Concerning the mitzvah of ספירת העומר, it says in the Torah: וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת, that you should count the day after Shabbos, should count seven weeks, seven times, all together it's 49 days. And the Chazal say that when the pasuk says: וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת, you should count the day after Shabbos, it doesn't mean after Shabbos, meaning Sunday, but it means the day after Pesach. And the Gemara says in Menachot דף ס״ה עמוד א׳, that there was a whole discussion between the Chachamim and the Baitusim, the Tzedukim. They who did not believe in תורה שבעל פה, they claimed that you always have to count ספירת העומר from Sunday, because they learned the word Shabbos simple, that it means Shabbos. ממחרת השבת, the day after Shabbos, means Sunday. So they said that always you have to start counting ספירת העומר on Sunday. And there was a whole discussion between the Chachamim and the Baitusim trying to prove to them that they're wrong, and that when it says here ממחרת השבת, it doesn't mean the day after Shabbos, but it means the day after Yom Tov. But l'chorah we have to understand: since the pasuk does not mean the day after Shabbos, but it means the day after Yom Tov, why does the Torah say ממחרת השבת? Why doesn't it say clearly in the Torah: ממחרת הפסח, the day after Pesach, or any other expression which would make it clear? Why mention ממחרת השבת, and then there is a place for a mistake, and you have to have all kinds of proofs that it doesn't mean Shabbos, it means Yom Tov, when it could have said לכתחילה ממחרת הפסח or another expression similar to that?

To explain that, we first have to understand the whole inyan of ספירת העומר. We know concerning Yetzias Mitzrayim, the pasuk says: בהוציאך את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלקים על ההר הזה. Hashem said to Moshe: when you will take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, they're going to serve Me on this mountain, which was Har Sinai. Which means that the goal of Yetzias Mitzrayim is Matan Torah, is to come to Har Sinai and to receive the Torah. Between Yetzias Mitzrayim and Matan Torah, that's when you have the mitzvah of ספירת העומר. Which means that in order to come to the goal of Yetzias Mitzrayim, which is Matan Torah, you must go through the process of ספירת העומר. This is, so to speak, the memutza, the in-between, between the beginning of Yetzias Mitzrayim with the end of Yetzias Mitzrayim, which is Matan Torah. And that's why we find that all three months, Nisan, Iyar, and Sivan, is connected to Yetzias Mitzrayim, which means Nisan is the month of Yetzias Mitzrayim, Iyar, which is the month of ספירת העומר. Even though in Nisan we also have some days of ספירת העומר, and in Sivan we also have some days of ספירת העומר, but not the whole month is the month of ספירת העומר, because not every day of the month, not of Nisan and not of Sivan, we count ספירת העומר. Iyar is the month of ספירת העומר because in Iyar every day of the month has this mitzvah of ספירת העומר. So Iyar is referred to as the month of ספירת העומר. So Nisan is the month of Yetzias Mitzrayim, Iyar is the month of ספירת העומר, and Sivan is the month of Matan Torah. And we find in the Torah that the concept of Yetzias Mitzrayim is written in connection to all three of these months. Concerning חודש ניסן it says: חדש האביב כי בו יצאת ממצרים, it's the month they went out of Mitzrayim. Concerning חודש אייר, it says in the beginning of פרשת במדבר: לחדש השני בשנה השנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים, the second month of the second year of their going out of Mitzrayim. So we see that concerning the second month, which was Iyar, it mentions the יציאת מצרים. And even though in peshat the word לצאתם מארץ מצרים does not refer to the second month, it refers to the second year, the peshat in pasuk is לחדש השני בשנה השנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים, the second year of the going out of Mitzrayim, but the יציאת מצרים does not refer to the second month. But in the Zohar, in חלק ג׳ דף קי״ז עמוד ב׳, it says that חודש השני and שנה השנית כולא חד, it's the same inyan. Whatever the explanation shall be, but it does say there that the inyan of לצאתם מארץ מצרים is also in connection to לחדש השני. So we see that חודש אייר is also connected to יציאת מצרים. And concerning חודש סיון, the Torah also says in פרשת יתרו: בחדש השלישי לצאת בני ישראל מארץ מצרים, the third month of the Yidden going out of Mitzrayim. So we see that concerning these three months, the Torah mentions יציאת מצרים, even though all the months are counted from יציאת מצרים: the fifth month, the seventh month, which is Tishrei, is also the seventh month of יציאת מצרים, but we don't find in the Torah that it should mention יציאת מצרים concerning the other months, but concerning these three months. And the reason for that is because these three months are all one hemshech, one continuation of יציאת מצרים: it started in Nisan when they went out of Mitzrayim, went through Iyar, which is the month of ספירת העומר, continued into Sivan, which is the month of מתן תורה, because from יציאת מצרים to מתן תורה it's all one hemshech. But since these are three months, obviously these are three stages, so to speak, in the inyan of יציאת מצרים. The beginning in Nisan, the memutza, the middle in Iyar which is Sefirat HaOmer, and the end in Sivan which is Matan Torah. What are the three stages?

At the time of יציאת מצרים, the Yidden were מושקע במ\"ט שערי טומאה. They were drowned completely in 49 gates of tumah and there were no vessels at all to receive any Godly thing, as the pasuk says: \"ואת ערום ועריה.\" They were completely naked of ruchniyus because they were in a very low madreigah. But נגלה עליהם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו, השם Himself revealed Himself to them and pulled them out of מצרים. Now, being that this did not come mitzad their own avodah that they did something about it, but it came as a גילוי אור מלמעלה, it came as a revelation from above, therefore this revelation did not penetrate into them in a penimiyus, did not change them, so to speak. Since they themselves were no keilim to it, they were no vessels to receive it, so it did not penetrate them. But the גילוי אור, this special revelation of Hashem, pulled them closer to Godliness and pulled them out of מצרים. It's also understood that this revelation that took place at that time only affected their neshamah, their נפש האלוקית as we would call it, but did not affect their נפש הבהמית. Every Yid has a yetzer tov and a yetzer hara, or using the terms נפש האלוקית, the Godly soul, which is the נשמה קדושה, the holy neshamah, and has this נפש הבהמית, the animalistic soul. Being that they themselves were no vessels to receive Godliness, it was just a גילוי אור מלמעלה, so only the נפש האלוקית, which has a connection to Godliness, was able to feel that. But the נפש הבהמית did not feel it, which means the evil that was within the Yidden did not change. They did not get rid of the evil that was within them. The נפש הבהמית at that moment, at that point, remained the way it was before. And in Tanya, in פרק ל\"א, he explains that this is the reason why the pasuk says, \"כי ברח העם,\" that the people ran away. And the question that's asked: Why did they have to run? Who was chasing them? As a matter of fact, Pharaoh wanted them to leave. When it says \"כי ברח העם,\" obviously it means they ran away. Why did they run? And he answers, they didn't run away from the מצרים. They ran away from their own רע. If they would have changed their level, it would have penetrated into them and they would have become different, and they have nothing to run, they are different people. Being that they remained the way they were, there was just a גילוי אור מלמעלה, but essentially whatever was there within them, the evil that was within them was still there, they had to run away, so to speak, from themselves. They ran away from the רע that was there. But it's self-understood that this is not enough. It's not enough if there is a גילוי אור מלמעלה, there is a revelation of Hashem, and it affects your נפש האלוקית, and the נפש הבהמית remains the same as it was before, that's not enough. The tachlit is that the נפש האלוקית should elevate, purify also the נפש הבהמית. Because if it would just affect the נפש האלוקית itself, then the נשמה could have stayed above, could have stayed in שמים. As it says in Etz Chaim, that the נשמה עצמה אינה צריכה תיקון, the נשמה itself doesn't have to be fixed. The whole reason the נשמה came down to this world is, it says there, לברר את גופו ונפש הבהמית, to be מברר, to purify the body and the נפש הבהמית. Which actually is what the Gemara means when it says in Berakhot דף נ\"ד עמוד א' on the pasuk, \"ואהבת את ה' אלוקיך בכל לבבך,\" you shall love השם with all your heart, and it says בכל לבבך with two ב's and it doesn't say בכל לבך, so the גמרא says it means בשני יצריך, with both יצרים, the יצר טוב and the יצר הרע. That means that you have to be מברר, which means purify, elevate also the יצר הרע, the נפש הבהמית. So the נפש האלוקית has to penetrate into the נפש הבהמית. When the נפש האלוקית changes the נפש הבהמית, so not only do we gain that the נפש הבהמית also is interested in קדושה, but more than that, the נפש האלוקית also gains more, because there is something extra in the נפש הבהמית which the נפש האלוקית doesn't have. And when the נפש האלוקית utilizes the כוחות of the נפש הבהמית, then the נפש האלוקית gains. And as it's hinted in the pasuk in Mishlei, קאפיטל י\"ד, פסוק ד', \"ורב תבואות בכח שור,\" that there's a lot of תבואה, a lot of grain that could come out from the koach, the power of an ox. Now the נפש הבהמית is compared to an ox, it's a בהמה. It's the animalistic soul, is the animal of the person. So it says \"ורב תבואות,\" there are more תבואות, there's more gain that you can get through the koach of the שור. Why? The difference between a person and a בהמה is, a person, being that he's a בעל שכל, he has שכל, so his willpower, his רצון, and his מדות are not so strong, because they are weakened through the control of the שכל. But a בהמה, since a בהמה doesn't have שכל, so the רצון, the willpower of a בהמה, and the מדות of a בהמה are very strong, stronger than by a person. If a בהמה wants something, it'll do it and there's nothing that'll stop it because it has no שכל to control it. So there is a תוקף, a strength in a בהמה over a person. And the same is with the נפש הבהמית the נפש האלוקית. The strength of the רצון and the strength of the מדות of the נפש הבהמית are stronger than נפש האלוקית. Therefore, the נפש האלוקית uses its own רצון only, its own will to Hashem, and its own מדות to Hashem, it is to a certain degree weak. But if it utilizes the מדות of the נפש הבהמית for קדושה, and the מדות and רצון of the נפש הבהמית are stronger, then the נפש האלוקית also gains, then it gets a stronger will and a stronger middot to Hashem. So this is another reason why it's not enough for the נפש האלוקית itself just to serve Hashem, but it has to work and change the נפש הבהמית. When a person reaches that level that his נפש האלוקית changes the נפש הבהמית, then you reach a third point, and that is the point of complete יחוד with Hashem, complete דבקות with Hashem, complete unity with Hashem. You become completely batel with Hashem. And these three stages are the three stages of יציאת מצרים, ספירת העומר, and מתן תורה, which really is the month of Nissan, which is the month of יציאת מצרים, אייר, which is the month of ספירת העומר, and Iyar, which is the month of מתן תורה. Beginning of יציאת מצרים, that's when there was just a גילוי אור מלמעלה, it was the first stage. It just affected the נפש האלוקית, just the neshama. Then ספירת העומר was the time when you work with the נפש הבהמית, you change your middot. That's the whole idea of ספירת העומר, that every day you count the day, but you don't just count it, but the counting means that you work with your middot, and you change, you purify, you elevate the middot of the נפש הבהמית. That's the second stage, when the נפש האלוקית changes the נפש הבהמית. And then you come to the month of Sivan, to מתן תורה, when you become completely batel to Hashem. And that's what happened that time, that על כל דיבור ודיבור פרחה נשמתן. The neshama left them at every dibbur, which means they became completely batel to Hashem, their neshama mamash left the body because their whole מציאות became Hashem, and they couldn't even remain existing. The only reason they existed was because Hashem gave them the neshama back, gave them koach to continue existing. But they, for themselves, were completely batel to Hashem.

Now these three levels that we said are מרומז, are hinted in a pasuk in Shir Hashirim. The pasuk says משכני אחריך נרוצה הביאני המלך חדריו: pull me, and after you we will run, the king should bring me into his rooms. So we have three things here: משכני means pull me, אחריך נרוצה means we will run after you, that's the second thing, and the third stage is הביאני המלך חדריו, that the king bring me into his rooms. And there are questions on this pasuk. First of all, משכני is לשון יחיד. משכני means pull me. And then he says אחריך נרוצה, after you we will run. He should have said pull me and I will run after you. Why does it say after you we will run? Or he should have said pull us and we will run after you. And also we see, משכני means pull me, which means pulling, being pulled from above. אחריך נרוצה means we will run after you, that's something that we do. He should have said pull me and I will be pulled by you. Why does he say pull me and we will run after you? And then there are more questions here. But the point is that these three parts of the pasuk refer to these three times: משכני refers to the time of Yetziat Mitzrayim, אחריך נרוצה refers to the time of Sefirat HaOmer, and הביאני המלך חדריו to the time of Matan Torah. משכני means pull me. The kinyan of meshicha, the דין הלכה when it comes to kinyanim, to acquire things, and you make, you do an act of acquisition, so there is a kinyan chazakah and kinyan meshicha and other kinyanim. Kinyan chazakah if you do, then you actually do something with the object, there is a certain change in the thing that you did a kinyan in. Meshicha is only pulling, you only change from one רשות to the other. And that's what he starts off saying: the first level was משכני, pull me. That means being pulled by Hashem. We're talking to Hashem in this pasuk. Being pulled by Hashem, it's a גילוי מלמעלה. When it's a גילוי מלמעלה, there was no change in the people. It was only a גילוי מן השמים. And that's the פשט משכני, you pull me. As we said before, when there is a giluy only מלמעלה, as it happened by Yetziat Mitzrayim, it only affected one. It didn't affect the נפש האלוקית and the נפש הבהמית. It only affected the נפש האלוקית. That's why it says lashon yachid, singular, pull me. But then what happened the second stage? אחריך נרוצה, we will run after you. The second stage already, it's the נפש האלוקית and the נפש הבהמית, because the נפש האלוקית is mevarer, purifies, elevates the נפש הבהמית. And also first it's just a pull, and now he says we will run. When you run, you run, you run with stronger koach. When you're pulled, it is not so strong. But when you run, there is more effort put in beside the person. And as we said before, in the second stage, being that the נפש הבהמית also serves Hashem, then there is the ורב תבואות בכח שור, there is more koach because it comes from the ratzon and the middot of the נפש הבהמית, so then you have more tokef, more strength. That's why in the second stage already it says נרוצה, we will run. Running means running to Hashem with strength. And also this is something that we will do. The first one is something Hashem does, he pulls. נרוצה means we will run. And then comes the third stage, הביאני הביאני המלך חדריו, that the King should bring me into his rooms, that refers to מתן תורה, when Hashem brought us into Him, into His dirah, into His rooms, and we became batel, we were united with Hashem.

Based on all this, we're going to answer why the pasuk says that וספרתם ממחרת השבת. And the question we asked, why does it say ממחרת השבת? Why doesn't it say ממחרת הפסח or something like that? And the answer is, being that we explained that the inyan of ספירת העומר is a time when the נפש האלקית is mevarer the נפש הבהמית, when a person purifies also the middot of the נפש הבהמית, to do that, you must have a very, very strong koach. As the famous לשון, כל הגבוה גבוה ביותר יורד למטה מטה ביותר. In order to go down very, very low, you have to come from very, very high. You have to have a very strong koach. Just like the Arizal says, and you see that the Arizal in the Haggadah, that the reason Hashem Himself had to go to Mitzrayim to take the Yidden out, he says because even a malach or a שרף or any other spiritual madregah would come down, it would get lost in Mitzrayim. Only Hashem Himself was the only one able to come down and take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim. Because to go so low, to the מ״ט שערי טומאה, you have to have a very high gilui. And the same is when we want to be mevarer the midot of נפש הבהמית, we have to have a very, very high madregah. And that is hinted in ממחרת השבת. Shabbos represents a very, very high madregah, the seventh day of creation which really was the ultimate level of creation. ממחרת השבת, which means after Shabbos, is a madregah higher than that. Like we explained many times concerning what it says by milah, that it is כדי שיעבור עליו שבת אחת. Milah is on the eighth day, because it should pass a Shabbos, which means really that it's a madregah higher than Shabbos, that's why it's the eighth, not the seventh, etc., etc. So ממחרת השבת refers to a very, very high spiritual madregah. And from that high madregah, we get this koach of being mevarer the נפש הבהמית. And that's why the Torah uses the לשון ממחרת השבת.