YOU SHALL FAITHFULLY OBSERVE MY COMMANDMENTS: I AM THE LORD. YOU SHALL NOT PROFANE MY HOLY NAME, THAT I MAY BE SANCTIFIED IN THE MIDST OF THE ISRAELITE PEOPLE - I THE LORD WHO SANCTIFY YOU.

 (Vayikra 22:31-32)

 

Profanation of God's Name and Sanctification of God's Name

There are other things that are a profanation of the Name of God. When a man, great in the knowledge of the Torah and reputed for his piety, does things which cause people to talk about him, even if the acts are not express violations, he profanes the Name of God. As, for example, if such a person makes a purchase and does not pay promptly, provided that he has means and the creditors ask for payment and he puts them off; or if he indulges immoderately in jesting, eating, or drinking, when he is staying with ignorant people or living among them; or if his mode of addressing people is not gentle, or he does not receive people affably, but is quarrelsome and irascible. The greater a man is, the more scrupulous should he be in all such things, and do more than the strict letter of the law requires. And if a man has been scrupulous in his conduct, gentle in his conversation, pleasant toward his fellow-creatures, affable in manner when receiving them, not retorting, even when affronted, but showing courtesy to all, even to those who treat him with disdain, conducting his commercial affairs with integrity, not readily accepting the hospitality of the ignorant nor frequenting their company, not seen at all times, but devoting himself to the study of Torah, wrapped in a tallit, and crowned with phylacteries, and doing more than his duty in all things, avoiding, however, extremes and exaggerations - such a man has sanctified God, and concerning him, Scripture says, And He said to me, "You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isaiah 49:3).

(RaMBaM Hilkhot Yesodei Ha'Torah 5:11, Hyamson translation)

 

 

The Forty Nine Steps to Enlightenment

Mordechai Beck

Strung out between Pessach and Shavuot like an exquisite pearl necklace are the days of the Omer - 49 in all - linking the two major festivals and, according to some commentators, forging them into one.

One of the names of the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot, is Atzeret, meaning conclusion, recalling the seven‑week journey taken by the Children of Israel from the decadent land of the pyramids to the foot of Mount Sinai, where they were to receive the living Torah. This move, from Thanatos to Eros, is highlighted by the sages through this seven week bridge that provides an elemental and evocative metaphor for the transformation from the darkness of slavery to the revelation at Sinai.

The origin and development of the Omer period are nevertheless obscure. The first reference to this seven week period is found in the Book of Leviticus (23:9 ‑ 16), where the Children of Israel are reassured that they will enter the land of Canaan and harvest their crops, from which they are to bring a symbolic Omer (two unleavened loaves made of the finest flour) to the priest in the Temple, without which they cannot eat of their produce. Later, in the Book of Deuteronomy (16: 9) Moses tells the people of Israel: You shall count seven weeks from the moment you first put the sickle to the corn thus linking the two major festivities of Pessach and Shavuot.

Once in the land of Israel, the farmers would go to the Temple where, having sanctified the produce of their fields through the Omer offering, they and their families were able to eat from the rest of the harvest. Possibly as a result of this annual ritual the period acquired a certain character - one of anticipation, even foreboding - as the community awaited anxiously for the first crops of the agricultural year, which had a crucial significance for their material well‑being. It is certainly noticeable that the command to rejoice comes only after the mention of the Omer period is finished and concluded by the Feast of Weeks (ibid 11).

Yet even if the original impulse behind this period had been one of joyous expectation, or at least of quiet optimism, historical events were to subvert its origins in the cycle of nature and give it a newer and more grim meaning.

Towards the end of the second Temple period, a new reality takes over for the Jews living in the land of Israel. It is a restless, dark time, marked by external struggles against the mighty Roman Empire, and internal religious schisms that were to shake the foundations of Judaism. Both of these were to have profound consequences for the next two millennia.

In the wake of the Bar Kochba rebellion (circa 132‑135 CE) and its brutal suppression by the Roman legions, this period was turned into one of semi‑mourning. According to one Talmudic source, it was between Pessach and Shavuot during this dark period that a terrifying plague swept the students of the most prominent religious leader of his time, Rabbi Akiva. With 24,000 disciples, Rabbi Akiva was the head of the largest centre of advanced studies. Yet, why the students were meant to have been afflicted precisely in this period, or why, as another tradition has it, this was a period of particularly heavy military losses for the followers of Bar Kochba, among whom of course Rabbi Akiva himself is to be counted - is shrouded in uncertainty (Yevamot 62).

Even in the largest Diaspora of the time this change registered. Though the basis of their livelihood was no longer agrarian - the Jews in Babylon and other Diasporas having become urbanized - the old feelings of uncertainty attached to this time of the year seem to have become exacerbated by the events in the Holy Land.

Speculation about the nature of this mysterious plague is rife. Some authorities suggest it was physical; but others prefer to understand it spiritually. According to this latter opinion, Rabbi Akiva's students did not show each other the mutual respect that was due to them. For their insensitivity, the period was turned into one of sorrow and privation; no marriages were allowed, and hair was to remain unshorn. The hassidic master, Pinhas of Koretz, suggests that the hair, which grows out of the skull, is a reminder of the Torah intellects who proved so wanting in those far‑off days. Certainly the lack of clarity about the actual cause for the shift in emphasis regarding this period could well reflect the inner transmogrification of this key figure of rabbinic and historical legend.

Rabbi Akiva was drawn to Torah by his love of his future wife, Rachel, the daughter of the merchant Kalva Savua. When he "saved" the sensual, yearning "Song of Songs" it was because he was able to see a clear parallel between divine love and human passion. He was a lover of both. Perhaps when he saw the Temple go up in flames and then, when 60 years later (legend also has it that he lived 120 years) the Romans brutally crush the rebellion of the man he called messiah, he had reason to despair for the future of the people. In place of joy and nature, he saw only tragedy, bloodshed and exile. Any reference to his beloved book, any reference to this spontaneous life of the senses must have seemed like a cruel joke. In place of the hope of spring he (or his followers) designated a period of semi‑mourning, just as the three weeks of summer (from the 17th of Tammuz to the ninth of Av) were turning into a period of national mourning over the destruction of the Temple.

The later medieval period only increased this sense of angst and of being alienated from all the natural sources with which the Torah had identified this period. With all the traditional reference points gone, with the spontaneous rhythms of the agricultural year broken for good, what was there to celebrate?

Indeed it is noteworthy that, despite these serious theological and historical associations, no less an authority than Maimonides, while acknowledging sefirat ha'omer - the counting of the days and weeks of the Omer - as a positive mitzva, does not mention it in the context of the other Temple‑related festivals in his magnum opus, the Mishne Torah. Is it perhaps because the juxtaposition of spring, harvests, the memory of Eretz Israel, and the Song of Songs - all subjects dear to Rabbi Akiva - and reminders of defeat and the tragedy of exile - was too momentous to fix into a mundane halachic framework?

The fine, almost invisible thread that links the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah receives typical treatment in more mystical and Chassidic texts. For Chassidic commentators the word sefira is connected to the sephirot which link God's personality to the divine potential that is in every mortal creatures of flesh and blood. Each of the lower sephirot, seven in all - hesed, gevura, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod, malchut (love, power, beauty, victory, glory, foundation and kingdom) - contains an aspect of every other sephira. In 49 days, the entire network of these links can be traversed. Knowing oneself and knowing God is an on‑going, dialectic process.

According to the "Bnei Yisachar" the link between the two festivals at each end of the Omer period is not arbitrary. Pessach is a major spectacle - the "big bang" that gets the process of liberation started. It demands analysis, searching and researching, questions and answers, delving into the vast sources of our rich history and traditions. The more you expound, the more you are to be praised. The need of the hour is to talk, to use one's God‑given gift of speech as the supreme expression of the human intellect. The words Pe sach mean literally the‑mouth‑that‑speaks.

But the human intellect, as glorious as it has proven itself in the fields of science, art, technology, engineering, medicine, philosophy and so forth, is limited if it is divorced from morality and ethics. It is in this sense that the quieter, less dramatic days of the Counting of the Omer take on a profounder resonance.

Just as the world of nature in this spring season is coming into bloom, so does the Omer provide a framework for rebirth. In order to be creative, the individual has to confront the deepest aspects of himself and herself, the parts that language doesn't reach - desire and fear being prominent among them. Only when these deeper, and even subconscious, parts of our personality are brought to the surface and 'numbered,' are we really in a position to receive the Torah, or at least reach the foot of Sinai.

The Omer period is not an awesome occasion like the exodus or Sinai; it is not holiness or revelation at one jump. Rather, it is the daily process of checking ourselves, of keeping in touch with our real feelings, (as opposed to those imposed upon us from the outside, or from peer pressure, or from inertia.) Through this daily and weekly process we can build a solid basis for our intellect - neither so arrogant that we cannot see the good in others, and, like the yeshiva students of Rabbi Akiva's time, fail to show respect for the presence or opinions of others; nor so bashful as to refuse to demonstrate for justice and truth where and when it is demanded.

In Temple times, the Omer was brought to the priest to wave in public - to show who we were and where we stood.

The "Bnei Issachar" further observes that the command to count is couched in terms that the counting is done lachem, for yourselves. The steps towards sanctifying ourselves come ultimately from within (with a little help from God). He relates sefira to another Hebrew word, saphir meaning brightness - here used to signify real clarity and enlightenment, which is the ultimate goal of anyone on a path of true spirituality.

Mordechai Beck, an artist and writer, resides in Jerusalem

 

The First Flowering of Our Redemption?

Do not think that King Messiah will have to perform signs and wonders, bring anything new into being, revive the dead, or do similar things. It is not so. Rabbi Akiva was a great sage, a teacher of the Mishnah, yet he was also the armor-bearer of Ben Kozba. He affirmed that the latter was King Messiah; he and all the wise men of his generation shared this belief until Ben Kozba was slain in [his] iniquity, when it became known that he was not [the Messiah]. Yet the rabbis had not asked him for a sign or token. The general principle is: this Law of ours with its statutes and ordinances [is not subject to change]. It is forever and all eternity; it is not to be added to or to be taken away from.

(RaMBaM Hilkhot Melakhim 11:3, Hyamson translation)

 

Rabotai, it may be that all who spoke of "the beginning of the flowering of our redemption" erred. It is possible that the disciples of the Gaon of Vilna erred; it is possible that that the disciples of the Besht erred; it may be that the disciples of Rabbi Akiva Eiger erred when they spoke of "the beginning of the flowering of our redemption" as described in books. It is possible that Rav Kook was wrong; it is possible that Rav Charlop was wrong. Rabbi Akiva, the greatest of the Tanaim, was also wrong.

(Rabbi Amital, "To Hear the Voice of a Crying Child", in Moshe Maya's book, A World Built, Destroyed, and Built, pg. 40).

 

...with independence we gained control of ourselves, we achieved freedom of choice. We are not dependent upon others, and the process of Ge'ula - redemption - can be carried out to its completion, if so we please.

Ge'ula is not one of the 613 mitzvot, and the halakhic meaning of the Ge'ula lies in political independence - in the possibility of observing those mitzvot which require sovereignty and territoriality in Eretz Yisrael. Reishit ha-geula - the beginning of the redemption - is the possibility of observing the mitzvot through the sovereignty granted us. The Ge'ula itself is the actual observance of the mitzvot.

(Dov Rappel: Pitchei Shearim, p. 213)

 

The fifth of Iyyar is the day which commemorates the nation's liberation from alien rule - the greatest national-political accomplishment of the Jewish People since it was given over to alien rule. The significance of the nation's liberation is not diminished, even if the majority of the people's members remain dispersed among the nations. It is impossible to estimate or express in words the enormous satisfaction that this great historical event offers to each and every person who considers himself to be a child of the historical Jewish People - the national and patriotic emotion that is common to the majority of .religious and secular Jews alike. Only those who view the formation of a non-messianic "Kingdom of Israel" as defying Divine kingship withhold themselves from enjoying this satisfaction. The national-patriotic satisfaction is especially great because this great thing was accomplished through a military victory won by the people themselves.

However, none of this lends a religious dimension to this great day. The great principle - which is also a great religious principle - that "the world continues according to its own custom" is just as applicable to history as it is to nature...

One who believes in the Lord - in contrast to one who believes in a heavenly functionary who manages the affairs of individual men, or of humanity, or of the People Israel - does not differentiate between events in terms of their religious significance, no matter whether they are "everyday events" or "unusual events," nor whether they are felt to be "good" events or "bad" events. Historical events - involving humanity in general or the Jewish People in particular - are in themselves indifferent in terms of religious evaluation. An historical event cannot gain religious significance unless it expresses religious consciousness. That is to say: if it is the product of the religious consciousness - the knowledge of God and worship of God - of those taking part in the event...It is unavoidable to reach a religious evaluation of Yom Ha'atzma'ut. This day is not given to half-way evaluation. According to one view, it is not a holiday, but rather a day of mourning; the day on which Israel rebelled against the Torah. According to another view, there is no day more deserving for recitation of shehehiyanu blessing and Hallel and all other signs of a festive day; it is the day when the Jewish People opened the door to the possibility of observing the Torah - a door it can step through, if it wants to make an effort to observe the Torah. This estimation of Yom Ha'atzma'ut is not diminished by the fact that the majority of the present generation is not interested in observing the Torah.

(Y. Leibowitz, "Yom Ha'atzma'ut Ve'Yom Yerushalyim Ke'Hagim Datiyim," in his Yahadut, Am Yehudi, U'Medinat Yisrael)

 

 

 

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