOmer, Omer is a lotion of Avdus. We're counting these days to dedicate each day to the service of Hashem culminating with the binding ourselves on Shavuos. Isn't it telling that this principle will be reading next Shabbos during the Zman HaOmer. Now, this idea that we are servants to Hashem, this is not just like oh, hakaras hatov, God took us out of Egypt and we're really grateful to him. This is a halachic principle. Because if a gentile buys a Jewish slave, um the gentile is forced to free the Jewish slave in the Yovel. Why? Ki li Benei Yisrael Avadim. There's this is a reality. God already bought us. We are owned by him. We're subjugated to him. He cannot The guy must release us in the over. My brother said, now we understand the grass says, no, you can't count the Lakati cuz if you're going to count the Lakati, you're going to have to count the Hevasi. Some say for and my friend of Shaya Levi I'm also my you did name him Rabbi Mayor Bronstein showed me this some say for that the Dalid Lashanas of Gula and the four Kosis on low Pesach are Vaytzasi, Vitzalti, Vigalti, Vilakati and Vilakati is Matan Torah. That the purpose of the liberation is for Matan Torah. So, if you make only three tzitzis or you drink only three Kosis, you're saying, nah, the Iker is not Matan Torah. The Iker is freedom. The Iker is liberation. But you also can't drink five cups because and you can't have five strings of tzitzis. That's about Tosef. Because don't say the tachlis of all of it is to be in Eretz Yisrael. No. Because if you say that, that's like you're saying in Chutz Aretz, there no mitzvahs. The Iker tachlis is number four, Vilakati as Kamlila, which is Matan Torah. And now we understand Rabbi say why it's called Sefiras Haomer. Omer is the main concept of Sefira. Where we're counting and dedicating ourselves Lehisamer Boy to become Avadim to Hashem culminating in Shavuos. Therefore, the name of the carbon is carbon Haomer. It's the carbon of avodah. And Rav Vidler quotes a wondrous idea from Rav Kasovsky, the brother-in-law of Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. That this is the fundamental machlokes between the Tzedukim and the Perushim. The Perushim say, you know why we have Pesach? You know why God took us out of Egypt? The very next day we already begin dedicating ourselves to the avodah of Hashem, culminating in the absolute we strain on Shavuos. There's no break. The next day, there's no freedom and let's celebrate freedom and vacation and liberation and our own independence. No. Me machar has Shabbos is the day after Pesach. There's no break in between. There's no liberation in it of itself. Pesach doesn't stand by itself. It's not a separate entity. It's part of one entity, 50 days. Liberation from Pharaoh, transitioning us into Sefiras HaOmer. Omer is this man of avodah. But the Tzedukim say, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Relax. There's a time to serve God. But independence and liberation stands on its own. We don't count the Sefirah right after Pesach. Come on, we need a little breather over here. We got to go free and establish our own viewpoints and our own aspirations and our own desires. And then we'll get ready for the next period on a different occasion." But this was not just a dispute in whether we take a pasuk literally or we we interpret it allegorically, but there was something more fundamental over here. And that is the tachlis haChaim and the tachlis of Pesach. And the truth is unfortunately the majority of the Jewish people today only celebrate Pesach. Pesach is perhaps the most celebrated Jewish holiday. I have a friend who's a caterer and uh I said, "Oh, where are you going for Pesach? You going to go away?" And I can't go away. Pesach is busiest time of the year. Uh why I said so busy? So many people are ordering takeout. I thought, you know, I thought Pesach's the one time a year people cook their own food. He said, "Uh yeah, in the from world there's less takeout. But his most orders of the year, you know, all Jews want traditional Jewish food Pesach. So it's his busiest time of the year. They want They want kosher style food. So Pesach is very celebrated. But it ain't connected with Sefirat HaOmer and Shavuot. But our tradition is V'hotze'ti V'hitzal'ti V'ga'al'ti V'lakach'ti, which is Kabbalat Torah is part of Yetziat Mitzrayim. And that's why Dam Pesach and Dam Milah are so important because it ensures that when we go free, it's not a independent freedom, but we're being transitioned into being Avadim of Hashem. And Rav Adler brings that the seven Parshiot that we read during Sefirat HaOmer from Parshat Tazria until Bechukotai help us fulfill the tafkid of this zman, namely of being Avadim d'Hashem to be Mamlechet Kohanim. Mamlechet Kohanim, of course, is Parshat Emor. We the Parsha of Kehuna V'goy Kadosh and Parshat Kedoshim. And the Avodah is described in Behar. And of course, Bechukotai She'atitem Al Mitzvotai and the repercussions of of celebrating liberation on its own. What's Tazria-Metzora doing in this zman? Because one of the chief aspects of being an Eved d'Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Shmirat HaLashon, which is gleaned from parshas tazria metzora. So may we have to become wise from our enemy. And if the want to create a gap between Pesach and Shavuos and they don't want that freedom they don't want that to be transitioned into the Hashem. We have to realize that that's a primary and important avoid this time of the year. It says it's a language of a language of servitude. Because that was the you see us in time. And the ultimate expression of that is Shavuos. Shavuos is a we are we are we are in captivity. So you say that then this is the most depressing time of the year. Who wants to be an slave? I mean it was enough. Why would we want to be an talk but let's remind ourselves the difference between and I being an to is wanted to enslave our bodies to be able to subjugate our souls. And what wants of us is that we should be to him to liberate our souls so that we are not bound by the shackles of the need and the draw for the pleasures of this world. As it says the true king the true is someone who's not an to have us a lot of that. So by being an slave to him that's how we experience the true freedom. And then all of us are free. So we could say a very important idea. While the think that the happens on the day after God liberated us, we go free. God said, "No, no, no, no, no. You're missing the point. You're not free yet. Because if you're going to do whatever you want, you'll still be in you'll be in to the you'll be in to your desires. Give me another 50 days. You subjugate yourself to the then you'll truly be free. And so we could say we didn't really become free from of those until we went through the dedicating ourselves as to him culminating with the of this and then we truly go free in the and I think that I am here. Okay, everyone. Thank you everybody for joining. Have a have a wonderful day. Call to Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com.