From the second day of Pesach, the holiday celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, and the holiday of Shavu’ot, when the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, we count 49 days known as Sefirat HaOmer. It is in this week’s parashat Emor, which is always read during these 49 days that the Torah commands us to bring the Omer offering after which the 49 days are named. Immediately following the first day of Pesach, a measure of barley known as an omer is harvested and brought to the Temple in Jerusalem.[1] The cohanim, the priests, grind the barley and sift it through thirteen increasingly finer sifters until only the finest of flour is used to make a meal offering placed on the altar the next morning, indicating the beginning of the barley harvest period, which culminates seven weeks later with the beginning of the wheat harvest celebrated on Shavu’ot.
The Torah commands us to count each day of these seven weeks from day the first barley is harvested: “And you shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day [the first day of Pesach], from the day you bring the Omer as a wave offering, seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day, on which you shall bring a new meal offering to God.”[2] This mitzvah of counting the forty-nine days is known as Sefirat HaOmer, the Counting of the Omer.
The Principle of Inter-Inclusion
The key to spiritual growth during the Omer period comes from the Kabbalistic teaching that each of the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot corresponds to one of the seven emotive sefirot, the channels of Divine influx into the world. The sefirot manifest themselves at all levels of reality, including the human psyche and personality. The seven emotive sefirot are also known as midot, literally meaning “measures,” as they in a sense can be used to measure a person’s character.
Because each of the seven weeks in the Counting of the Omer has seven days, each day of each week also corresponds to one of the sefirot. Thus, the sefirah of the week is itself divided into all seven sefirot of the heart. This is known as the principle of inter-inclusion (הִתְכַּלְּלוּת), whereby a group of n elements becomes n2 (n squared) elements, with each element possessing aspects of all the other elements (and itself).
Therefore, we are taught that each day of the Omer period represents a combination of two midot, two sefirot—the primary sefirah of the week, as well as an inter-included sefirah as defined by the day. This practice of counting and combining the sefirot on each day of the Omer period has been universally accepted and appears in virtually every traditional prayer book.
Focusing on the appropriate combination of sefirot each day of the Omer period opens up a plethora of possible connections to the inherent power of the day and provides useful keys to identify and shine upon those areas in our lives that need conscious attention for rectification and improvement.[3] It is important to note that the root word for Sefirat [Haomer] is the same as sefirah, as well as sapir, and means “to shine.” Since the main focus of the Omer period is to create proper vessels—as manifest primarily in transformed personality characteristics in order to receive the Torah once again on Shavu’ot—these daily contemplations and introspections are incredibly valuable.
A good example of inter-inclusion is the sefirah of tiferet or beauty, the third of the emotive sefirot, which occupies the middle axis and mediates between the expansive energy of loving-kindness (chesed) on the right side and the constrictive force of might (gevurah) on the left side. The beauty of tiferet is that of harmony, holism, symmetry and synthesis, the main idea and ultimate result of inter-inclusion.[4] By taking the best of both chesed and gevurah and finding the right measure between them, tiferet serves a crucial function of creating a totally new perspective that balances and creates peace between competing forces of the psyche. Tiferet is also situated in the middle of the sefirot from above to below and thus mediates and inter-includes the upper sefirot of the intellect and the lower sefirot of the emotional realm. In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi advises choosing a straight path that brings esteem (tiferet; beauty and harmony) to the person doing it and earns them tiferet from others.[5]
The Students of Rabbi Akiva
According to tradition, 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died during the Omer period because they did not properly honor one another. When scholars treat their peers with disrespect, it is most probably the result of a deficiency in their ability to find how competing opinions together form an inter-included whole. Indeed, it was Rabbi Akiva who taught that “Love your fellow as you love yourself” is a great principle of Torah. Not just a great principle of proper social manners and life, but a great principle in Torah, because without it, one cannot come to properly respect and appreciate that the Torah’s “whole” is made out of many individual opinions that come together.
The commandment to love our fellow Jew is key to a perception that we are all a single body. If by mistake a person cuts their right hand with their left, they will not punish the perpetrating left hand by cutting it with the right, because both hands are part of one body. Likewise, the two minds of two Jews may come to opposite conclusions, or exercise two different chains of logic, but in the end, as the Talmud concludes, even contradictory conclusions are both the words of the same living God. The reason they have different opinions is that each represents a different facet of the one God’s Torah.
Because they did not commit to loving their fellows regardless of any intellectual dispute, Rabbi Akiva’s students lost the ability to recognize how their clashing opinions might be seen as complementary when considered within a larger, more general context (just as the seven sefirot of each day within a week of the Omer are all facets of the one main sefirah of that week). They certainly could not go one step further and recognize how their colleague’s opposing view, when considered using inter-inclusion, could provide them with greater clarity regarding a particular facet of their own opinion.
Because they could not integrate or properly tolerate different opinions, they adopted a negative view of each other. The rectification of their deaths is accomplished when we become aware of, and are sensitive to, on a daily level, the inter-inclusion of the midot of each day of the Omer and manifest it in real character improvement.
A Good Heart
A beautiful example of the inter-inclusion of diverse opinions is found in a mishnah from the tractate of Avot, which we customarily read during the Shabbatot of Sefirat HaOmer.[6] Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was one of the most remarkable figures in Jewish history. He was a direct disciple of Hillel the Elder and was instrumental in preserving Judaism’s continuity after the destruction of the Second Temple. Among his students, five were particularly distinguished, each embodying a different aspect of spiritual greatness. Of these, Rabbi Elazar ben Arach was described as “a wellspring that never ceases to flow.” Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai used to say that if all the sages of Israel were placed on one side of a scale and Rabbi Elazar ben Arach on the other, Rabbi Elazar ben Arach would outweigh them all.[7] What made Rabbi Elazar ben Arach so special?
The mishnah relates that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asked his distinguished five students to go out into the world and identify the most spiritually advantageous attitude or way in life to which a person should cleave. After hearing all five opinions, he chose Rabbi Elazar ben Arach’s who replied that it was a good heart, since his opinion included all the others.[8] In other words, his opinion was like the general principle of which his peers’ were individual details. In fact, the expression, “a good heart” (לֵב טוֹב), equals 49, the exact number of the days of the Omer, revealing a deep connection between this account and Sefirat HaOmer. This period on the Jewish calendar is a time to search for how our diverse, even contradictory, perspectives are included in a greater whole and we can succeed in doing this by having a “good heart.” Our spiritual work during Sefirat HaOmer should ultimately be guided by a “good heart.”[9]
In general, Chasidut teaches that the brain should rule over the heart. This means that the intellect needs to guide and direct the emotions. However, it is explained that only the external aspects of the heart should be directed by the mind, while the heart’s inner dimension should be guiding the mind. But there is a prerequisite: one must first refine the heart so that it is not fickle and prone to chase after shallow feelings and cravings. One must first have acquired “a good heart,” one whose intuition aligns naturally with Godliness and holiness. This is the deep work we should aim for during Sefirat HaOmer.
The Month of Iyar
Although the days of Sefirat HaOmer are counted over three months—Nissan, Iyar and Sivan—it is only the days of the month of Iyar that are all part of the counting. According to Sefer Yetzirah, each month of the year is associated with one of the 12 simple letters of the Hebrew alephbet: הוזחטילנסעצק, and the month of Iyar’s letter is the vav (ו) whose shape is a vertical line, alluding to a ladder, which one can ascend and descend on, or a man standing erect.[10]
Our relationship with God, other people, and our own self-perception is constantly changing, going through endless cycles of ascent and descent, revelation and concealment, closeness and estrangement. The vav’s shape represents both the ascent and descent, to and from God. When God is revealed, or descends, as it were, into reality, that is known as His “direct light” (אוֹר יָשָׁר). When we are awakened to serve God, that is known as “reflected” or “returning light” (אוֹר חוֹזֵר). This is the secret of the Omer period wherein we learn to recognize and integrate both types of revelation and all that they represent. The vav symbolizes the channel and conduit that connects God to man, and upper and lower reality, which meet and embrace at Sinai. Shavu’ot, in fact, is celebrated each year on the sixth of Sivan, six being the numerical value of the letter vav.
According to Sefer Yetzirah the special “sense” of the moth of Iyar is “thought” (הִרְהוּר, or עִיּוּן), which is the translation of the Hebrew word מַחְשָׁבָה. The spiritual work of Sefirat HaOmer begins in thought, filters down to the heart, and ultimately reaches concrete action. When the word for “thought” (מַחְשָׁבָה) is rearranged, its letters can form the word meaning, “with joy” (בְּשִׂמְחָה).[11] Although many people think that being a happy person is a matter of innate disposition and that one is either a happy person or not, the truth is that happiness and being in a state of joy are the result of a conscious and willful decision. Our thoughts determine whether we are happy or not and any situation in the present or the past can be reframed in a positive manner. Ultimately, we have the choice to choose to see our lot in life anyway we want. The Ba’al Shem Tov and later the Rebbe’s of Chabad articulated this by stating in Yiddish: “Tracht gut vet zein gut,” one should “think good and it will be good.”[12]
Furthermore, the numerical value of “thought” (מַחְשָׁבָה) is the same as the numerical value of sefirah (סְפִירָה). This numerical correspondence strengthens the proposition that through a practice of focused thought directed toward the sefirot of the day, deep and profound insights are revealed to assist us in the gradual work of soul healing and rectification that is inherent to the Omer period.
[1]. Leviticus 9-13.
[2]. Ibid 23:15-16.
[3]. Mivchar Sheurei Hitbonnanut, Chodesh Iyar.
[4]. Yayin Yitzchak, parshat Emor, section 7.
[5]. 2:1.
[6][6]. There are six Shabbatot from Pesach to Shavu’ot and five plus one chapters in the tractate of Avot. The sixth chapter is an anthology of sayings from the rabbinic sages that are similar to the ones found in Avot and are from the same period but did not appear in the original edited version of the mishnah.
[7]. Pirkei Avot 2:11-12.
[9]. Yayin Yitzchak, parshat Emor, section 7.
[10]. Sefer Yetzirah 5:7.
[11]. Tikkunei Zohar 67a; Mivchar Shiurei Hitbonenut, Chodesh Iyar.
[12]. Iggerot Kodesh of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, vol. 2, p. 537; vol. 7, p. 177.
nto the world. The sefirot manifest themselves at all levels of reality, including that of the human psyche and personality, the midot. Each sefirah, according to the principle of inter-inclusion, actually contains within itself an aspect of all the others. Therefore, we are taught that each day of the Omer period represents a combination of two midot, two sefirot—the primary sefirah of the week, as well as an inter-included sefirah as defined by the day. This practice of counting and combining the sefirot on each day of the Omer period has been universally accepted and appears in virtually every traditional prayer book.
Focusing on the appropriate combination of sefirot each day of the Omer period opens up a plethora of possible connections to the inherent power of the day and provides useful keys to identify and shine upon those areas in our lives that need conscious attention for rectification and improvement.[3] It is important to note that the root word for Sefirat [Haomer] is the same as sefirah, as well as sapir, “shining!” Since the main focus of the Omer period is to create proper vessels—as manifest primarily in transformed personality characteristics in order to receive the Torah once again on Shavuot—these daily contemplations and introspections are immeasurably valuable.
A good example of inter-inclusion is the sefirah of tiferet or beauty, the third of the emotive sefirot, which occupies the middle axis and mediates between the expansive energy of chesed on the right side and the constrictive force of gevurah on the left side. The beauty of tiferet is that of harmony, holism, symmetry and synthesis, the main idea and ultimate result of inter-inclusion.[4] By taking the best of both chesed and gevurah and finding the right measure between them, tiferet serves a crucial function of creating a totally new perspective that balances and creates peace between competing forces of the psyche. Tiferet is also situated in the middle of the sefirot from above to below, and thus mediates and inter-includes the upper sefirot of the intellect and the lower sefirot of the emotional realm. In Pirkei Avot, Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi advises choosing a "straight path" that brings esteem (tiferet; beauty and harmony) to the person doing it and earns them tiferet from others.[5]
The Students of Rebbe Akiva
According to tradition 24,000 students of Rebbe Akiva died during the Omer period due to their not having given honor to each other. This lack of honor could be seen as a deficiency in the wisdom of inter-inclusion which would have given them the ability to understand each other’s point of view better. Because they could not integrate or properly tolerate different opinions, they fell into a negative perspective of each other. The rectification of their deaths is accomplished when we become aware of, and sensitive to on a daily level, the inter-inclusion of the midot of each day of the Omer and manifest it in real character improvement.
A Good Heart
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was one of the most remarkable figures in Jewish history. He was a direct disciple of Hillel and preserved the Torah’s continuity after the destruction of the Second Temple. Among his students, five were particularly distinguished, each embodying a different aspect of spiritual greatness. Of these, Rabbi Elazar ben Arach was described as “a wellspring that never ceases to flow.” It is said that if all the sages of Israel were placed on one side of a scale and Rabbi Elazar ben Arach on the other, his wisdom would outweigh them all.[6]
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asked his five students to [go out into the world and] discern which is the most spiritually advantageous attitude or way in life to which a person should cling. In the end, he chose the opinion of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach who stated: “a good heart,” inasmuch as his opinion included all the others.[7] The expression, “a good heart” (לב טוב), equals 49, the exact number of the days of the Omer. From this we learn that all the spiritual work of Sefirat HaOmer should ultimately lead to becoming a person with a “good heart.”[8]
In general, Chasidut teaches that the brain should rule over the heart. This means that the intellect needs to guide and direct the emotions. However, at the very same time, there is a recognition that in certain cases the intellect needs not only to heed the emotive aspects of the human psyche but must actually follow the intuitive sense of the heart. The key to this though, is that one must refine their heart so that it does not lead to chasing after empty inspirations and destructive desires. This is the real work of Sefirat HaOmer.
The Month of Iyar
According to Sefer Yetzirah, each month has a letter associated with it. Although we count the days of Sefirat HaOmer during three different months—Nissan, Iyar and Sivan—only during the month of Iyar is the Omer counted throughout the entire month. The letter associated with Iyar is the vav, whose shape is a vertical line (ו), alluding to a ladder or a man standing erect.[9] Our relationship with God, other people, and our own self-perception is constantly changing, going through endless cycles of ascent and descent, revelation and concealment, closeness and estrangement. The vav represents both “straight light,” descending from God into the world, and “returning light,” the energy which rises up generated by our spiritual service. This is the secret of the Omer period wherein we learn to recognize and integrate both lights and all that they represent. The vav symbolizes the channel and conduit that connects God to man, and upper and lower reality, which meet and embrace at Sinai. Shavuot, in fact, is celebrated each year on the sixth of Sivan; six being the numerical value of the letter vav.
According to Sefer Yetzirah the chush, or “sense” of the moth of Iyar is hirur, a word synonymous with thought, machshavah. The spiritual work of Sefirat HaOmer begins in thought, filters down to the heart and ultimately in concrete action. When the word machshavah (מחשבה) is permuted it forms the word, b’simchah (בשמחה), joy.[10] Although many people think that being a happy person is a matter of nature and that one is either a happy person or not, the truth is that being in a state of joy is a conscious and willful decision. Our thoughts determine whether we are happy or not and any situation in the present or the past can be reframed in a positive manner. Ultimately, we have the choice to choose to see our lot in life anyway we want. The Ba’al Shem Tov and later Chabad Rebbes articulated this by stating in Yiddish: Tracht gut, vet zein gut, one should “think good and it will be good.”[11]
Furthermore, the word, thought, machshavah (מחשבה) has the very same numerical value (355) as the word sefirah, (ספירה). This numerical correspondence strengthens the proposition that through a practice of focused thought directed toward the sefirot of the day, deep and profound insights are revealed to assist us in the gradual work of soul healing and rectification that is inherent to the Omer period.
[1]. Leviticus 9-13.
[2]. Ibid 23:15-16.
[3]. Mivchar Sheurei Hitbonnanut, Chodesh Iyar.
[4]. Yayin Yitzchak, parshat Emor, section 7.
[5]. 2:1.
[6]. Pirkei Avot 2:11-12.
[8]. Yayin Yitzchak, parshat Emor, section 7.
[9]. Sefer Yetzirah 5:7.
[10]. Tikkunei Zohar 67a; Mivchar Sheurei Hitbonnanut, Chodesh Iyar.
[11].
