Yes, the topic is Sefirat HaOmer, counting of the Omer. It's a well-known topic, and I'm sure that everybody that's here will know everything that I'm going to say, but I always give the same introduction because I always feel bad that people will go away from the class and say, \"What did he say today? I know all these things.\" So I'm telling you to begin with that you do know it all, but we have to review it anyway. That's what we always do. Every year we learn Likkutei Torah on the same פרשה, the same מאמרים, that's how we go. So when it comes to Sefirat HaOmer, at a time of the year like now, a time when we count the Sefirah, we have to discuss what Sefirah is, even though these are things that are well known. And maybe, maybe a word or two might be new. Well, it mightn't. We all know what the mitzvah of Sefirah is. The mitzvah is that from the second night of Pesach we have to start counting every night for 49 days. And the reason it's called Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer, because on the second day of Pesach they would bring in the בית המקדש, they would bring a special sacrifice called קרבן עומר. The reason it was called Omer, all Omer is, is a measurement, it's a Hebrew measurement. This is the measurement of the amount of flour that they had to use for that sacrifice. It was a sacrifice not of animals of an animal, it was a sacrifice of flour. Different than all other sacrifices of flour, which are called קרבנות מנחה. Because we know amongst the sacrifices we have קרבנות of animals, and all different types of קרבנות, you have a קרבן עולה, and a קרבן חטאת, and a קרבן אשם, קרבן שלמים, then you have the קרבנות of flour, which is called a קרבן מנחה. Also we have different kinds of קרבנות. But all of the קרבנות of flour were made of flour of wheat, while the קרבן of the Omer was a קרבן made of flour of שעורים, of barley. And they would bring this special sacrifice, this special קרבן, on the second day of Pesach. And it's from that time on that we have to count the days till Shavuot, which are 49 days. That's why it's called Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer, the counting of the days from the sacrifice of the Omer. Because of that, since this is the counting of the days from the קרבן עומר, nowadays, that we don't have a קרבן עומר, since we don't have a בית המקדש, we don't have a sacrifice of the Omer, therefore most opinions hold that the mitzvah of counting the Sefirah that we do now is not a מצוה מדאורייתא, it's not a mitzvah from the Torah. It's only a mitzvah miderabbanan, only a mitzvah that the rabbis established. When we had a Beis Hamikdash and they would actually bring the קרבן עומר, that's when the Torah says, \"וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת,\" you should count the day after שבת, which here doesn't mean Shabbos, I'll explain it later, it means Yom Tov, the day after Yom Tov, which means the day after the first day of Pesach, start counting, count seven weeks, 49 days after the Omer. So when we had the קרבן עומר, the Torah tells us clearly we have to count the days. Now that we don't have a קרבן עומר, like I said, most opinions hold we don't have to count the Omer from the Torah, but the Rabbanan, the rabbis, established, like they did many other things, that we should still do it, which we call זכר למקדש, it's a zecher, a remembrance of what used to be done in the Beis Hamikdash. Many things we do now that the that's only miderabbanan, from the Torah we don't have to do. Just to give a simple example, the eating of maror on Pesach. We know we have to eat matzah and maror, drink the four kosot. Now the four cups of wine are, to begin with, a mitzvah that the Rabbanan established, the Torah doesn't say. But eating maror, in the Torah it says. It says in the Torah you should eat maror. But the Torah said you should eat maror together with the קרבן פסח. We don't have a קרבן פסח now. So as far as the Torah is concerned, we don't have to eat maror now. Matzah we have to eat anyway from the Torah, but maror not. Nevertheless, we all know we eat מרור פסח night. Who who said to eat maror? The Rabbanan. They said, since in the time of the Beis Hamikdash they used to eat maror, we should now also eat maror. Plus, there is even more, just like in the time of the בית המקדש, according to Hallel, they used to eat it together with the matzah, so we even have a Hallel sandwich, we have a korech, all a zecher for the בית המקדש. The same thing here, the Chachamim established a zecher of the to the בית המקדש, and we have a מצוה מדרבנן to count sefirah. Which is the reason why as soon as we finish counting, when we say tonight is today is this and this and this day, right after that we add a line. The line is, הרחמן הוא יחזיר לנו עבודת בית המקדש במהרה בימינו אמן סלה, which means, the One that has pity, please return the service in the בית המקדש to us very soon. Why all of a sudden do we remind ourselves of asking Hashem to return the service in the בית המקדש? The reason is very simple, because since we just finished counting sefirah, which is only a mitzvah that the Rabbanan made as a zecher, as a remembrance to the בית המקדש, so right away we ask, \"Please, Hashem, make it that we shouldn't do it just as a zecher. Please, build the בית המקדש and let us bring the korbanot and we'll be able to fulfill this מצוה מדאורייתא.\" This is the mitzvah of sefirah: to count the days from the day they brought the omer, or the day that they should have brought the omer, which nowadays we don't have the omer, but the day that we should have brought the omer.

The mitzvah of sefirah is divided into two parts. The Gemara says, \"מצוה למימני יומי, מצוה למימני שבועי.\" There's a mitzvah to count the days, and there's a separate mitzvah to count the weeks. Because in the Torah it says two things: it says שבעה שבועות תספור לך, seven weeks you shall count, and then it also says תספרו חמשים יום, you should count 50 days, which actually means 49, up to the 50th. So the Torah mentions counting days and counting weeks, so there are two mitzvot: we count days and we count weeks, and that's actually what we do. Every night we say today is the 12th day, let's say, which is one week and five days. Why do we do that? Because there's a mitzvah to count weeks. In this mitzvah—I'll get back to the weeks in a moment, but I just want to get something before then I'll get back to it—in this mitzvah of counting the Omer, we find an argument amongst the poskim whether all the days, the counting of all the days, is one mitzvah, or every day is a separate mitzvah. As a result of this argument, comes out whether if you skip one day, can you still continue counting? Now according to the opinion that says that it's all one mitzvah, now since you skipped one day, you missed out the mitzvah. It's like a person who will say, \"I have four tzitzit, four corners on my garment, I only have three strings, one corner is missing. So you can't say, well, so I'll have only three. If you don't have the fourth, then you can't have the three either, you don't have anything.\" So here too, there's no use in counting those days after you missed, because you won't have the mitzvah anyway. On the other hand, the other opinion says that every day is a separate mitzvah. So if you skipped a day, you, unfortunately, skipped a mitzvah. But today, you have the mitzvah anyway, so you should count today. Because of that, what we do, the custom is, that if you skip a day, you continue to count, but without a bracha. And the reason we continue to count without a bracha is because according to the other opinion you shouldn't be counting. Your counting is not a mitzvah. You're just saying words, but it has no mitzvah. So how could you make a bracha, which is a blessing before you do a mitzvah, when you're not doing a mitzvah? So the bracha is a bracha levatala. It's a bracha, a blessing in vain, according to that opinion. And therefore, we do continue counting because after all, there is an opinion that says that we should continue counting, so we want to fulfill the mitzvah according to that opinion. But because according to the other opinion we shouldn't, and there's no you can't make a bracha, so we skip the bracha. And the rule is that if you don't make a bracha to a mitzvah, you still fulfill the mitzvah. You missed the bracha, you still fulfill the mitzvah. So by not making a bracha we like make a compromise: we say the sefirah, so we do the mitzvah according to that opinion, and even if we didn't make a bracha, according to this opinion we fulfill the mitzvah, and we don't have any aveirah of making a bracha in vain according to the other opinion, and that's why we just continue. There is an opinion, an interesting opinion, which is which is credited to the Beis Halevi, Rabbi Yoshe Ber Brisker, that he came up with an idea, and he said that every end of the week, you could make a bracha. If you skip in middle, at the end of every week you could make a bracha. Why? Because there's a mitzvah to count the weeks, that's a separate mitzvah. If you didn't skip seven days ago, that means that you did the mitzvah of counting the weeks. So even though it's all one, but what is that one mitzvah? Two parts to it: counting the days, and if you skipped one day you can't be counting the days, then there's a mitzvah of counting the weeks, so that you can continue. And therefore, when it would come to the end, at the time when the week is up and that's the mitzvah to count that today is two weeks, next week today is three weeks, you could do it with a bracha. I don't know if that's accepted lehalacha that people do that, but he writes that and it's a very interesting thought. The only question that comes up is According to those opinions that it's all one mitzvah, and that's why if you skipped once you have spoiled your mitzvah, and therefore you can't continue counting, you can't make a berachah, the question is how could you make a berachah in the beginning? How do you know you're not going to miss a day? According to this opinion, if you miss one day, you spoil the mitzvah. So you didn't only spoil the mitzvah for the future, for the next days, you didn't do the mitzvah yesterday either and two days ago either, because it's all one mitzvah. So you skipped a day, so you missed a mitzvah, so you should never be able to make a berachah, because we're never sure that you're going to do the mitzvah. The only day we should be able to make a berachah is on the last day, cuz then you know tonight is the last day and he finishes. How could we make a berachah before? So the Rebbe has an interesting pshat. He comes and says that it's a mistake that people think that the opinion is that it's one mitzvah for the whole 49 days. If that would be true, then we couldn't make a berachah. What their what the opinion is something else. They hold that the mitzvah is that we should count a day in order of counting, which means when we count the ninth day, let's say, the mitzvah is to count not today's day, but to count it as the ninth day. And therefore, if you skipped yesterday's day, how could you say today is nine if yesterday wasn't eight by you? It's not a pshat that it's all one mitzvah. The other opinion says no, the mitzvah is every separate day, every day separately. The mitzvah is not to count the continuation, it just happens to be a continuation because today is nine, yesterday was eight, but the mitzvah is not a continuation. The mitzvah is a separate mitzvah. Therefore, even if you skipped one day, so you didn't say eight, but today happened to be the ninth, so I can count the ninth, because the mitzvah is to count on the ninth, the ninth, on the 10th, the 10th, on the 20th, the 20th. The other opinion is that you have to count the ninth after your eight and the eight after your seven. That's what their opinion is. And that's why before you skip, there is no problem, because you had the mitzvah yesterday. But after you skip, now you can't continue, because you can't say today is nine after yesterday was eight. And therefore, our going back to what I said before, our custom is because of these two opinions that if you do skip, we don't continue counting with a berachah. But this is only if you didn't remember the whole 24 hours. Let's say a person forgot to count the Sefirah at night, and the next morning he reminds himself. Now, you can't count with a berachah in the morning, so you would count without a berachah. But still, you could continue counting the next night with a berachah until the end, because you did manage to say today's the day. That's why some people even have a custom that every day, during the day, when they remind themselves, they count Sefirah just in case he happened to forget the night before, so to make sure that you have counted. Yeah, so it's an idea to do it. The reason we count only at night with a berachah, not in the morning, is based on the pasuk where it says שבע שבתות תמימת תהיינה, seven complete weeks. That means every day and every week has to be complete. Complete means night and day. So you have to count from the night that you're counting for the next 24 hours. But if you're going to start to count in the morning, it means you missed half the night. That's not the real mitzvah. But nevertheless, since you did count, you continue counting with a berachah.

Where did this mitzvah of counting Sefirah comes from come from? Well, the truth is, what came from the Torah, where will it come from, and now it's from the Rabbanan. What What is the reason for this mitzvah? Now, some mitzvot have reasons, some mitzvot don't. The mitzvah of Pesach has a reason: we were in Mitzrayim, we went out of Mitzrayim, Hashem gave us a mitzvah to keep Pesach. Matzah, chametz, all these things we know. The mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer also has a source, a reason. Says in the Midrash that when the Jews went out of Mitzrayim, they were told by Moshe Rabbeinu that in 49 days you are going to receive the Torah on Har Sinai, and they just couldn't wait for the day. And what do we usually do when we can't wait for something? We count the days. So they counted the days to Matan Torah. They had a countdown: one day passed, two days passed, three days passed, and they count it down. When Hashem saw how much they desired, how much they loved to receive the Torah, Hashem says, \"You deserve this as a mitzvah.\" And because of that, He gave him a mitzvah that, \"Every year, you should count the days between Pesach and Shavuot, which are 49 days.\" What is the idea of counting Sefirah, counting days? Well, the way I just said it now, When you are waiting for something, you count the days, but counting the days is just an expression of one's waiting for something, but it has no, really no meaning. There's nothing in it, counting a day. Truth is, Sefirah is more than just counting the day. It says in all the sefarim, chassidut sefarim, kabbalah sefarim, mussar sefarim, even נגלה ספרים, it says that the idea of counting Sefirah means that every day we have to do another form of עבודת השם, another form of serving Hashem. What the days are, every day we are supposed to purify our middot, our attributes. And being that we know that every person has seven middot, seven middot are חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, ומלכות, and each one of these seven is made up of seven, so you have 7 * 7, and that's where the seven, the 49 days come from. The first week is a week dedicated to chesed. Every day it's another aspect of chesed. First day is חסד שבחסד, then it's גבורה שבחסד, then תפארת שבחסד, etc. The next week is a week dedicated to gevurah. So the first day is חסד שבגבורה, the second day is גבורה שבגבורה, etc. And that's how it goes on for all 49 days. So really what it means is that every time we count the day, it's not just to count, to say today is this and this day, but it is a time when we have to reflect on that specific middah that belongs to the day, and we have to work on ourselves to purify that middah, that attribute. And if you look in the Siddur, we have in the Siddur every day a different middah which belongs to that day. We even mention it when we say the special prayer there, and that's the day we have to work on that middah. This is basically what happened, takeh, when the Jews went out of Mitzrayim. It's said the Jews went out of Mitzrayim, they couldn't wait to count of the days. It's not just counting the days that they did, which is also good, waiting for something and counting the days, they purified themselves, and they really needed it because we know that when the Jews were in Mitzrayim, they sank into the 49 gates of tumah, 49 gates of impurity. And it says they were almost the 50th. Had they entered the 50th, that's such a level where you can't get out. To get there, there is no return. And Hashem grabbed them out before they got to the 49th, to the 50th gate. And then from then on till they came to מתן תורה, for 49 days, they every day had to get out of one gate of impurity and at the same time, enter a gate of kedushah, of holiness. So by the time the 49 days were up, they had purified themselves, got rid of themselves of all the 49 attributes of tumah, and they at the same time had entered the 49 gates of kedushah, and they were ready for מתן תורה. Now, מתן תורה, giving of the Torah, was a greatest, special event. It was the greatest event that ever happened and ever will happen in history, as מתן תורה will never happen again. And that's a level that a level of kedushah, a level of godliness that came into the world, such a strong light, that's unbelievable, something that we can't imagine. That is called the שער החמשים, the 50th gate. The 50th, the number 50 represents that highest level of kedushah that came down when the Torah was given. Every year, the same thing repeats itself, which means that when Pesach comes and we relive יציאת מצרים, it's a time when we have to prepare ourselves for the giving of the Torah, and therefore we have to again work on ourselves to get rid of any middah, bad middah that we might have, and work on getting into the good middos. So we get out of the 49 bad middos, we enter the fifth-, the 49 good middos. And then what happens that by the time we finished, comes to Shavuos, Shavuos is the 50th day, and that's when this level, which in Kabbalah is called שער החמשים, the 50th level, shines upon us. If you look in the Chumash, when it talks about Sefirah, it says, \"תספרו חמשים יום\", you should count 50 days. Now, what does that mean? We don't count 50 days, we only count 49. As I mentioned before, it means up to 50, but that's not the way the Torah usually writes it. Why does the Torah here write it in such a not, not clear way when it says, clearly it says 50 days, count 50 days? So in Chassidus it says that the word \"תספרו\" doesn't only mean counting, \"תספרו\" comes from the word ספיר. אבן ספיר means a sapphire, a shiny stone, a shiny diamond. \"תספרו חמשים יום\" means that will shine to you the 50th. When we count 49 days, the 50th shines. The 50th level is a level that we cannot reach on our own. This is something Hashem on his own gives us. We can't reach it, there is nothing that we could do. There is nothing in avodas Hashem, in service of Hashem, that we could do that would reach up into that level. Hashem on his own, as a present, could give it to us. But when does Hashem give it to us as a present? If we do everything that we can in the level that we could reach. And when we reach everything that we can, and Hashem says, \"Now you're ready that I should give you.\" And that's what happens during Sefirah. During Sefirah, we have 49 levels, and these 49 levels are reachable, and every day that we work with ourselves, we reach another level of kedushah. By the time the 49 days are up, that means that we have reached whatever we could. Then Hashem says, \"Now I will make the 50th level shine to you.\" He will come and give that 50th level to us. But till then, we have to work on these 49 levels, working with our middos, which, if you want to put it in other words, working with our יצר הרע, with our evil inclination, or, using the terms of Chassidus, working with our נפש הבהמית, our animalistic soul. And this is another reason why we connect the Sefirah with the קרבן עומר, with this קרבן עומר. Because according to what I'm saying now and according to what the Midrash says why we have the mitzvah of Sefirah, it has nothing to do with the קרבן עומר. It's between Pesach and Shavuos, to prepare ourselves for Shavuos. Same the first time the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, they wanted to, they couldn't wait for מתן תורה, so they prepared themselves. What does that have to do with this sacrifice, with this קרבן עומר that they brought? It does have to do, because as I mentioned before, this קרבן עומר was a korban of barley. And the Gemara says barley is a מאכל בהמה. Barley is food for an animal. We find one more korban, one more korban which was a korban of flour, which was made of barley, not of wheat. Cuz all other מנחות, the Gemara says, כל המנחות באות חיטין, all the קרבנות מנחה, all these sacrifices of flour, came from חיטין, from wheat, חוץ מקרבן סוטה. A woman who was a סוטה, what's a סוטה? A woman who was warned by her husband do not hide, be in hiding with this man. And then she did. So she is brought to the Beis Hamikdash, and she is given a certain water to drink. And that will test to see if she's guilty or innocent. If she is guilty, certain things will happen and she will die. If she's innocent, then nothing will happen to her, as a matter of fact it'll make her even better, etc., etc. But together with the water that she drank, she had to bring a קרבן מנחה. That's the din. And that קרבן מנחה was made of שעורים, of barley. And there the Gemara makes it very clear: why did she have to bring a korban of barley? The Gemara says like this: היא עשתה מעשה בהמה, כך קרבנה מאכל בהמה. She behaved like an animal and therefore her korban should be animal food. So we see clearly over there, we connect the korban of שעורים to the fact that she behaved like a beheima. The same thing is with the קרבן עומר. Since when we went out of Mitzrayim, and every year when we do that, when we go out of Mitzrayim, and we are not ready to receive the Torah yet, that means we still have that beheima within us, we still have that animal within us. So you bring the קרבן עומר that is a sacrifice to sacrifice our בהמה. It's and the symbol, the remez, the hint is it's a מאכל בהמה. And from that point on, we have the koach of fighting our בהמה, because we had a קרבן which was a מאכל בהמה. And that's why we start, that's how we start counting from the day of the עומר. So it is connected to יציאת מצרים, going out of מצרים, and it is connected to preparation to מתן תורה, but it is also connected to the קרבן עומר because it's all the same. The reason we bring the קרבן עומר is because of that, because it's מאכל בהמה, and we prepare ourselves, working with our בהמה in order to get ready to מתן תורה. And this is basically the explanation in the mitzvah of ספירת העומר.

But there is one more thing concerning sefirah. I mentioned before that the פסוק uses the term וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת, should start counting the day after Shabbos. That's what it says. And because it says that, the צדוקים, who are those people, those groups of people, who only believed in תורה שבכתב, in the written Torah, they did not believe in the oral Torah, so they took everything literally as the Torah says, they claimed that sefirah always starts on Sunday, the day after Shabbos. And by them, Shavuos was always on a Sunday, because they started the weeks on Sunday and the last day of sefirah finished on the last of the seventh week was Shabbos, so Shavuos was always to them on a Sunday. And they claimed it says ממחרת השבת. The חכמים said that ממחרת השבת does not mean the day after Shabbos, it means the day after Yom Tov. And Yom Tov is called Shabbos. There are different proofs that they brought, and different things that the Rambam brings, but the main proof is that's what they had in tradition. generation from generation, going back all the way to the Jews in the מדבר when Hashem gave the Torah, that they knew that that has nothing to do with the day of the week. It has to do with the day after Yom Tov, it has nothing to do with the day after Shabbos. They even claimed, they said you know why Hashem made that din? They even said it was Moshe Rabbeinu who decided to do it. And the Tzedukim said to רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, משה רבינו אוהב ישראל היה. Moshe Rabbeinu loved Jews, so he wanted to be nice to them. So he made it so that Shavuos should always be on a Sunday. Since Shabbos he rested, so when it comes to Sunday, so you're able to receive the Torah much easier and more calm. That's what they said, that's why they did it. But Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said it's not true. We know ממחרת השבת means the day after Yom Tov. That's the day you have to bring the קרבן עומר, and that's the day we start counting. So it comes out that according to the halachah and according to the truth, it makes no difference which day of the week. Nevertheless, there is an interesting Midrash. The Midrash says on the פסוק, שבע שבתות תמימות תהיינה, seven complete weeks, the Midrash says, אימתי הן תמימות? When is it complete? When is Sefirah complete? When you start counting on a Sunday. So the Midrash makes it very clear that if you start counting on a Sunday, which is exactly like this year, this year happens to be Yom Tov Pesach, the first day was Shabbos, so we started counting Motzaei Shabbos, which is the first day was Sunday. So it says in the Midrash that if Sefirah starts on a Sunday, then it is תמימות. It is complete. Now we know this seems to contradict what the Chachamim said, that ממחרת השבת does not mean the day after Shabbos, it means the day after Yom Tov. But from here we see that nevertheless, even though the halachah is that we have to count no matter which way it is, but if it comes, if it does happen to come out on a Sunday, it is better. There is something special. Now the question is, how does that fit to the fact that it makes no difference which day of the week? So there are different explanations. So let me first give an explanation in simple peshat. And that is, that there are many mitzvot, now maybe I shouldn't say many, there are some mitzvot, that the way Hashem gave it, is that sometimes, or in some situations, the mitzvah is done to the fullest degree, and sometimes not. And it's still from the Torah! See, things which are from the derabbanan, we find a lot of times, a difference between what we call lechatchilah and bediavad, the way it should be done at best choice, and then bediavad, another way if you can, it's also good. But in the Torah we don't find such things. Whatever the Torah says, that's it! There's no two ways about it. Nevertheless, we do find some things, which in a certain situation it's better, and in another situation it's not as good, even though that's according to the Torah. To use an example of Yom Tov itself: when we learn Chumash, we know that what makes Yom Tov? What makes the kedushah of Yom Tov? One of the most important things that make the kedushah of Yom Tov is the korbanot. There were special korbanot in the בית המקדש for Yom Tov, and that made the Yom Tov. Now we don't have korbanot, and we still have Yom Tov. It's second best. And our Yom Tov that we have is not מדרבנן, the second day Yom Tov is מדרבנן, but the first day is from the Torah. It's second best! The Torah itself put the mitzvah of Yom Tov in two choices: if you have a choice, and you have korbanot, you have a way of bringing korbanot, that's the right way to make the Yom Tov. If you don't have, then without, the Yom Tov is still a mitzvah. Maybe we could even use the example of tzitzit: if you have the blue string, that's the best way of having the mitzvah of tzitzit. If you don't, you still have the mitzvah of tzitzit. Certain things if you don't have, then we can't do. But certain things you see the Torah made it in two ways. And that's from the Torah, and now lechatchilah the way we do the mitzvah of tzitzit is without a blue string, and it's still a mitzvah of tzitzit. The same is concerning sefirah: Hashem gave us the mitzvah of sefirah, and He said the best way of doing the mitzvah of sefirah is if it's, if the days of the week fit to the days of sefirah, then it's really complete. When we talk about counting weeks, so usually they don't coincide. The week could start from a Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever, I don't know, we have to figure out exactly when it could, when it can't. Since לא אד״ו פסח, so sefirah cannot start from a Tuesday, it cannot start from a Thursday, and it cannot start from a Shabbos. But whichever day it could start, so that's one way, and then sefirah could start from a Sunday. So if it starts from the middle, then the full complete weeks of sefirah sefirah don't coincide with the complete weeks of the week, but if it starts on a Sunday, it does coincide. So, if we have sefirah that way, then that is the best way of Sefirah. If Yom Tov comes out a different day of the week, it's not our fault, but then the Sefirah is that year the second best, even from the Torah the second best. So, it comes out that chas v'shalom they were not right that you only count Sefirah from a Sunday. It's not true. But it is true that there is something special if the weeks coincide. Just to use another example: there is a Zohar that says something that's very, very strange. Someone that's familiar with halacha and with Rashi in Chumash, it's very strange. It says in Zohar that when you buy a slave, a Jewish slave, so we all know, anybody that learned Mishpatim, six years he works, and then the seventh year he goes out free. So, the Zohar says that the seventh year he goes out free is on Shemittah. You know, every seventh year is Shemittah. So, in the seventh year he goes out, that's the year of Shemittah. Which would seem to say that a עבד עברי, a Jewish slave, is freed in the year of Shemittah. Which is not true, that's not the din. Whenever you buy him, he works for six years, and the seventh year he goes. And the seventh year and he goes out, is the year of Shemittah? But it says it's the year of Shemittah. It's not the year of Shemittah. The answer is, if it happens to come out that he goes out in the year of Shemittah, then that's the best choice. In other words, when we're talking about the halacha of an עבד, the first and best possible way is if he would go out in the year of Shemittah. If he was sold not in the year of Shemittah, in a different year, so his seven doesn't coincide with Shemittah, so that's what the Torah says. But it's still not the best way. It would be better if he would go out in the year of Shemittah. So, we find such things. And the same thing would be concerning the counting of the Omer. But then there's another thing here. The Midrash says on the same pasuk, אימתי הן תמימות, when is it complete? So, we just had one Midrash where it says, when is it complete? When it coincides with the days of the week. Another Midrash says, אימתי הן תמימות, when is Sefirah complete? כשישראל עושין רצונו של מקום, when the Yidden do the will of Hashem. When the Yidden do the will of Hashem, it is complete. What's the connection between doing the will of Hashem and having the Sefirah complete? So, just in short to explain what Chassidut says. The make doing or making the will of Hashem doesn't mean just doing the right things. That's obvious. It means more than that. And just in short to explain it, we find in Kriat Shema two parashiyot, right? שמע ישראל, ואהבת, that's one portion, then you have והיה אם שמוע. In the second portion of Shema, it says, והיה אם שמוע, if you will listen to Hashem with all your heart, with all your soul, and you will serve Him, then you will work in the fields, and Hashem will give you rain, and you'll have food, etc., etc. In the first portion of Shema, it doesn't speak about working, it doesn't speak about making a living, it doesn't speak about anything. And the Gemara says, you know why? Because in the first portion, it's talking about a level when Jews don't have to work. Others will do the work for us. And the second portion is talking when we still have to work. And you know why the second portion is a time when we still have to work? Because that is talking about a time when the Yidden are not doing the will of Hashem. And when Yidden don't do the will of Hashem, you won't have others work for you. But if you do the will of Hashem, then Hashem will provide others who work for you. And the question is, right away, what do we mean that the second portion of Shema is talking about a time when the Yidden don't do the will of Hashem? Let's read the words! It says, והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, you will listen to Hashem's words with all your heart, with all your might, with all your, I mean, soul. So, we're talking about them doing the will of Hashem! Why does the Gemara mean that this is talking about not doing the will of Hashem? מפרשים say the difference between the first portion and the second, in the first portion it says, בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך. The second portion says, בכל לבבכם ובכל נפשכם, it doesn't say בכל מאדכם. What is the difference? בכל לבבכם is with all your heart, בכל נפשכם is with all your soul. בכל מאדך means beyond your limits. מאד means very. טוב מאד means very good. גדול מאד means very big. מאד means very. Very means more. Means beyond the limits. So the first portion, when it says that a Yid love השם, ואהבת, you should love בכל מאדך, all your might, we call it, but it's beyond limits. That's called doing the will of Hashem. The second one is talking about Jews doing what Hashem wants, והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, you're going to listen, but not going beyond your limits. Doing everything with your limits, that's called not doing the will of Hashem. What it what means is there are certain things which we know Hashem wants us to do. There are certain things which Hashem commanded us to do, that's one thing. But then there are things more than that, a lot of things that we know that even though we don't have to do it, but we know Hashem would like us to do it. If we call in English we would call it there is the letter of the law, and then there is the spirit of the law. There are things which even though you could get away with it and you don't have you wouldn't be doing an aveirah, but you know that's not what Hashem wants. And that's what it means. The first part is ובכל מאודך, with all your might, beyond limits, meaning that's called doing the will of Hashem, something that Hashem wants even if He didn't tell you. And the second one is only והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, you're going to listen to Hashem, do what He tells you, and that's as far as it goes. So we see doing the will of Hashem means doing something beyond. And that's the idea of Sefirat HaOmer. Sefirat HaOmer is not only reaching a level, working with oneself to reach a level to do what it says in Shulchan Aruch, but we're talking about being מברר, purifying our middot, which means doing things beyond. So the real sefirah is עושים רצונו של מקום, doing the will of Hashem. Sefirat HaOmer means working one's way up to do not only what we have to, but do more than what we have to, which we would call lifnim mishurat hadin, more than the din, the law requires. And it's a very important thing. It says in chassidus that when do we realize a person loves Hashem is not if he does everything that you have to. If he does more. Because as long as you do everything you're told to do, so it doesn't really show you love Hashem. It just shows that you nebech you have to do, you have no choice, and you you believe in Hashem, you believe in the Torah, you have to do it. It doesn't show you really have a feeling to it. But if you do more than you have to because you know Hashem would like it, then it's a proof that you love Hashem. Like by a child, chassidus brings an example. You have some people, like it says, a servant, a slave would do a good slave, an עבד נאמן we call him, would do everything he's told, but nothing more. He'll do his job perfectly. A בן, a child, would do everything the parents want, plus what else can I do to think, what can I do to give my mother, my father pleasure? That's a child. The same thing, a Jew who only does what he's told to do is like an עבד השם, fine. And halvai everyone should be like that, we just hope everyone will be like that. But still, all he is is an עבד, a slave to Hashem. Fine. But not a בן, not a son. A child to Hashem is if we do more. And that's what Sefirat HaOmer is, and that's what the Midrash means, אימתי הן תמימות, when is it complete? When is Sefirat HaOmer, when does a Yid really accomplish what Sefirat HaOmer is supposed to accomplish? בשעה שעושין רצונו של מקום, when the Yidden do the will of Hashem. Not the commandments of Hashem, but the will of Hashem, knowing that Hashem wants something, we do it. And this is the essence of the spiritual explanation, the mitzvah of sefirah, to prepare ourselves for Shavuos, to purify ourselves and bring ourselves to a level to want to do more than we are commanded to do.

Then there's one more thing, since I see there is a little few moments left, one more thing, an interesting thing concerning sefirah, and that is one of the famous things concerning counting sefirah, and that is crossing the international date line. That causes a lot of confusion. When a person crosses the date line from United States of from America from here going to Australia, and he goes through the date line, what happens is you skip a day. When the person comes from Australia to the United States, he has the same day twice. If you go the other way, what happens is from Sunday, Sunday 3:00 let's say you cross, so now it's by you Sunday 3:00, and a minute later it is Monday 3:01. The other way it's Sunday 3:00 and then comes and a second later it becomes a like in Monday 3:0 3:00 it becomes Sunday 3:01, you skip, you go back a day. Now, what happens is when you cross the date line in middle of sefirah, you have a problem with counting the sefirah. Let's say, just to give an example, you counted here tonight, let's say, we counted, let's say the 10th, just to use an example, we counted the 10th of sefirah, and so I start flying tomorrow morning and I cross the date line, tomorrow night I'm in Australia. Now in in Australia tomorrow night, they're not counting the 11th, they're counting the 12th. So I had I skipped a day, because the next night by me they're counting the 12th. If I go the other way, let's say I counted the 10th in Australia, and I come the next night here, I should be counting the 11th, everyone else is counting the 10th. So what do we do? That's one question. Based on this question, we have a bigger question. What happened to Shavuos? Shavuos is the only holiday in the Torah that has no date. It doesn't say anywhere in the Chumash what date of the month, or of what what day of what which month Shavuos is. All it says is Shavuos is after the 49 days of counting of the omer. Now this guy is going to count a different sefirah, then his 49 will be different. Let's use the example. We're going to Australia, and from the 10th over there, the next night they're counting 12th already, but if he'll continue his counting, he'll be counting the 11th. So when they're counting the 49th, he'll still be counting the 48th. The next night, by them it's already after the 49th, he'll still have the 49th. And the opposite, he'll finish earlier. Now concerning sefirah, we have a special din that there is no such thing as a collective mitzvah of sefirah. Sefirah is מצוה לכל אחד ואחד, that's an individual mitzvah. Everyone personally has a mitzvah. There are other types of counting which are for the community. Here we have to count the years, not nowadays, when we had the Beit HaMikdash, the years of shemitah up to יובל, same like we count sefirah, but that was a mitzvah on the Beit Din, the community. The Beit Din represented the community, and they used to every year count, this year is year number three from the fifth cycle of shemitah, whatever. Sefirat haOmer is a mitzvah on every individual. There's no such thing, I don't have to care what the other rest people count, I have to count my days. And therefore, when you go to Australia, and you cross the dateline, and you count the 10th last night, tonight you have to count the 11th. Ay, everybody else is counting the 12th, not my business, I have to count the 11th. When it comes to Shabbos and Yom Tov, it's not an individual thing, it depends on the place. If here it's Shabbos, then that's my Shabbos. Sefirah has nothing to do with the place, and has nothing to do with other people, it's me. So from the 10th, I have to count the 11th, and everyone else will be counting the 12th. And therefore, the Rebbe said that when you finish sefirah, and you they'll be finished the 49th, you'll be counting the 48th, when they finish, you'll still have the 49th, by them it'll be Shavuos, and since Shavuos has no other way of of of of no no date, but the end of sefirah, so Shavuos depends on everyone's sefirah. So the person who crossed the dateline to Australia will have Shavuos a day later. That means by them will be Shavuos, and by him will not be. By them the second day Shavuos will be his first, and by them, the day after Shavuos will be his second day of Shavuos. If you go the other direction, coming here, so you will have Shavuos a day before. You will finish 49 when everyone was still counting 48. So when you finish, it's your Shavuos. It actually happened here, I don't know if you any of you remember, remember when the Harrison family moved here from Australia? Remember they stayed in the the hotel, what's it called, the the where we had the minyan? Right, the Ocean Spray, they stayed there, and I remember talking to them, and they told me they moved here in middle of Sefirah, and came out, I said to them, they had a different day of Shavuos. Yeah, all by themselves they had Shavuos themselves. They had Shavuos a day earlier, the second day Yom Tov by them Right, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what it is. And that's the Rebbe's psak. Because of that, the Rebbe didn't want people should do it, so the Rebbe said not to travel through the dateline in middle of Sefirah. If you have to go to Australia, go the other direction, don't go through the dateline. Now the concerning other things, there is a big argument where the dateline actually dateline actually is. See, because the way the world has the dateline, it's just a made-up thing. It's logical that there has to be a dateline someplace, because the world, the earth is a is a ball, round, there has to be a place where the day changes. Now where is it? As far as we're concerned, it could be right here. Could be anywhere in the world. It depends on where the sun started shining. Wherever the sun started shining and started going around, and then it came back, so it was a point where the sun was there already for the second time, and on the other side it was just for the first. But we don't know where that point was. So they decided to do it not in a place where the line will go through land, because it'll be pretty funny, on one side of the street it'll be Sunday, the other side will be Monday. So they chose the Pacific Ocean where there is no land, and they have a line goes straight through the Pacific Ocean. And because of that, when it comes to Alaska, it'll have to cross Alaska, so there they made a zigzag and it goes around Alaska. But that's what they decided. What about halachah? In halachah, we also have sources of where the dateline should be: sources in Midrash where Hashem put the sun up, how many degrees from Yerushalayim. And there is an argument, different rabbanim, peshat in that Midrash. And therefore, there are certain places where there is an argument. Hawaii, for instance, is not so simple which day is really Shabbos. Is it on this side of the date line or that side of the date line? But Australia is according to all opinions on the other side of the date line. And therefore, if you go there, you definitely cross the date line. And therefore, you have a problem with Shavuos. But if anybody does do it, he has his own Shavuos. And the point is, like he said, because מתן תורה is a personal experience, and the preparation to מתן תורה is a personal experience. Actually, when Hashem started the Ten Commandments, he said, אנכי השם אלקיך, I am your God, singular not plural, because he wasn't only the God of everybody. On one hand, the meaning is he considered all the Jews as one, so it's to everybody. But it also means to every individual person. And that's why that is something that depended on every individual person. But in our case, we don't have these problems. We all have the same Shavuos. But the Sefirah we have to take in mind. We have to realize that counting the Sefirah is not just saying some words and counting something, but it is a big, big avodat Hashem, a certain service of of purifying ourselves and bringing ourselves closer to Hashem, and getting rid of the yetzer hara, the bad middot that we have, and being ready for מתן תורה. Ana Bekoach is שם מ״ב, it's all for you. It's a name of Hashem which is made up of 42 letters, a special name. It says in Chassidut that the name that's in Ana Bekoach is called the שם of Hashem for aliyah. Anytime there has to be any elevation, it has to do with that שם. And as we see, in the beginning of davenen every time we say, by קריאת שמע שעל המטה we say, and by Sefirah, being it's a time of elevations, we say this שם. Yes. In Mitzrayim, when it was dark, hundreds of thousands, millions of Jews Died. died. So, I thought that was a separation of the bad guys and the good guys. But they were it was only a certain level? Only those bad people who didn't want to leave died. Other people who wanted to leave, but they were bad in other ways, they went out. Okay. Oh, one question? Just one more question, it's late Hey, they knew they knew better than we know. They figured it out. They knew better. There are rabbanim that discuss it a little bit, as a matter of fact, my leaders, but they knew they knew they were told by Moshe Rabbeinu, they had leaders, they had שבט לוי who taught them