This week’s Parsha contains the mitzvah of Sefiras ha Omer, seven weeks during which we elevate ourselves from the degradation of Mitzraim to the heights at Har Sinai!
What an amazing spiritual pilgrimage!
On Shavuos, we read the Megilla which echoes this epic journey. The magnificent woman who emerged from the wasteland of Moav, becomes the Mother of Royalty, the progenitor of Dovid ha Melech, who was Kadosh Kadoshim, from whom sprang all future kings of Israel, including Moshiach, may we greet him soon in our days!
“Mikimi mai afar dal …. He raises the needy from the dust, from the trash heaps He lifts the destitute, to seat them with nobles, with the nobles of His people….” (Tehillim 113)
This week’s Parsha contains the mitzvah of Peah, which appears in a very strange place, among the list of Yomim Tovim. What is it doing there?
An answer jumped off the page! Peah is the very mitzvah through which Rus skyrocketed to Boaz’ attention. Its inclusion among the Yomim Tovim appears to be a direct remez to Megilas Rus at exactly the correct spot in the Torah!
Which brings us to an important question. Sefiras ha Omer, a long Chol ha Moed between Pesach and Shavuos, should be a time of simcha. Why is it associated with tragedy? Why are customs of mourning observed during this period? Of course, I am aware that Rabbi Akiva’s twenty-four thousand talmidim died – and many other tragedies occurred -- during this period, but why now? Why did so many tragic events occur during these seven weeks?
Let’s look at Parshas Mishpatim. Am Yisroel – having just witnessed the greatest miracles since Creation – are already rebelling! At the Yam Suf they panicked, saying to Moshe Rabbeinu “were there no graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the Wilderness!” Then Hashem drowned the entire Egyptian army! That was a miracle for the ages, but a mere three possukim later, we find that the people “complained against Moshe, saying ‘What shall we drink?’” So Hashem miraculously provided water! But a few lines later came another complaint: the people accused Moshe of plotting to starve them! So Hashem rained down mannfrom Shomayim. Wow! Everything was given to our ancestors! But no, it was still not good enough! They arrived at Rephidim and there was again no water, so they once again accused Moshe of trying to kill them through thirst, saying, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us!”
At that moment, Amalek strikes! Should we be surprised?
Our ancestors appear to have been totally ungrateful! The entire story is shocking. How could Hashem and Moshe Rabbeinu continue to tolerate such people and not reject them, to let them die in the wilderness?
This is the backdrop for the anguish of Sefiras ha Omer. “Ma’ase avos siman l’banim … the actions of our forebears are signs for us!”
We have to ask: what zechusim do we have now through which we can ask Hashem to save us today, when we seem to be behaving the same way?
Are we grateful to Hashem for all His miracles? We have survived two thousand years of continuous persecution by the entire world, if not one nation, then another, on and on, century after century, culminating in the most horrendous attack of all unleashed by the Third Reich some eighty years ago, the “Final Solution” which was designed to eliminate the hated Jews once and for all. Hashem saved His Nation, albeit after indescribable tragedy. Then He brought us back to our Holy Land and gave us a home after two thousand years. Despite the perfidy of millions of barbaric enemies, He still watches over us every day and surrounds us with a shield of salvation. Hundreds of rockets from Iran, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen are shot down! Despite all this, there is terrible division within our nation. Jew attacks Jew and Jews attack the Torah!
How can Hashem still love us? Why does He tolerate us and continue to save us?
It all goes back to those seven weeks in the Desert, 3300 years ago. Let’s put ourselves in our ancestors’ place. Imagine, G-d forbid, a nuclear war which destroys the entire world as we know it. This is not so farfetched, my friends; I don’t have to tell you. Assuming that one survived, where would one be spiritually after such an attack? The entire known world would have disappeared. How would one behave, mentally, spiritually and physically? Would we break down mentally? Would we behave with emunah and retain our noble, Torah outlook?
That, my friends, was the challenge our ancestors faced in the Desert. Everything they knew was gone: “We remember the fish that we ate in Mitzraim …. The cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic …. But now there is nothing!” (Bamidbar 11:5) How would we do in a similar situation? If our world was torn from us and there was nothing to eat or drink, would we behave differently from our ancestors? One would have had to be on Moshe Rabbeinu’s level to have kept his head in such a situation.
Hashem loved us then and He loves us now with an everlasting love that looks past our shortcomings to our innermost soul, which desires nothing more than to serve Him in sanctity. He sees it even if we ourselves behave like ingrates. The fact that Hashem could tolerate our ancestors in the Desert and still love them with an everlasting love gives us strength today to know that He will do the same for us, whatever challenges come our way.
May we soon see the day when our travails are over, when we emerge from the “howling wilderness” of Golus and enter the Promised Land as one nation serving Hashem in simcha, with Moshiach ben Dovid as our leader!
GLOSSARY
Am Yisroel: The Children of Israel
Chol ha Moed: Intermediate days of Passover and Sukkos
Dovid ha Melech: King David
Golus: Exile
Kadosh Kadoshim: Holy of Holies
Mann: Manna, food from Heaven which our ancestors ate in the Biblical Desert
Megilas Rus: The Biblical Book of Ruth
Moav: Degraded nation descended from Avraham’s nephew Lot
Peah: The Mitzvah to leave the corner of one’s field unharvested for the poor to glean
Possuk: Sentence in the Torah
Remez: hint
Sefiras ha Omer: Seven-week count of days from Passover until Shavuos
Shomayim: Heaven
Yam Suf: The Red Sea
Yomim Tovim: Biblical holidays
Zechusim: merits
