Parsha Review Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.

All right, welcome back everybody. Good afternoon now. We're past noon and this week's Parsha is Parsha's Emor. Third to last portion in the book of Leviticus. Next week's Parsha is Behar and Bechukosai together. So it's two portions together. Behar is a very short portion and so here in this week's Parsha, by the way, today is today the 1st of May is also the 14th of Iyar which is exactly one month since
Seder night, which is also called Pesach Sheni, which is discussed as well in this week's Torah portion. Pesach Sheni is the opportunity. We have a whole episode on this. You can find it in the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. We have a whole episode discussing what the purpose of Pesach Sheni was and it was giving people a another opportunity for those who were not able to make it to Jerusalem on Passover to bring an offering.
They had another 30 days. They can make it to the temple to be there for today back when there was a temple. Hopefully it'll be rebuilt speedily in our days. Amen. So what would happen? They would have another opportunity and this is one of the great sources for the Mitzvah of Teshuvah. That Hashem says I want you to come back. I want to give you another opportunity and this is why we should always second chances. Today is the holiday of second chances.
So if anybody ever failed, you hear this Mark? If anybody ever failed, today is the day to go it over again. Try again. Don't be in despair. Don't give up hope. Don't say all hope is lost. It's not worth trying. Go for it again because we always have second chances. So that's discussed in this week's Parsha. But then we get to something very interesting which is the law of the Omer.
The counting of the Omer as we know last night we counted the 29th of the Omer which is four weeks in one day and then how does it define the date with which we count the Omer? Listen to the following. It's really surprising. Hashem commands to Moshe saying Talk to the children of Israel and say to them that I have promised you that you will bring an Omer from the first of your harvests to the Kohen.
He says when you come to the land that I promised you, what's that land? The land of Israel and you will take your harvest. You shall bring an Omer offering from the first of your harvest to the Kohen. When does this begin? And he shall waive the Omer offering before Hashem to gain favor for you. When does it begin? On the day after the Sabbath. On the day after the Sabbath in the Kohen. And then he continues to talk about that Omer offering and
then he says further And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbos. From the day when you bring the Omer offering that was waived seven weeks complete shall they be. So what's the commandment here? We're gonna count for seven weeks. Seven days for seven weeks, which is 49 days all the way leading us up to the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. And we do this every year beginning from Pesach all the way to Shavuot, which is only now 21 days away.
Three weeks from now. We're gonna be celebrating the holiday of Shavuot. And what's the obligation here? The obligation to begin counting from the day after Shabbos. This is not the first time that a specific day is chosen. We know the day of Pesach is very clearly told to us on the 14th day of the month of Nisan. We know Sukkot. We know Rosh Hashanah. We know Yom Kippur. Each one has given to us exactly the date. What do we have with the Omer?
No, the day after Shabbos. Begin counting the day after Shabbos. What is going on over here? Why is the Torah being so ambiguous? And not giving us the day. Just tell us start on the 15th of the of the month of Nisan. No, Mimach HaRas HaShabbos. Mimach HaRas HaShabbos is a very very odd way to describe a specific day of the calendar. The day after Shabbos. Tell me the 15th of the month of Nisan. Doesn't say that.
What is Shabbos? So we know Shabbos is a day of rest. Shabbos is a day of rest. Shabbos is a day of rest, but there's so much more to Shabbos than just a day of rest. Shabbos is a day of resting from physical pursuits from creative laborers. Yeah, that's prohibited on Shabbos. What are we supposed to do instead of physical labor? Spiritual pursuits. Spiritual engagement. So Shabbos comes every week and
then Shabbos is out. What do we say after Shabbos? We say Avdolah to differentiate between the holiness of Shabbos and the mundane of the weekday. We light a candle. The candle to differentiate between the holy and the unholy. We have a cup of wine to differentiate between the holy and the unholy. We bring in Shabbos with candles. We bring in Shabbos with a glass of wine. We take out Shabbos with candles with two flames. Which is specific. The candle, by the way, for Avdolah needs to have two wicks.
Typically, we light always a candle with one wick. On Saturday night, this Avdolah candle specifically has two or more wicks. Why? Because you're connecting the fire of Shabbos to the fire of the weekday. Means you're carrying it on from Shabbos to the weekday. Shabbos is not meant to be a day in solitude. It's not meant to be a day which is just observed on its own. Shabbos is meant to carry us along for the coming week. We're supposed to be infused on
Shabbos with holiness, with connection with Hashem, with family, with ourselves, with our Inshallah, and that's supposed to carry us along. Our sages tell us that Shabbos continues for three more days. The latest point when someone can recite the Avdolah is Tuesday night. Why? Because Shabbos is prolonged for three days. The effect of Shabbos, the holiness of Shabbos shouldn't disappear the moment Shabbos is out, but rather it should stick to us. It should keep on keeping us inflated in our holiness for three more days. What happens then?
When we had our Tuesday night classes, what would we do after our Tuesday night class? We would say good Shabbos. Why? Because we already have the infusion of the new Shabbos coming in. It turns out that the whole week becomes infused with holiness. The beginning of Wednesday, which starts on Tuesday night, is when people already start wishing each other good Shabbos. When are we supposed to start preparing for Shabbos? We start already on Tuesday night, which is already Wednesday. Why? Because we're already excited for the new infusion of holiness.
Sages teach us something incredible from these words in our parasha this week. And that is, Mimach haras haShabbos. From the day after Shabbos, when we are inspired, what is Pesach? Pesach is a day of unbelievable revelation. Pesach is a time of closeness with Hashem. It's a time where we have the blast of Emunah. Where we feel such a closeness with G-d. You know what happens the next day? It's not just an ordinary day. It's Mimach haras haShabbos.
It's the day after Shabbos where you're still carried, where you're still floating from that influence of Shabbos. How do we prepare ourselves for Shavuot? We don't prepare ourselves. Oh, Shavuot is coming. Now we have to start preparing. No, we're floating from Pesach. Pesach infuses us with such holiness. It carries us along. All the way to Shavuot. That's the way. Specifically for Shavuot, we have to carry the Pesach, which our sages tell us Shavuot is the only federal holiday, the only biblical holiday,
that does not fall in the middle of the month. Sukkot on the 14th of Tishrei. We have Pesach, the 14th of Nisan. Even, by the way, Purim is on the 14th of Adar. We have Tuba Shvat in the middle of Shvat. Why? Because the moon is the fullest. The Jewish people are the moon reflecting the light of Hashem. The fullest moon. Shavuot is on the 6th of Sivan. Our sages tell us no. Don't look at it like that.
It's not really the 6th of Sivan that's Shavuot. It's a continuation of the whole holiday of Pesach. The holiday that started in the middle of the month is continuing all the way to Shavuot. It's why we count every day leading us up all the way to the holiday of Shavuot. Because what we're doing in essence is we're really continuing the influence from Pesach. My grandfather would say that the holiday, every holiday that we observe is
meant to carry us for an entire year till the next time we observe it. Pesach, the emunah that is infused into our bones, into our consciousness, into our subconsciousness, is meant to carry us an entire year. The infusion of commitment to Hashem that we display on Shavuot the day we receive the Torah, which is really the engagement of us and G-d as one, should last for an entire year. The holiness of the day of Rosh Hashanah
for an entire year. Yom Kippur the same and Sukkot the same and Hanukkah the same. It's not meant for it to just be, oh now is the day of the Shabbos, now I'm just back to normal. Should never ever be back to normal. It should be Mimoch Rasa Shabbos. It's the day after Shabbos. I'm still floating. I'm still on high from the Shabbos that was just yesterday. That's the way we need to carry over into Shavuos.
We're almost going to be 21 days, three weeks from now. We're going to be in Shavuos. We have today being Pesach Sheni. We have in four days, we have Lag B'Omer. These are still more ways. It's like imagine the helium in a balloon. If you tie it carefully, the helium will last a while. That's what we're doing in a holiday. We're infusing that balloon, spiritual soul within us, that helium and it'll last a year if we don't poke holes in it. If we don't untie it,
it'll carry us all the way throughout the year. Hashem shall bless us all that we should merit, that we should continue to always be infused with the Torah that we learn, with the holidays that we observe, with the mitzvahs that we merit to perform every single day. That it should keep on infusing us with holiness and we shouldn't be a helium balloon that's being let out, that the ear is being let out of it.
But rather we should keep on infusing more and more into it through every mitzvah, infusing more into that helium balloon, into that spiritual soul so that it can continue to carry us forever and ever. Amen. Have a great Shabbos.

You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.