Torah

Now is the Time to Bring the Bracha and Shemirah
of Hilchos Shabbos into Your Home!

If you want to engage in hatzalas nefashos, saving lives, not just the lives of others but your own spiritual life, you should be at the Prudential Arena this Sunday, 3 Sivan/June 9, for Dirshu’s Kinnus Olam HaTorah. It is there that Klal Yisrael will collectively be mekabel Shabbos by undertaking to start learning hilchos Shabbos in Dirshu’s daily Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program.

There was an elderly carpenter who was ready to retire. He told his boss of his plans to leave the house-building industry in order to enjoy a more leisurely lifestyle with his wife. He would miss the weekly paycheck, but he was ready to retire, and they could get by on his savings. The contractor was sorry to see his best worker go and asked if the carpenter could build just one more house as a personal favor to him.

“Mi k’amacha Yisrael!” There might have been more comfortable ways to spend Lag BaOmer which fell on Memorial Sunday, than sweltering in the intense heat of the pounding sun rays of a New Jersey cemetery.

It’s a classic and beloved story. A 40-year-old shepherd viewed himself as a complete failure. Completely ignorant of Torah knowledge, Akiva didn’t even know how to read the alef-beis and practically despaired of ever being able to learn Torah.

If I were to ask you, “What is the wealthiest place in the universe?” what would you answer? You might suggest the banks, the diamond mines, or something along these lines. But in a sense, the wealthiest place in the world is the graveyard. Why?

In our previous article, we began exploring the depth of S’firas HaOmer. Based on the Maharal and the Ramban, we explained that we are not counting down to Matan Torah, but rather we are building up towards it, ascending one day at a time. We do not wait for Shavuos to arrive; we actively bring it ourselves through the time and effort we invest as we count the Omer. After developing a general understanding of S’firas HaOmer, let us focus on a few specifics of the count itself. The 49 days of S’firas HaOmer parallels the 49-day process that the Jewish People went through upon leaving Egypt, before receiving the Torah. What is the meaning behind this process, and why is it specifically 49 days long?