Emor 5774
This week’s parsha mentions the Mo’adim and after mentioning Pesach it states the command of “Sefiras Ha’Omer,” to count the days that lead up to Shavuos. Such a command is unique among the Moadim, that we should count the days and weeks that transpire between two different chagim. No such command exists between, say, Shavuos and Sukkos, or from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur. Clearly, Sefiras Ha’Omer is not meant simply to keep us aware of the calendar; there’s a deeper significance here — what is it?
Ohr Hachaim writes that the essence of Sefiras Ha’Omer is similar to the shiva neki’im counted by a person as part of the process of leaving a state of tum’ah for one of taharah. Indeed, Klal Yisrael when leaving Egypt was still steeped in the tum’ah that so permeated that land and its inhabitants. In fact, the tum’ah was so deep-seated that the standard shiva neki’im of seven days was not enough, it required 7 weeks. Moreover, just as in tum’as niddah the count of seven requires that all seven days be complete, so too the Sefiras Ha’Omer must be composed only of complete days, and since the 15th of Nissan was spent partly in Egypt, Sefiras Ha’Omer can only be started “lemacharas HaShabbos” — on the day following the first day of Pesach, because by this time the nation was finally out of Egypt.
Every year as well, we have to undertake this process of self-cleansing to be able to merit once again to receive the Torah on Shavuos. Without becoming kadosh ourselves, it is impossible to cling to Hashem, Who is kadosh. We are not simply counting days but rather taking active steps to free ourselves from the clutches of tum’ah. Each day we further sanctify ourselves, as it states in the prayer following Sefiras Ha’Omer: “in order to purify the souls of Yisrael from their impurity and sanctify them with the upper sanctity…”
The parshiyos Kedoshim and Emor always come up during the period of Sefiras Ha’Omer, with their timely message of self-purification and self-elevation: Kedoshim t’hiyu! Be holy. Free yourself of the tum’ah of slavery to the yetzer hara. This mitzva was said to all of Klal Yisrael at once (i.e., as opposed to the standard practice of Moshe’s first teaching Aharon, then the Bnei Aharon, the elders and only then to the people). Every single Jew of Klal Yisrael is capable of making himself holy and is obligated to make himself holy.
This may sound daunting, particularly since the Ramchal places “kedushah” very high in his step-by-step sefer of avodas Hashem, Mesilas Yesharim. We’re happy to advance at the stage of zehirus and maybe even zerizus. To make the giant step all the way up to kedushah seems not only beyond us, but maybe even beyond our entire generation. Nevertheless, everyone has a commandment to pull himself in the direction of kedushah and fulfill the mitzva of kedoshim t’hiyu at his level.
When Rav Shmuel Rozovsky would explain the verse, kedoshim t’hiyu, he would say that even a chronic overeater can fulfill the mitzva of becoming kadosh if he trains himself to exercise just a bit more self-control in eating. So too a person who oversleeps and begins a consistent schedule of getting up earlier to Shacharis, or one who chases after money resolving not to let his greed impinge on his sedarim for learning and davening, or a person who controls his temper, his envy, his tendency to speak or think ill of his fellow Jew — any consistent effort to correct this, even a small one, is a fulfillment of the command that a Jew become holy (of course, each success brings with it a re-assessment of what one’s new challenges now are).
If the thought of becoming kadosh seems foreign to us and almost an impossible undertaking, we should remember that we have all it takes to succeed. As the Gemara states: “You [Yisrael] are called Adam; the goyim are not called Adam” (Yevamos 61a). The Maharal explains: What makes a human being an “Adam,” as opposed to a behemah? The difference is that an animal cannot go against its instincts, whereas a human being can, and while non-Jews as well are certainly capable of practicing self-control, for Jews this is part of our very nature. No less than we have a drive for gashmius, we have another drive to separate from gashmius and make ourselves kadosh. It’s all there in our spiritual DNA; all we have to do is tap into it.
It is known that the Vilna Gaon lived a life of perishus from olam hazeh, getting by with minimal sleep, food, etc. Nevertheless, during this period of the year the Gaon would search out ways to become still more kadosh. The sefer Maaseh Rav states that in this time the Gaon would “behave with [an] awesome [level of] perishus.” All the more so should we take steps to grow inkedushah at this time, so that we be worthy of receiving the Torah on Shavuos.
May we be zocheh to discover our potential to become holy and actualize it!