My wife and I approach our children’s milestones differently. Normally, when our children reach a milestone, my wife will reflect not only on the child’s achieved milestone, but will explain that the milestone is also an indicator of her growing older and feeling older. I don’t need my children’s milestones for me to feel old. I feel old. However, we both agree, that when we experience our children’s milestone moments, we can’t help but reflect. So earlier this week, we celebrated our youngest daughter’s 18th birthday. We had a zoom birthday party for her. Her classmates lined up in their cars, honking and singing happy birthday. A birthday video was made by her siblings that included birthday messages from family and friends. During dinner, as we sat around the table and talked about our daughter, she pointed out that turning 18 meant that she could vote. I reminded her that she now had a responsibility to be informed and educated about both types of issues: issues that matter to her and issues that matter to other people. Then, for a moment, I waxed philosophical by reminding her that turning 18 is all well and good but what matters is the quality in which one lives or the context of those years.
This Shabbat we read from Parsha Emor. In the four chapters that comprise Emor, the first deals with the Kohanim and their very different way of striving for holiness as compared to the rest of the B’nei Israel. For example, because of the Kohen’s function within society, he must remain in a perpetual state of purity. lHe is restricted in terms of who he can marry. He is restricted in terms of whom he mourns. He cannot go to a cemetery. He cannot make sacrificial offerings if he as physical abnormalities. The second chapter reminds B’nai Israel that all animal offerings must be blemish-free. These offerings must come directly from the individual making them and not from “the hand of a stranger” (Lev. 22:25). Both chapters deal with the holiness of certain people, the Kohen and his family, and certain animals, those designated for sacrificial offerings. The third chapter of the Parsha deals with the designation of Holiness in regards to seasons and the calendar including Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. Then the fourth chapter offers a narrative in which the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man gets into a fight with another Israelite. During the fight, the son pronounces the forbidden name of God and is charged with blasphemy.
Since the second night of Pesach, the Jewish people have been counting the Omer. The commandment to bring the Omer and count the days in which the Omer is brought occurs in Lev.23:9-16. The first five of the seven total verses explain what an Omer is, how it is prepared, and how the offering is made. The final two verses, 23:15-16 actually discuss the Mitzvah of counting the Omer. וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙ מִמָּחֳרַ֣ת הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת מִיּוֹם֙ הֲבִ֣יאֲכֶ֔ם אֶת־עֹ֖מֶר הַתְּנוּפָ֑ה שֶׁ֥בַע שַׁבָּת֖וֹת תְּמִימֹ֥ת תִּהְיֶֽינָה׃ And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks.עַ֣ד מִֽמָּחֳרַ֤ת הַשַּׁבָּת֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔ת תִּסְפְּר֖וּ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים י֑וֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּ֛ם מִנְחָ֥ה חֲדָשָׁ֖ה לַיהוָֽה׃ you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the LORD. The counting occurs in terms of days, fifty days “from the day in which you bring the sheaf offering”. That counting is represented by an absolute number: “Today is 3 days”, “Today is 12 days”, “Today is 30 days”. We also count in terms of weeks, “you shall count off seven weeks” reflected in “2 weeks and 3 days” or “4 weeks and 2 days”. The first method of counting reflects a raw number with a starting point and ultimately and ending point. However, the second method suggests that the number of days appears within the context of a week. The HaKtav VeHaKabbalah, a 19th century German Torah commentator explains that the counting is לָכֶם֙ (for you), for your benefit; that is to say an opportunity for introspection. Introspection requires context.
Sefirat HaOmer focuses on two aspects of counting. First, we are always interested in numbers, in data, in the idea of the linear. There is a starting point and there is an endpoint. Regarding counting the Omer, we started on the second night of Pesach and we conclude on the fiftieth day. We do the same thing with a milestone birthday. Our daughter turned 18 a few days ago. Someone turns 50 or 70 or 100. The number has merit. The number in it of itself is important. Numbers tell us how many have been infected with Covid 19 and numbers tell us how many have died. However we also count in terms of context, we take stock, we reflect. We count Omer in terms of Shabbat because the context of a week, the context of our day to day lives is always measured in terms of Shabbat. All those infected had a context and a narrative. All those who died leave loved ones. All those who died lived lives within a context, a narrative. It’s not only that our daughter turned 18. Eighteen means something; she can vote. Eighteen means that my wife and I can appreciate the context of her 18 years in terms of her growth and development into a young woman who is off to Israel for her gap year. Eighteen means that she is a University student and as we reminded her, eighteen means she is a high school graduate and is now starting on a path, and that path comes with responsibilities, privileges, and expectations. There is a context to her age and she began to appreciate it after the zoom birthday party after her friends drove by and honked their car horns. She began to appreciate it when we sat together and looked at her pictures over the years and recognized the context of her life.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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