By Rabbi Baruch Epstein
A friend of mine likes to ask new acquaintances; “what do you?” when the man typically responds with his line of work, my friend challenges him: “that’s what G-d does for you, He gave you talents for your livelihood. I am asking ‘what do you do’ with those gifts."
G-d took us out of Egypt, that’s what G-d did for us, the question is what we do with that gift.
Beginning with the second day of Passover G-d commands us to count the days and weeks as we detox from Egyptian slavery and progress to Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. This mitzvah is called sefiras HaOmer.
Immediately after leaving Egypt we are placed on a 49-day plan – given 7 weeks to extract the Egyptian experience and be ready for Sinai; GO! Get there, geographically and spiritually and G-d will reveal Himself to you; fail and its “thank you for playing, sorry but the world is over”.
How can inflexible digits chart a personal journey? How can a uniform method be useful for every individual What if I need more time, I am barely ready for step #9 while everyone else is already at #11?
Life is about merging opposites, illustrating the singularity of Hashem in the apparent diversity of all the stuff He made. G-d is infinite we are finite and yet we are One. When we achieve the spiritual – personal growth – via rigid numbers, we demonstrate true infinity. G-d is not only in the heavens nor bogged down by Earth, so neither are we.
Having experienced Passover, the skipping out of Egypt, ready or not – deserving or not, we are transformed from stiff slaves of routine into graceful spiritual long jumpers. The next step is to channel that boundless energy into the ordinary – and we all can do it – we all must do it – and as Torah tells us, despite some bumps and bruises – we all did it; we got to Sinai, witnessed Hashem, and accepted the Torah.
We don’t have to compromise – forego quality for quantity – the counting of Sefira compels us from the perch of spiritual indulgence into the grind of the measurable, while uplifting the despair of “the same old same old” into inspiring sanctity – all at G-d’s pace.
Like the child on a swing set we need a push (Passover) to get started and then it’s up to us to keep pumping to lift us to the sky.
