1. Sefer Gidulei Aryeh- Second Pesach (Pesach Sheni) and Counting the Omer (pg. 234-238) ספר גידולי אריה פסח שני וספירת העומר (רל"ד-רל"ח)

Counting the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot are positive commandments from the Torah; they are not simply legalistic commandments for which we do not know their reason, rather they are intellectual commandments subject to understanding their reason and moral/ethical lessons (mussar) by anyone who so desires.

As we know, the Pesach holiday symbolizes our material/bodily freedom, the day on which we physically left bondage to freedom, while Shavuot represents our spiritual freedom, which demands of us to fulfill our debt to Hashem Yisborach and to our fellow man.

Dozens of nations were freed in our generation, breaking off the yoke of foreign rule which subjugated them and took advantage of them, while they had labored for nothing, because their oppressors and pursuers, their imperial masters, consumed all their efforts and the fruits of their labors. However, how did these nations handle their independence, their material and bodily freedom? Each man kills his fellow, one newly-freed nation wars against the neighboring newly-freed nation. And how did my “nation” of Poland/Lithuania, Ukraine, and more celebrate their freedom? They organized pogroms against our Jewish brothers- murdered man woman and child, young and old - murdered, slaughtered, and burned with great fanfare and celebrating mobs.

But not so were the feats of the Nation of Israel, Hashem did not plan for His nation freedom such as this. His faithful servant Moshe Rabbenu did not ask for such freedom for his nation. When Hashem sent Moshe to Pharoah to release the Jewish People from Egypt, Moshe asked “Who am I/ מי אנכי “ that I should go to Pharoah? (שמות י"ג י"א). Meaning, what is the value of material/bodily freedom if there is no ethical-moral (mussar) freedom, freedom of Torah, if the freedom does not include the "אנכי ה'". Freedom without the 10 Commandments is not freedom at all! – is the idea above Moshe’s question. Hashem answered him “When you bring the nation out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Now this is just the beginning. The beginning of freedom is freedom of the body, with the physical exodus from Egypt, and it ends with freedom of the soul, completed at Receiving the Torah, which is the actual purpose of the redemption.

And so our forefathers, those who actually left Egypt, knew that on the 50^th day after leaving Egypt they would receive the Torah. They had no patience to wait so long, and so immediately upon achieving their material/bodily freedom they began counting the days that were eliminated up to the 50^th day. “Master of the Universe! When will we merit reaching the determined day of receiving the Torah?” Their spirits were broken from waiting for the day on which their souls would be redeemed… By way of analogy, this is compared to a prisoner who received the news that on a certain day he would be released from prison. His soul clings to that day. He believes that by counting every day from the time he heard the announcement of his impending freedom, his day of freedom will come all the faster, and he will go “from darkness to light”.

Our forefathers who left Egypt are likened to this prisoner. They anticipated the day of true redemption. Yosef Hatzadik said in his last will and testament “God will certainly remember you” / פקוד יפקוד אלקים אתכם (בראשית כ"ז כ"ד). He used the double term (פקוד יפקוד) to inform the Children of Israel that the future remembrance will be two-fold, remembrance of body and remembrance of soul. And clearly remembrance of the body they had already merited on the Pesach night, when Hashem protected them, to bring His dear children out of Egypt. But remembrance of the body without remembrance of the soul is worthless; as such they began to count the days out of broken spirit only, but not from hard work.

Alas, rabosai, with such preparations towards “Receiving the Torah”, indeed our own fathers and mothers in the shtetls across the sea also devoted so much. What did they seek to see from their offspring when they would grow up? What did they expect and anticipate? What was their plea to Hashem, regarding their children? They looked forward to and anticipated the wonderful day when their son would return from the Yeshiva as a big Talmid Chochem. Their spirits could not wait to see the shining face of their child, the exalted learner, and they would start counting the days, the “Days of Sefirah,” to when they would merit to finally reach the day that their son would receive “semicha” and be a Rav among Israel. They knew full-well that the rabbinate was no way to make money, and “semicha” wouldn’t provide for him in abundance. For what material success is foreseen for a shtetl Rabbi? What treasure was hidden in the stores of the congregation for the rabbi’s salary? A few dollars a week! To this meager salary he is forced to add more funds, selling salt, shabbat candles, chometz and fermented foods, kerosene… the jokers would make fun and say their rabbi got a job as a sorcerer (מנחש – מלח, נרות, חמץ, שמרים) to make money. There’s a story of a shtetl rabbi whose wife fell sick, and they bought her chicken wings and thighs, and cooked her a little chicken soup. What did Hashem do? He summoned a certain householder from town. This person came to ask the rabbi a halachic question about his own chicken, and when he smelled the chicken soup in the rabbi’s house- well the town was in complete shock! Our rabbi – horrible, despicable - wasting the money of his fellow Jews; have you heard of a rabbi who eats chicken on a weekday…!

The point is, the rabbi’s parents never thought for an instant to fill their child’s house with silver and gold, did not think at all about his material wealth, they only sought his spiritual health; he would eat bread with salt and drink rationed water, and live a painful life, if only he would be a rabbi among Israel. What happiness and comfort did the shtetl parents anticipate for their son? They anticipated seeing him as one great in Torah and Fear of God. They waited for the day they would merit to be parents of a Rabbi of Israel. Was this just a small matter in their eyes, such a destiny? Indeed, they counted their own “Sefirah” until the “Reception of the Torah” of their son, until their son received “Semicha”, until they could raise high their family banner on the occasion of their son’s coronation with the lofty Crown of Torah. This was the true happiness of the shtetl parents of olden days, and towards this goal they bounded with all their strength and effort.

Not so the way of life for the Jews in America. We here, we do not count this Sefirah- not for us, and not for our children. Never have most American Jews found great happiness in Torah nor in delving into its depths in learning, we have not counted our days in great expectations to raise scholars with rabbinic semicha that are worthy of the title. Here we counted a completely different “Sefirah.” We hear sefirahs such as: When will I merit to see my son the doctor? My son the lawyer? My son the vice chairman of the famous real estate agency, etc., etc. We count our homes, our properties, our bank statements. Even in our public life, how have we behaved? The first immigrants, three and four generations ago, founded national organizations, large synagogues, cemeteries, etc., but not Torah institutions. They did not establish Yeshivas or places of Torah study worthy of the title; they built grandiose synagogues empty of Torah but full of chazonus. Those Jews were late in celebrating the “First Pesach.” They were on a far-off path, they were far from the true life-path of the Torah, they worried about the community purse for the good of the Bund or the Union. The result was that their children were later than anyone to celebrate the First Pesach.

To be sure, the parents of the recent generations in this land certainly grew distant from the correct life of Torah as a substantive “life project” part of their life-path in living a Jewish life as their parents had in the shtetl. Nevertheless, they knew what was true and complete Judaism; they had seen their parents’ deeds and customs, and absorbed into their blood and their bones a sufficient degree of the ancient, full, and complete Judaism. They knew and they understood the meaning of “Be a Jew”! They spoke Yiddish- the language expressed only in the mouths of Our Nation, the House of Israel, the language that our fathers and their fathers before them spoke, and even this served to a certain degree as a protector of the “Nation who dwells alone.” All these factors immunized them in a major way against the evil forces, such that they themselves would not descend to the darkest depths.

Such was not the case for the majority of their children born and raised here in America, the product of this land, these children that did not see nor hear any of this, they, the children of the new generation, have unequivocally lost the First Passover. They are completely distant from their source, they are truly found on a far-off path, and on top of that- they are impure. But shall we despair of them and say, their bones are dry, “our hope is lost, it is decreed upon us” (יחזקאל ל"ז)? We have already lost almost three generations, shall already cry for the coming generations, with it decided in our hearts that also they are sentenced to destruction, heaven forbid?

Certainly not! Do not despair, do not throw up you hands, our hope is not yet lost, we have been given “Second Pesach”. “A Second Chance”, another opportunity. And this Second Pesach will serve to influence not just the children and grandchildren, but also on the parents and grandparents. And the right-hand of Hashem is outstretched to receive those who repent. Repentance was given for the correction of Man, and do not say “Too late for me, my time has past.” Even those who are on the far-flung path, far away from the path of life that the Torah outlined for us. And even the impure are permitted and empowered to repent and correct themselves and purify their lives.

“This is the book of the generations of Man” (בראשית ה:א) – the generations of Man are analogous to a book. After printing the book you sometimes find errors and mistakes, printing mistakes and the like. What do we do then? The book is already printed and ready, how is it possible to fix the errors and mistakes? The customary solution is to add an “errata” table at the end of the book. On this table is noted that on such-and-such a page there is an error, and instead of one word you should read another. That is how we fix mistakes, improve the type, and assist the reader to understand things as they should have been written. . . . so is the way of Man. He is like a book. He too makes mistakes in his life, “printing errors”. Sometimes he desecrates the Shabbos. Sometimes he is not careful about Kashrus. And sometimes he does not don the Tefillin. If he errs and skips the verse “and you shall teach your children,” and “so that he shall command his household and his children,” – what can he do? Has his time passed? No! He should add a table of “errata”. It should be his last page. In his last days he should correct the distortions of the past. Fix the mistakes and errors as long as your soul yet resides in you. This is our “Second Pesach.” We permit ourselves to correct and fix ourselves. We give ourselves the opportunity to be released from the mistakes of the past.

There is no Third Pesach. And if not now- when? .וד"ל