by RABBI NOAM GROSS | May 19, 2026 8:35 pm
Sefiras Haomer
We are almost finished the Sefiras Haomer period where we count 49 days from Pesach until Shavuos. Historically, the 49 days began right after the Exodus and ended when we received the covenant of the Torah at Sinai. What’s interesting is that rather than doing the usual countdown, we count up! 123 instead of 321. Why? The commentators explain that we count up, because each day we’re supposed to be on a higher level than the previous day, until we’re worthy of receiving the Torah. It’s a period of time that is especially ripe for spiritual growth, and even though it’s almost over, we can learn some powerful insights about growth from studying it.
Let’s begin with a common problem. What do you do when you’re in a rut. We all have ups and downs, but what do you do when you’re stuck, for a week, a month, a year? In classic Jewish style, the only way to answer this question is with another question.
Why did we have to wait 49 days to receive the Torah? We did a lot of camping during that time, which is nice, but why the long wait? The Torah tells us that the Jews in Egypt were at the 49th level of impurity, one step away from falling into a spiritual abyss forever. At that precise moment, G-d took them out. It seems like very strange timing, couldn’t G-d have taken us out a little bit earlier, when we were faring a bit better? The great Jewish sage and philosopher, the Maharal of Prague, answers with a profound insight on how one can make powerful change. It’s an idea we knew thousands of years before modern day psychology. He says the Jews had to first hit rock bottom in order to then grow to incredible heights. They had to feel spiritually empty, so that they would be motivated to do whatever it takes to rise to greatness. And they did, every day they pushed themselves up another level. After 49 full days, they were ready to accept the Torah. The Talmud refers to this concept as a yerida letzorech aliyah, a fall for the sake of a greater rise.
Any therapist will tell you that rock bottom doesn’t mean that one has to lose everything dear to him. I used to teach in Aish Hatorah in the old city of Jerusalem, and occasionally they would bring a mission to the Yeshiva. They would pair us up one on one with someone from the trip, and once I was sitting with a middle aged Jew from Maryland. I asked him why he came on the trip. He said that he has a great job, and a great family, and he still feels like garbage. He decided he had to make real spiritual changes in order to achieve inner peace and meaning. That was his rock bottom.
So what do we learn from Sefiras Haomer? That being in a rut isn’t a catastrophe, rather it can propel us to greatness. It’s about getting fed up with being average, with being stagnant, with the status quo. It’s about making the decision to work hard towards a new life of great spiritual achievements. And then, just like the Jews of Egypt, we can finally actualize our true potential and accomplish all the incredible things each of us is destined to do.
Shavuos and the Study of Torah
The yom tov of Shavuos celebrates the most significant event in human history. The Jewish people stood at Sinai and accepted the Torah! From that point on, the entire focus of the Jewish people has been dedicated to Torah learning. But why is that the case, what is it about Torah learning that is so important? The simple answer is that we need to know what to do. It’s our instruction manual for living. While that is certainly true, this answer doesn’t really do justice. If that was the only reason, then the entirety of Torah could’ve been written like the fantastic modern day halacha books, published by Artscroll. For somebody who wants to learn the laws of Shabbos or kosher, these books are very organized and very clear. But anybody who has ever studied the Torah, can attest to the fact that it is anything but simple. Why was it written in such a complex way?
Every nation has a culture, things that occupy the time and mind space of the people. Nowadays in America, and in most of the civilized world, the culture is mostly entertainment: movies, music, and sports. When people have free time they usually occupy themselves with one of these things. Jews also have a culture, and that culture is called Torah. Once you sink your teeth into Torah learning, it bounces around the back of your mind. You have questions, then answers, then more questions and more answers. Whenever you have a free minute, you get back to solving that Torah riddle. Our love affair with Torah exists for that reason, because it captures our attention and is always on our mind. If it had been written out in clear bullet points, it would have been dry information, and nothing more. This way, we get to really meditate on G-d’s magnum opus.
But there’s an indirect function to Torah as well. The brilliant Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner once described it as follows. He said ‘Freud spoke about the subconscious, but when it comes to a Jew studying Torah, it’s the superconscious. Put them together and pfffft’. It’s like plugging the soul into an electric socket. The truth is that I don’t even need to tell you about it. All of you who come every Tuesday night can feel the electricity in the air here. While we learn Torah, it’s causing a subtle yet powerful effect on our souls, purifying us on a spiritual plane.
No person epitomized that love of Torah learning for me more than my Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel zt”l, who led one of the largest yeshivas in the world, the famed Mir Yeshiva. It has a student body of thousands. Rabbi Finkel also had an advanced case of Parkinson’s. When he would walk to the Yeshiva his arms and legs were constantly shaking and flailing in every direction. When he gave a Torah lecture he would hold on to two armrests for stability. Yet, he would give around 30 high level Torah lectures a week! Once, an acquaintance of his named Nochum Stillerman retired, moved to Israel, and paid him a visit. He wanted Rabbi Finkel’s approval for his learning plan for the upcoming year. Rabbi Finkel said to him ‘but what about the rest of Torah’? So he came back with a 5 year learning plan. Again, he said ‘But what about the rest of Torah? Go back and print a plan for learning the entire Torah’. So he came back with a detailed plan that would take 23.5 years! This time, Rabbi Finkel said ‘Now that’s a plan’! R’ Nochum said back ‘but I’m 70 years old. According to this I would have to put in 10 hours a day until I’m 93, I can’t do it’. Rabbi Finkel jumped out of his seat and said ‘look at me! Do you think that I can do what I’m doing? Of course not! But you and I have a great advantage. Most people think that they can do whatever they want. We know that nothing can be done without the help of G-d. Commit to doing your plan, and leave the rest to G-d.
The same applies to us. Let’s keep learning, and maybe even try to increase our learning some more, and with G-d’s help, our knowledge and love of Torah will continue to grow.
An Impulsive People?
The Talmud (Shabbos 88a) tells us an unusual story about the great sage Rava. A gentile saw Rava learning Torah. He was sitting on his hands and was so engrossed in his learning that he didn’t realize he was grinding his hands into the bench and they were bleeding. The gentile said ‘Oh impulsive people, who put their mouths before their ears, you still persist in your impulsiveness! First you should have heard whether you were able to accept, and if not you shouln’t have accepted them!’ Rava said back ‘We go in complete faith (We knew that Hash-m would not demand more than we are capable of) – it says about us “Tumas Yesharim Tanchem (the perfect faith of the upright shall lead them)”; Those people who go in perverseness – it is written about them “V’Selef Bogdim Yeshadem” (and the perverseness of the faithless shall destroy them).
Wow! What an interesting story! What are we meant to learn from this?
First some background: G-d asks Moshe to present the Jewish people with opportunity of accepting the Torah and becoming His chosen people. We answered ‘naaseh venishmah’, literally ‘we will do and we will hear’, meaning we accepted G-d’s Torah and laws before even learning what they were.
The gentile saw that this attitude is what Torah demands, and it’s too hard! What were we thinking by taking it on before we knew what it entailed?! Rava answers ‘the perfect faith of the upright shall lead them’. What does that mean? Rashi explains we did it out of love, and trust that He wouldn’t give us the impossible. Let’s break this down further. Rashi mentions love, and trust against the impossible.
Love: There’s two ways a believer can relate to Hashem. Out of fear/awe, and love. Fear/awe means I take Him seriously because he’s all powerful and in charge. Then there’s love. The only way to truly love a person (rather than infatuation) is by getting to really know them. The more you know them and their positive traits the more you love them, and the more you love them- you want to know them even more! We loved Hashem for all the miracles He did for us. Now we want to really know Him. We want to understand the way He thinks. The only way to do that is by studying His Torah.
But you’ll ask it seems impossible? All the Torah laws and all the learning it entails seems impossible? That’s correct, Torah study and its laws seem impossible. Who has the time and energy for it? It demands too much! But we jump in with נעשה (we will do) and G-d does the rest, the נשמע (we will listen). The Torah, its comprehension, and its practice comes from Hashem. We didn’t calculate at Har Sinai- how can we keep kosher? How can we keep shabbos? How can we do everything?! We understood that it’s all beyond us anyways. That’s what made Rava…Rava. He was the epitome of naaseh, the ultimate doer. That’s why we make a bracha on Torah, because it’s supernatural. The Talmud says comprehension and retention of Torah is in direct proportion to the effort, it’s a מציאה, a gift.
The Talmud states that when we said naaseh venishmah G-d said ‘who revealed the secret of the angels to my people?!’ This very idea was the secret. Angels do Hashem’s will without question. This is what they were created to do, so G-d also gave them the ability to do it. So too we changed what we were capable of through Torah. It all comes down to how much strength we ask Hashem to put in us. We’re limitless.
There is a famous story of one of the great Rabbis in our history, Rav Shach, who was famous for his ability to study Torah with incredible focus and concentration. At one point he had to have a surgery. They asked him if he wanted general anesthetic. He responded that it wasn’t necessary as instead he’ll busy himself with a very difficult page of the Talmud, which will keep him preoccupied!!!
The gentile couldn’t understand the sage Rava or the Jewish people, for good reason. But we discovered the secret then and still apply it today. The more we commit ourselves to the study of Torah and the practice of its laws and ideas, the more G-d gives us the strength and ability to do those things. To this day we continue to live supernaturally.
Learning Torah all Night
On Sukkot we eat in the sukkah. On Pesach we eat matzah at the seder. What is it that we actually do on the holiday of Shavuos? Aside from having a festival meal, there is a custom to stay up and spend the rest of the night learning Torah. The commentaries explain the source of this custom. On the morning that we were to accept the covenant, we slept in, and G-d had to come wake us up with his thunder. So as a ‘tikkun’, a rectification for hitting the snooze button, we stay up all night learning. I once heard a striking question on what transpired from our very own Rabbi Leiby Burnham. How could it be that they slept in? Think about it, whenever we are really excited about something the next day, we can’t sleep at all. The Jews are on the verge of the greatest and most spectacular event in history and they slept in? It’s not possible?
The answer is that they didn’t feel worthy of receiving the Torah. Me, a flawed human being, I’m not worthy of receiving God’s holy Torah. And with that sense of unworthiness, they went to sleep. And boy did they sleep. Until G-d himself woke them up.
One of the most dangerous attitudes that we suffer from is the feeling of unworthiness. There’s nothing that holds us back more from achieving greatness then the feeling of ‘who am I’. Too often we sell ourselves short.
My sister’s father-in-law is a man named Rabbi Yaakov Haber, and he’s a Rabbi in the city of Ramat Beit Shemesh in Israel. When he was a teenager he studied in a Yeshiva run by one of the great Rabbis of this generation, Rabbi Chaim Pinchss Scheinberg zt”l. Rabbi Scheinberg gave the most advanced Talmudic lectures in the Yeshivah, and eventually the young Rabbi Haber was deemed advanced enough to join the class. He quickly saw that he had no idea what was going on. So he went to Rabbi Scheinberg and told him that he was really struggling. Rabbi Scheinberg listened carefully, and then he looked at him and said ‘from now on, you are going to give a recap of the previous day’s lecture to the other students’. Rabbi Haber was shocked. Did he not hear what I just said? I have no idea what’s going on, how could I teach others? But Rabbi Scheinberg insisted. The next day Rabbi Haber went to the lecture hyperfocused…and by the end still had no idea what he was talking about. So he paced the streets of Jerusalem until 4 AM, until he finally understood the lecture, and he taught it to his friends the next day. He ended up repeating the lecture every day for 4 years and eventually wrote them up and published them as scholarly Torah books.
The Jews at Sinai were conflicted. They were excited about receiving the Torah, but they also felt like it wasn’t meant for them, lowly humans. So they stayed in bed. The truth is that to some degree they are right, we are flawed human beings, but that’s exactly why G-d gave us the Torah, so that through the Torah, we can become spiritual giants. Is the Torah beyond me? Maybe it is, but it doesn’t have to be. All we need to do is go out of our comfort zone and push ourselves, and actualize what we’re really capable of. This Torah concept applies to many situations. There’s a job, or a relationship, that I want but it’s beyond me. No, you pursue it and raise yourself to that level. And on Shavuot when we push ourselves to learn all night, we too raise ourselves and become worthy of receiving G-d’s holy Torah.
Boaz: The Founder of Daily Connection
On the 2nd day of Shavuos we read the Scroll of Ruth. At the beginning of the story there is a famine in the land, which is always what happens when the Jewish people fall into a low spiritual state. Later it says that G-d remembered His people to give them bread. So there was a change. The Jewish people woke up. The question is how did they do it? They must have done something different. People usually go back to their old habits unless they introduce a change in their living. What was that change?
One of the main personalities in the story is one of the leaders of the Jewish people, a righteous man named Boaz. We first meet Boaz when he is coming back from a session with his colleagues on the Sanhedrin, the highest court for the Jewish people, made up of 71 of the greatest prophets and Torah scholars in the nation. He arrives at one of his fields and greets the workers. He says ‘May Hashem be with you’, and they answer back ‘May Hashem bless you’. Seems like a straightforward interaction. Except that it isn’t. The Talmud tells us that this conversation was a radical innovation instituted by Boaz and his colleagues. To greet people using the name of G-d. You see we don’t even blink an eye when we read this since it’s a custom that’s been with us now for thousands of years, saying Baruch Hashem. But there was a time when this concept just didn’t exist.
So how did this come about? As we mentioned before, the Jewish people are in a lowly state. And Boaz and his fellow leaders are trying to figure out a way to wake everyone up, remind them that there is a G-d above who they’ve forgotten about. So they come up with a brilliant idea. Let’s bring G-d back into the conversation (no pun intended). Let’s remind everyone that G-d isn’t hidden away in the Temple, he’s part of our everyday life, He wants us to involve Him, and include Him in everything we do. You’re working in a field, ‘May Hashem be with you’.
And it worked! G-d once again became a partner in our everyday life. We included Him again. And our life again became G-d centered. The relationship was rebuilt and strengthened.
A number of years ago I heard a story about a very great Rabbi in Israel named Rabbi Shimshon Pincus. Many people would consult with him when they were feeling destitute, and one man who had not yet had any children came to speak with him. He poured out his heart. Rav Pincus said come with me. They drove out to the Judean desert right outside Jerusalem and dropped him off in the middle of nowhere with some bottles of water, said ‘Go talk to G-d, I’ll see you in 3 hours’, and drove away. He came back later and found the guy. His eyes were red. And he said ‘thank you, that was the most meaningful interaction with G-d I’ve ever had’. And not long after he was blessed with a child.
This is what Boaz brought back to the Jewish people. A vibrant daily connection with the almighty. May we follow in their footsteps, involve G-d in everything we do, talk to Him, pray to Him, and enjoy all the blessings that come with it.
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