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Emor 5774

 

 וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם,מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת,מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם,אֶת-עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה:שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת,תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה– And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering – the day after the Sabbath [yom tov of Passover] – you shall count off seven weeks, they must be complete. (Leviticus 23:15)

This verse found in parshat Emor is the instruction from which we learn we are to daily ‘Count the Omer’ (Sefirat HaOmer) – the 7 weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. Question: why are there not two counts made each night in the Diaspora similar to the practice of Yom Tov Sheni? The answer is contained in the commentary of the Magen Avraham (17^th century, Poland) on the Shulchan Arukh who teaches that if a person does not understand Hebrew and counts the Omer in Hebrew that person has not fulfilled the mitzvah of the counting. He was challenged by others who said that since there is no requirement to understand the Hebrew of Kiddush or Hallel and the like, why should it be so for the ‘counting’? Says the Magen Avraham that for those other ritual elements it is the reading or saying of them that is required, but the essence of counting is the knowledge and certainty of the day being counted. Despite the diasporic practice of celebrating extra days of the pilgrimage festivals, since the set calendar allows us to know the precise beginning of Pesach, we know the precise beginning of the Counting and to make two counts would be to negate the mitzvah of Sefirah.

Metzorah 5774

 

זֹאת תִּהְיֶה תּוֹרַת הַמְּצֹרָע – This will be the law of the metzorah [leper]. (Leviticus 14:2) 

The gemara teaches that metzorah means motzi shem rav – to cause someone to have a bad reputation; that is, to speak Lashon Harah.  It is told that one evening the great Chafetz Chaim was walking in his town of Rahdin during a heavy rain.  The streets were empty but for a lone Jewish stranger whose carriage passed him and asked, ‘where lives the town’s rabbi, the tzaddik, the Chafetz Chaim?’  The scholar said of himself, ‘firstly he is no rav and secondly he is no tzaddik.’  Said the stranger in astonishment, ‘But everyone holds him to be a man of great faith and righteousness!’  The rabbi’s reply, ‘I know the Chafetz Chaim very well and I assure you that is a great exaggeration and tall tale.’  The stranger became enraged; he cursed the scholar and then hit him with the whip in his hands.  The rabbi was greatly troubled that he had caused the stranger to transgress in such a way.  A while later when the Chafetz Chaim returned home he found the stranger waiting at his door.  When the stranger realized what he had done, he was so shaken he nearly fainted.  The rabbi said to him, ‘you did nothing wrong as I deserved the beating; for not only is it forbidden to speak Lashon Harah about others, it is also forbidden to speak Lashon Harah about oneself.’