You shall count until the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day, The Rambam writes, "Just as a person must repent for his sins, so must one seek out his bad thoughts and middos that need correction, such as anger, hatred, and the like. One must do teshuvah on all of these." During the days of Sefiras Ha'Omer, it is especially important for one to improve on his middos, and in particular, to increase his Ahavas Yisrael. While it is true that the Jewish people received their physical freedom on Pesach, that freedom was essentially without purpose until they were given the Torah on Mount Sinai on Shavuos. Thus Shavuos was the ultimate purpose of the Pesach miracle.
The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 9:3) states Derech Eretz Kadma L'Torah. The way of the world precedes the Torah. Middos Tovos, good attitudes, and fine behavior, are essential in order to have a part in the Torah. Therefore the 49 days of the Omer are essential to improve on the Middos Tovos, and one must correct his character traits, in order to insure a Chelek in the Torah by following the Midrash Derech Eretz Kadma L'Torah.
It is for that reason we learn Chapter 6 of Pirkei Avos the Shabbos before Shavuos, which teaches the right Middos that a person should have. Hence, here again we have the obligation of good Middos as a requisite to receiving the Torah. The Sefas Emes of Gur states that the entire Pirkei Avos is learned the six weeks prior to Shavuos, and Pirkei Avos opens with the words, “Moshe received the Torah from Sinai,” as if to say: While all the lessons and guidelines for proper behavior contained in this tractate are a credit to those who follow them, the primary intent in following them should be to make oneself a fitting receptacle for Torah.
The great Baal Mussar, Reb Elyah Lapian always said: without middos, there is nothing at all. Once he told a maashal to express the importance of good middos: Two people in Russia were arrested for dealing with counterfeit Money. One was caught with thousands of counterfeit bills in his possession. Not one counterfeit bill was found by the other crook but police found the printing press, which printed the counterfeit money, in his home. The holder of the counterfeit bills was sent to jail for a year. The second criminal, who owned the press, was sent to jail for seven years. "Is this justice?" he asked the jury. "This other man had thousands of counterfeit bills, and he is only imprisoned for a year. Not one counterfeit bill was found in my possession. Why should I be imprisoned for seven years?" The judge explained, "Everything is just and everyone receives what they deserve. The punishment for owning thousands of counterfeit bills is only one year imprisonment. But you have the printing press in your home, and there is no limit of the amount of harm you can produce. Therefore, your crime is even worse, and the verdict was more severe." Reb Eliyah Lapian explains that there are people who have sins on their hands, but bad middos are even worse. When one has bad middos there is no limit to the corruption that he can create, hatred, arguments, arrogance, all this is an obstacle to Kabalas HaTorah.
(Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
