Rabbi Akiva and Lag B’omer I P’ Emor

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Aaron L Raskin’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Pertaining to the counting of the Omer, we just read in this week's Torah portion, the portion of Emor, U'sfatem lachem mimochorat hashabbat. You shall begin to count from the morning after Shabbat. How many days? Seven complete weeks. And then it goes on to say, a total of 50 days. A few questions come to mind. Number one, it says you shall count from the morning after the Shabbat, which would imply that the Sefirah always begins the same day of the week, which would be Sunday. In other words, you should count Saturday night, and that would be day one, and then you continue to count for seven weeks. Yet, we know that the Talmud tells us, mimochorat hashabbat, the day after Shabbat, means the second night of Passover. And that Passover is called Shabbat. Like all the holidays are called Shabbat. And that's why on a holiday we recite mizmor shir le yom hashabbat, the song for the day of Shabbat, the day of rest. Shabbat means a day of rest. But yet, the question comes to mind, why does the Torah tell us the word Shabbat is when in truth we're talking about Passover? Furthermore, u'sfatem lachem, you shall count to yourself. Does that mean I cannot count loud? Does that mean no one's allowed to hear what I say? It should simply say u'sfatem, count. Why lachem, to yourself? And on one hand it says count seven weeks, which is 49 days. And then it says you shall count for 50 days. So, are you counting 49 days, or are you counting 50 days? Make up your mind. Furthermore, these weeks between Passover and Shavuos, there is national mourning because of the fact that Rabbi Akiva,

Jump to a moment

1. 0:01Pertaining to the counting of the Omer, we just read in this week's Torah portion, the…
2. 2:47Passover and Shavuos? To quote the Rebbe, he says that in the course of these seven…
3. 5:56holiday of Shavuot. When God gives us the Torah every year anew. And that is the…
4. 8:35And because they were so special, they were required to have a greater level of observance…
5. 11:49And therefore, if they are doing something improper, then they are are unfortunately worthy of this…
6. 14:30negative forces. And therefore God gave us, instructed us to have a mezuzah on every door…
7. 17:37properly. Because of that, Yitzhak was reincarnated into Pinchas. And Esau was reincarnated into Zimri ben…
8. 20:20do unto others." Okay, so I won't spit in your face, I won't curse you out…
9. 23:32money for years. And she runs over to Rabbi Akiva, the students of Rabbi Akiva protect…
10. 26:17can bring back the money that I gave to Rabbi Akiva." Says the Gemara, that a…

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