Sefiras HaOmer: Purifying My Middos and My Internal World

In this episode dive into the unique time of year of Sefiras HaOmer - the seven week period between Pesach and Shavuos! What is this time of the year really about in its depth? What transformation does God expect us to go through during this spiritually charged process, that seems to have 50 distinct stages to it? We'll get into all that and much more in this week's episode!

If you want to follow along in the text, it is Nesiovs Shalom Chelek Bet page shin yud zayin (317). You can find a pdf of the piece here.

This week's episode is sponsored anonymously for a refuah sheleimah for Sarah bas Tolsa. Thank you so much to this week's generous sponsor! If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, please email Rabbi Charnoff at rabbicharnoff@gmail.com.

Transcript

Rabbi Charnoff: 0:08

Hello everyone. This is Rabbi Robbie Chernoff, and you are listening to the Hasidis for Life podcast, the podcast where we learn a deep hasidic insight every single week and explore how it can lead us to a more meaningful, vibrant, and spiritually uplifted life. In this episode, we're getting into sphere oer, the seven week period between Pesach and VUIs. What is this time of year really about? On a deeper level, is God really just interested in seeing if we can count to 50 successfully, what transformation does he expect us to go through during this spiritually charged time of the year? That seems to have 50 distinct stages to it. We'll get into all of that and much more in this week's episode. If you wanna follow along inside, you can open up the to page hin and the piece on ER entitled T, or simply go to the show notes for a link to a PDF. But feel free to just sit back, listen, and enjoy the ride most people do. This week's episode is sponsored anonymously for a Fuma, for Sara Ba, thank you so much to this week's generous sponsor. Your sponsorships are what make this podcast happen. If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, please email rabbi chernoff@gmail.com or see the show notes for more details. Alright, with that, let's jump into the Cevo. She on Spheros. Ome. We are, we are on page hin er is one of those times of the year that I feel very deeply connected to and I love very much. In general, I tend to love the more underrated times of the year, even more than I love the regular exciting times of the year. There's. Almost a reality of Nist, of Tara, star of Kabbalah and has, that's so prevalent and so rich in a different type of way when it comes to the more hidden aspects of the year. There's so much Torah, ni and nist and definitely plenty of NIST also, and has also on Pechi, on even on Purim, although Purim is like a whole different, ballgame. But when it comes to those more subtle times of the year, those more hidden times of the year, those more underplay times of the year, whether it's ish which is part of, you may shm and this time of the year, er, so everybody is very focused on. And everybody's very focused on VUIs and everybody knows that sphere Omer links the two, or it takes place between the two at the very least. But there's so much going on with Sphere Omer and it's holidays of lag, ba omer, it's Holiday of pei. All these more minor, hidden, mysterious days to BA will hopefully get to at a certain point. these very, very special times of the year where we know there's something going on and we know there's something special, but it doesn't seem to be big enough that it gets the attention it deserves. And I assume that that's intentional. The same way that a Kaddish bur and they say, well, Shelman brings this in in many different places. The same way that the Torah masks some of the deepest things that it wants to tell us. In areas of text where it doesn't seem like anything is going on. One of the most famous ones is the spotted and speckled sheep of Yako Vnu when he's trying to go and figure out how to breed his sheep to get the ones that he wants. And Lavan doesn't get the one it's a whole it section of Humma whole per of mash, the whole para of Torah. And we skip over it.'cause on, again, I think intentionally on the surface of the text, it seems like there's not a lot going on. And underneath it, that's where all the secrets are hidden. The deepest farm. Talk about how it's describing how worlds are created and destroyed. there's a whole discussion of kings in es, which also has a lot of very, very deep secrets hidden inside of it. So, so too with the year and sphere, I think is one of those times, and that's how I relate to it. I think it's a very special time of year and hopefully as. We go through this week, maybe in future weeks, a few pieces on sphere. Omer will be able to start to unearth a little bit together of what's happening in this very, very special spiritually charged time of year. So let's see where he takes us. he starts off in quotes, the Paso, you should count for yourselves from after the sha. And there's a lot of. Ink spills to explain very clearly that here it means not after Shabi, but after PE between Torah, Jews and the Tu who did not believe in to, but means that we shall start counting from after the sha, meaning after the first day of Pesa, you shall count 50 days. You will bring a brand new, brand new offering to, we have to understand the end of this. You will bring this new offering to really, it should be in the next, which is that. From your dwelling places, you will bring two waving offerings of bread. Meaning really what it's saying is, is that at the end of the Sphera process, you're going to bring a new offering. What is that new offering? That new offering is the two breads that are brought the, that's brought on VUIs, but in the next pasta, what does it tell you? It tells you about the of vu, so why even bother to mention that there's going to be this brand new offering that's brought at the end of Sphera when that offering is really a VU offering and in the next project is gonna tell you what the VU offering is. Why is it linking it to SER again? It should be in the next, and the fact that it's in our as well by ER tells us that somehow this. Offering of vu. This unique new offering of VUIs is also linked to sphere. We also have to understand, Hal, the fact that it refers to this ER offering as the ER wave offering. As it's mentioned here, tu by the two bread offerings of it says this bread that is waived. We find this concept of waving the necessity to wave a corban by many, many Corban notes. It's not unique to the OER or to the, so the facts of the Cevo Shalom that the Torah is going out of its way to explicitly state that these two offerings are wave offerings when so many of them are wave offerings. Seems to indicate that this aspect of waving is more closely connected to the Indian of the Omer offering of Sphera and the Of than other Anos s. Reason for this. Just to add a little bit of texture and background here to Theo, I know this is not the exciting has that you came forward, but it's important to understand the background of what we're talking about here, especially since all of the puk that deal with sphere OI really deal in the context of COOs. So you need to understand that in order to see where the has is going to mine there and bring out Aldera Voda. So just very, very briefly, the period of Sso er, where does it get that name from? It comes from the Corban ha er. What is the corban ha er When new produce grows over the course of the year in your field, grain barley wheat. When it grows in the field, it is prohibited to eat new grain. It's called ash and there's a prohibition on eating ash. At what point is one permitted to eat the new grain of the new year? When can one eat ash and one is allowed to stop only eating Han? It's at the point where the day after Pesa, they would take an er, which is a measurement, an ooma of barley from the fields, and they would bring it as a corban as a wave offering an er, hafa. They would wave that ooma and that corban of an ooma of barley would permit the eating of all new produce from the field for the coming year. That's the basic premise, which is a very strange concept already. You see how there's layers going on here with sphere oer and our associations with it but the idea that we're like, what is sphere OER about? We're counting the days, so we're counting up to VUIs, but it's based on a. Waving of a barley offering to permit new produce, which once you do is already done. And then we're counting from that, but it doesn't seem to relate back to that. And also we go into sphere and we're starting to count up and it's this exciting time of counting up to VUIs. But also we're in Avelos.'cause separately, you know, the Tamida Rabbi Kiva died for the first 32, 33 days. So that's why there's no weddings and you can't listen to music and men can't shave. And I, you know, it all just, it all just comes together really simply. It's all good. It's like, no, there's like a lot going on here. Why in Omer? Why are we focusing on barley in the name? Why are we counting, why are we counting lau? Yes. It's nice that we're counting up to Kamal Torah K bar's. Like, like I wanted to see, I wanted to test you call Easter Hill. Can you all count to 50? Like is that like the big VOA Omer? I know at the very least, you know, and it was interesting, this is one of the few times in Chuah arts I found this more prevalent. I dunno if it's just the community that I live in, in Israel, I don't know. Um, but in ktla arts, and I'm sure that we're gonna get into it when you Saya Omer in shul, there's the les beforehand, and then there's the aka and then there's the par afterward and then ak and you have the ola. And this whole big to-do in fi, omi, all the shuls here, at least in the shuls that I go to in Ramma Olive in time of recording 2025 and re the, it's just after Shawan Esra, it is braca day. Nu serious OER takes less than 30 seconds. And it's so depressing, you know, like, so I slowly say all the other things attached to it. But if that's your whole way of relating tosa oer, like really a kish Barco, just wanted to see if you could count to 50 successfully and not miss a day. Like what's happening here. There's clearly so much going on. How does it relate to lag Omer? How does it relate to pei? What's happening here? What's happening between the surface? And as you can see that we're gonna have to get all of this from SKU that are talking about waving a barley offering to allow new produces the coming year. But to understand that that's where we're coming from, that that's what S sphere omer means, the counting that starts from the bringing of the barley offering that was allowing new produce to be eaten in the coming year. So with that in mind and with these questions in mind, Which is, why are we linking this? The, the bread offering? Okay. I assume it's gonna open this up. Um, but there's interesting movement that we have. We start off with the waving of barley at the beginning of Sphera, and we end with this che with bringing two loaves of bread on vus, which is very unique. You were not allowed to bring bread as a corban in the base of ash. There were only two CORs that I'm familiar with. The means that there's probably more, but there are only two Caranas that I'm familiar with, which is the, the two breads that were brought on Chivu, and the Corban, toda, I believe all of those were br I don't think there was any other bread. as a corban, there was, but that wasn't a corban. and that's related to VUIs. VUIs is related to d was born in, be like, there's so much happening here underneath the surface. so let's see where all of this comes out in what he wants to teach us. Let's jump to the second paragraph. Vi. Says in the name of his father. in explaining the, the can tell him says that who saves both the man and beast? He says. He says, this man and beast will be saved by, this is hinting to the, he's already going. One of the directions that we suggested though I did throw out almost everything related to Sphera as a general topic, so it was inevitable. But he's talking here about this idea that we're starting out with barley, the Sphera offering, the this wave offering of barley that's brought again, specifically from barley, which is Al Hamma, which is normally fed to animals. And the two loaves that are brought on that's brought from wheat, which is more associated with human eating, right, baking it into bread and crackers. It's making it into something more special that's more associated with human eating. So we're moving from food that is more associated with giving to animals, to food that is more associated with humans. We're moving from animal to human va. He says The reason for this is fic meet shrine. When Claudia was in meet shrine, ha, we were on the level of being like a Bahama, like an animal, famously. And it's used in a different context here. Bring out in a whole different way, way. When CLA was in Mitra, we're compared to an animal fetus that's inside the womb of the mother animal. Now, the way that that's normally discussed is the miraculous nature of Yra. Then Akash Bku comes down himself and he ki puts his hand inside of the animal and personally pulls out and delivers the baby that's inside of it, which is Clara. That's how that mussel's used, and one of the gdo who at least I heard this idea from, beautiful, beautiful idea of Moza Al. He says that that is the godless of y. That's the tremendous nature of Y. He asked the question, he says, why is everything. Remembering the Exodus region. All we did was walk out of the borders of some land. Who cares? In that context, God did. As Ko did the 10 plagues and broke nature, and on the other side of it, he split the sea and broke nature. Why is everything remembering leaving Egypt have it be, have it be? Why? Of all the parts of that story that seems to be the least miraculous that SA said, no, that was the most miraculous. Whenever you have a fetus that grows inside of the mother, it's totally encompassed, surrounded by the mother in the womb on all sides. It ha its whole notion. Everything it knows in its whole life is the mother. It feeds from the mother, it breathes from the mother. It's encompassed in its entirety by the reality of the mother. I. So too, are we on the 49th level of spiritual impurity? Because we were totally encompassed by Mera. And not only were we encompassed by Mera, but we became a nation in the womb that was Mera. And when a mother gives birth to a child, the child by definition resembles the mother. It's built from the DNA of the mother, Cesar Mo Shapiro. You wanna know the biggest nace there ever was in the history of the world, that you can have one nation, gest state and grow in the womb of another nation and come out 180 degrees. The exact opposite of everything that its mother was of everything that that other nation was. We were the opposite of mitri. Mitri is Toma. We're focused on kaha. Mitri is all about arias. We're all about kaha. We came out the exact opposite, that Zeer, the biggest nation there ever was. To have something born that was in the womb of something else, grown in something else, encompassed on all sides, getting its life from something else, and becoming 180 degrees the opposite, 100% the opposite of what it was that it grew in. So what he's saying here though, is he's extending that point. ultimately, what are we talking about? We're talking about animals and because we're on such a lowly level, we were like an animal, and we were born like an animal. A ka sparkle could have used a different al entirely Why use the example of an animal. When we came out, ma, we were like an animal. We came out of each Israel like an animal. Abraham says another, he says, It's not possible that you'd see as mitri happened through us having pure mi we had such physical and distorted mi coming out of Itra. I mean, we were born, we were gestating in Itra that there was no way for us to have purified them. The ha, the Ula, the exodus from Itra, the redemption from Itra came only because of our Una, a topic we've talked about in previous episodes. Our UNA in ourselves that we couldn't be disconnected from a, no matter what, however you wanna frame it, it was our UNA that got us out were we were redeemed because of our Una. Only. Once we left, Egypt then begins, which is the time of purifying our mi and that we transform ourselves from being like an animal to being a human being. This is the whole goal of re, to transform our reality to an entirely new reality.'cause we can only get to VUIs if we're on level of a person. Let's open up what he just said. There's a lot going on either the surface of what he just said. You know, it's a fascinating thing if you open up, let's say for example, an art scroll sitter during sphere. Omar, when you're counting sphera, you'll notice that when you go to count the day, there's a chart that gives you the different days and how to say them correctly. But wildly in that chart on each line, it gives you a phrase and then a word and then another phrase. There's a lot going on there. An art school, in my experience, generally tends to shy away from things that are cabalistic. The strongest example of this in my experience, which really shocked me when I saw it, is they came out with a per Ramban Ram la Torah. And Ramban often says Val, and in truth, I give you the following per. So I'll give this shot, and then the de and de means Kabbalah. And they'll often, when it says, oh, there are time mets, it'll have brackets and say, this translation is beyond the scope of this work. We don't deal with these capitalistic contexts. However, this, they phrase it, but it's wild. They made a whole translation of the ram, the Torah, and they left out all of the most important things that he said, which were the secrets of the Torah and the KA that he was giving over. It's a wild concept to me, and yet despite that, when it comes to Sphero to Omer, they can't not have that chart and in that chart of a whole bunch of things. And one of the things that they have fascinatingly is all of the different spheros for the different days. What are these spheros? We've discussed them in the past, but uh, just a quick overview of what the spheros are and very much in brief, there are 10 Spheros. In the larger sense, when you're working with a smaller version of that system, you're talking about the seven otte within the 10 Sphero. Those seven mees are, and this is important to understand and to hear the nuance of every word here. God's seven created medot through which he rules over and guides the world. They are not God's character. Traits. Klo, that's kra, that's heresy. God created these 10 Sphero and these seven medot, and it's through these seven medot that rules over and guides the world. We are created, but sell El Loki. We're created in the image of those otes. And as such, why it's important for us. One of the many reasons why it's important for us Voda is because since we're Ella me, this is one aspect of us being created beloki. Since we're created in the image of those mitos. We are expected to rule over our own internal world. Through those mitos, we're meant to understand and master those mitos and rule over our internal world, through those mitos, those mitos. Without going into any detail here and now and in future podcasts. I'm sure that we will. They are in order. These these are the seven Cabalistic Miot in the context of the 10 Cabalistic Spheros. Now, these seven me dotes are the ways in which a Ka broho guides the world, and they are also the way in which we guide our own internal world. But it's not even just that. They're really the fundamental building blocks of everything. You can even see that easily embodied by the fact that when God creates the world, he creates the world in seven days. There's seven modes of creation, seven aspects of creation that create the physical reality that we live in. Each one of those corresponding from an emanating from one of the mitos, the easiest one, just to invite that, and we talk about Shabbas, right? We go to welcome the Shabbas, what? The Shabbas Queen, the Shabbas Maa, what was the seventh? And that's just an easy example to show that these are really in the image of the seven otes. So the seven miot are the fundamental building blocks of everything, and also were created in the image of those otes. Now, here's where it gets a little bit tricky. See if you can stick with me. A little bit tricky, but very powerful, which is as follows, if the seven miot are the fundamental building blocks of everything, the fundamental building blocks. so I'll ask the following question. What is Ed made out of? What is RA made out of? What are these building blocks made out of? So the answer is they're made out of those same fundamental building blocks, meaning Ed is comprised of, RA is comprised of, each one of them is comprised of those fundamental balloon blocks, and so too infinitely. But once you say that, once you've indicated sort of the infinite nature of that system, why is all this important for the following? How many otte are there? Seven. What's happening is over the course of our time Intri, we became imp purified to the greatest extent possible. We were on the 49th level of tma. One step further, we would've had no way back. That would've been it. No way back. And we get out of ra, but Bar takes us out outed on his own. All we have is maybe the, but as he just said, not because we purified ourselves. We came out totally Ipu Kar Barko said, and this was in one of the previous podcasts that we had leading into Pesa. A broco took us out despite the fact that we're impure and because we were impure to show us that he'll love us no matter what. But we were impure. How impure were we and what way were we impure on every level of our being? How many MITs are there? Seven. There's seven mi don'ts. And how many parts are there to each one of those OTs? Seven. What's seven times? Seven? 49. How many days of Sphera to Omer are there? 49. There are seven weeks. Each week corresponds to one Sphera, the first seven days of SRA to oer, correspond to the next seven days, correspond to Gurah, et cetera, et cetera. And then we get really detailed and nuanced. And so we go into each week, and when we do the first week, the first day, we're not just purifying, we're purifying an aspect of ed. Day two, day three, we get into the second week. The first day of the second week, we purify ura. Second day of the second week, URA Shara. Third day of the second week T Shabira. Why? Because we'd been imp purified on every single aspect of our being. That's why we were on the 49th level of spiritual impurity, specifically because we've been imp purified in all levels of our being down to their details. And corresponding to that level of impurity is Fiat omi. We have 49 days where for 49 days we are purifying our otte. But when we say purifying our OTT mean it in the colloquial sense and also in the capitalistic sense. We're purifying who we are'cause we came out of each rhyme and we were impure, but we're purifying. Our, also on the capitalistic sense, we're purifying our internal meos, literally one aspect at a time through every single one of the four, nine aspects of the seven meos that's happening over sphere. Omer, when we came out, we were so impure, the for and level impurity, we were like an animal. And if we go through Sphera Oma properly, and again, even our school, which I suspect ag would not normally want to have to put in the spheros next to something inside of the sitter, I. It feels compelled to do so. That's fascinating. It feels compelled to do so because when you say each day, you're not just counting, you're going through another aspect in order, in a calculated way, in a methodical way, in a comprehensive way. You're going through every single aspect of your internal world, and on every day you're making a double move. On the first day, you're not just taking away the tma, taking away the impurity of, you're removing the impurity in your, and you're moving into a place of kha. On the second day, you're not just removing the impurity of your, you are removing the TMA of your, and also moving it into a place of kaha for 49 days. It's a tremendous time of year. Like we said before, it is a spiritually explosive charged time of year with the capacity to transform every aspect of who we are mentioned before. The very powerful time of Sham. Sham is focused in on purifying ourselves in one very specific way. Primarily, this is about purifying the entire internal world over these seven weeks and transforming ourselves from acting on impure physical instinct like an animal where we're not in control of our internal world at all. We're acting entirely on animalistic impulse. Transforming ourselves into a benam. We're built in the image of the otes, and so over oer, we grab the reigns of those otes and we purify ourselves where we rule over our entire internal world in a way of kaucher that truly makes us Quin. Why do we do that? This was the last line that we just read inside in the text because that's how, and the only way how we're able to walk up to and get to Matan Torah. The only way to get to Matan Torah is to be pure in a way where I purify myself inside on every level, and I've made myself a vessel of CAA to be able to actually receive the Torah. That's a little bit, that's just scratching the surface of what's happening here over the course of Sphere Omer, it's a. Unique, deep, detailed, spiritual internal purification that prepares us for Matan Torah. And we even have this concept, we quote it all the time, Vos, which is de t Kama la Torah. What we're doing here seems to be on a certain level, is purifying our level of Derek Ts in order that we are able to, we are Tu, be able to receive the Torah, And you already see now also some of the words folding in on itself, right? This is a very measured time of year. You have to count every single day. If you miss a day according to some opinions, you've missed out on all of Sira Omer. And because of that, because as a maloca of what the nature of Sphere Omer is, because of that, you can't continue counting with Abraha. You absolutely should continue counting, but you can't continue counting with a broth. According to One Opinion. No, it's, it has to have every aspect of the units. You're aware if you miss one, you've missed the point of Sphera. Sphera is about being methodical and comprehensive and getting to everything, so you keep counting. but because of the maloka, the nuance, you can't count with the bra anymore and the OTT are part of a larger system. What is that larger system called? The 10 Sphero? And what process are we in? Sphera ta ome, which is relating to the smaller system of the Spheros, these seven mitos. There's a lot of overlap that suddenly starts to jump out when you realize that these systems are so deeply enmeshed that no matter where you go to do Sphe oer, where you look, you'll find that there is a relationship to these Spheros and these mitos, because that's really what this time is about. My Rabbi Amo said very powerfully. That he suspects that why there, there's so many places in davening where there are rebo, Olas and hi zones and some Sdu have all of them, some sador have some of them, some sdu have none of them. He says, the one time, and again it saddens me that it happens to be that where I live, at the very least, I dunno again how prevalent it is here in Rochelle specifically, or if it's a issue or it's just the shul that I go to, that they don't do the s and the lums, but everywhere else, it doesn't matter if they're a shul that never says hi zone and never says ri the skip. All of those small little beautiful texts that tell you what the deeper meaning of the Tela is about, that are before and after all of these major things that we do by sphere, OER in the majority of places. Everyone suddenly says everybody says everybody's putting in the day, like suddenly everybody's doing it. Why? He says, because what is this whole time of the year about? It's all about Hana. It's all about preparation. And so he said, baked into the mitzvah is the need to prepare for doing the mitzvah.'cause the mitzvah itself is preparation. You need to say,'cause you need to prepare for a mitzvah V preparation. You see? Because you need to prepare for a mitzvah V preparation. Because this whole mitzvah is about preparing myself for Kabbalah sat Torah. I suspect, by the way, based on that, and I, he didn't say this. this struck me at one point that I think it must be true. It's fascinating that the source Suk in Tanana for the seventh Sphero comes from re haime because all of Kabbalah has to be rooted in to just like every other aspect of Torah and the is. So when do we not only say, but often sing that Suk. We sing it after we take the safer Torah out of the a kodesh and before we read from it, I strongly suspect that if this is true, that sphere er is a preparation for Vu, Abba, Torah and that it's relating to Derek s Kamal, Torah. Even every time we take outta say for Torah, we say this Pulsic, which is hinting to the Seven Mitos as an aspect of Derek t's Ka Torah of recognize that we need to prepare ourselves on a level of mito, even as the Torah is simply being walked from the ar kodesh to the bema that we're about to hear. The Torah and the SW all bring down that when the Torah is red cress Torah happens. It's like a small cabal sat Torah that we are preparing ourselves on a level of cabal sat Torah that we need to first prepare Ami and fix AMI doses. We're about to have this mini Kabbalah sat Torah. and what the Nabo Shalam is bringing out here is that again, somebody who's ruled over their physical impulses and does not have control of their mito is a Bahama and a true beam, a true human being, living in the image of God is in control of their mi, in control of who they are. They rule over their own internal world in a way of kaha with those spheros, those mitos in a place of kaha and intentionally ruling over their internal world through their rulership of those mitos. And that's the movement he's saying again, from such a simple thing. It's so beautiful the way the Torah says things so simply and seemingly, and it's such a not exciting way, and all the depth comes out. We start off, the first day of Raa Ome day one is a barley offering and day 50 tu loaves of bread we're switching from again in one of the most fundamental aspects of KAA that we've talked about in the past, and we'll talk about in the future, comes down to our eating. We start off with the eating of an animal and we transform to the eating of a human being. That's the movement that's showing that we're moving from a place of tumah and animalism to kaha. Holiness of a true human being. Let's go back inside of the text. We're 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 lines from the bottom of the first column will, based on what we said, we can understand the US Shabbat you shall count for yourselves from after the first day of pe and you then you will bring at the end of that a new offering to as this idea, this concept of you will bring a new min offering. He. He says, how is it that this country will bring a, he's on the, why is that a vu? Why is Vu the, he said, I'll tell you why.'cause what is Torah learning every day? It has to be new in your eyes. How do you truly learn Torah? You trail and Torah by every day coming to it and it's fresh. You come to the same line of gamara that you learned yesterday. If you've never been in the Gamara at Yon, she, you can sit on one line or a few lines of gamara for days or weeks, and it's all new in your eyes. Every single time. You can be a simple Jew like me who's trying to make their second seum in TaNaK and trying to pack it into one year. You come to the same suken and you try to see them with new eyes each time. there are pum that I've been doing where I've seen that safe air, maybe only a couple of months ago, And if have to come to it and it's the same suken, but they're totally new in your eyes every single time. The Mishta is totally new in your eyes, every single time. listen, Roff, I've been learning with you since the, uh, JLIC at Queen College Days. I think we did this piece. I've heard this from you before. Kagan, I'm old, but it's new. It's new in my eyes. Every single time I'm seeing this show I'm on omer new every single time. That's VUIs. That's cabal sat, Torah. And so in order to get to Cabal, sat Torah, to have this and this clarity of what Torah is, we need to go to the Voda OER and move from a Bahama to an Adam in order to get there. We're towards the top of the second column in the second paragraph, four lines in. Also, if you wanna understand this concept of this new that's being brought at the end of ra, which is vu, the main work of ER is to transform myself into a whole new being. I'm purifying my mitos and I'm transforming who I am from an animal to a person. And that's what it means that it says you're gonna bring a new, at the end of this process, that through the Voda er, assuming that we're really getting into the Avoa er, and on each day, I'm finding some way to understand what the nature of today's Sphera is. you can look online. I'm sure that there are many resources online. Some of them probably better than others, but anything, to try to even stir some thought or some movement or some internal work. There are farm out there, There are some English books that are on it. There are some Hebrews farm that are on it. A beautiful savior, if you understand Hebrew that I highly, highly recommend is called us. It's in Hebrew, but it goes through Voda to do internally every single day. It's written by the ma. It's written by the tam who wrote a per in Hebrew to on the Zohar. as far is not written in a way that is too difficult for someone not familiar with Kabbalah to read and learn. You just to be familiar with Hebrew. If you're Hebrew's good, I highly recommend getting it. Reading it. His whole introduction to Sphere Omer is amazing and will transform your approach to Sphera. And then each day he gives you ca kavana based on the nature of that sphere that are not too deep. The more you know, the more you'll get out of it, but the less you know, you'll still get a tremendous amount out of it is he's a beautiful way of simplifying even the deepest of concepts for anybody to get something out of it. But in any event, taking this time and making sure to work on myself every single day to purify my mi, to purify my internal world, to purify myself in this 49, 50 day period as I get ready for Kabbalah sat Torah, he says the I can make myself brand new into a whole new being. He says that it's hinted to in the RO vote, the first letter of the two words. The first letter is the first letter is the word. That's what differentiates a human being from an animal that we're able to exercise our, because when it comes to an animal, there's no dot. There's no intelligence there. On a level of it overcoming its base, physical desires in order to rule over its internal world, there's no such thing. An animal by definition simply follows its natural instinct. That's what it is. Aku creates it a certain way, and it follows the instincts with which it was created. We too are created with instincts Natural physical instincts on a KBA who says, no, you're not an animal. You're a human being, and therefore, the way in which you exercise that reality of you being a human being is to overcome those natural instincts, those base natural instincts, and to become a human being again, to rule over your internal world by ruling over your internal medo. That's the ultimate goal. To be clear, it's important to have a vibrant and healthy emotional world. It's very, very important to do so. What's being claimed here is, and there's multiple sources to back this up, is that we're supposed to have emotional reactions to things, but it requires the mind to rule over one's emotions and to guide those emotions in healthy, pure, and holy ways. It's unhealthy if a husband doesn't feel an emotion of love for his wife. But if a man only feels the emotion of excitement and mystery and attraction to women, then he will not be committed to a wife and he will end up in a situation of adultery. He'll end up with Gila RAOs. Why? Because the emotions, the natural physical base instinct is not being guided. There's certain times where it is appropriate to express emotion and to channel emotion and to experience emotion. And there are places where it's inappropriate. And so a person has to rule over their internal world and yes, feel excitement and attraction and love and connection to women, but limit that to one woman who is his wife. So to. it extends to every realm of life. It doesn't matter what realm that is. A person can feel feelings toward their children. When a parent feels anger or frustration at their child, it's a very delicate moment. If a parent yells at a child, is it because they become angry and frustrated and therefore their emotions push them to explode verbally at their child? That's inappropriate. That's the emotions ruling over the person. What is appropriate? I see my child is doing something inappropriate or dangerous, and I decide intellectually, and it's tough to distinguish what's really coming from the emotion and from the intellect, but one has to distinguish. Say in this instance, the child needs to understand that what they did is so wrong, that it instigates anger. And so I'm going to express anger in the quantity that I choose for the sake of no more and no less, and not because I need to or I want to, or I have an emotional desire to, but because I'm intellectually deciding that's best for the of the child, and the emotion is real. And the feelings of frustration with the child and fear for the child and desire for greatness from the child are all real. But the decision of how to express those emotions needs to be guided by the intellect. That's why the seat of the emotions is in the heart, and that's very deep and very real, and it's in the center of my being. It's in the center of my core. Above that which needs to rule over it is my ma is my mind. That has to rule over my heart. That's why it's seated above my heart. Not to overshadow and squelch my emotional world, but because it needs to be that which guides my emotional world. I have to rule over my otte and guide how I express that emotional reality. That's the interaction here that's being described. And so he's saying here I bring am that my mohawk is in control By the end of spirit, oh me, my mohawk is in control. My mind is in control and expressing myself in the world through intent, through a holy intent towards AVO session. We can understand that, which says that the main things to fix in is it says that you should count seven weeks. But the way that the Torah phrases you shall count seven weeks is You should count seven sha. You should count seven. Sha wise, phrase it as he says, even if I'm not on a level where every day of all of my seven weeks is gonna be so lofty, there are days I'm gonna break and I'm gonna yell at my roommate, or I'm gonna get frustrated with my wife, or I'm going to get annoyed with my children, or whatever it is. I'm not going to successfully overcome and rule over my mito and purified mi. I'm a human being in Barham. This is one sphere of a lifetime is fear ome. I'm trying my best, he says, but at the very least, my shaba is should be perfect. At the very least, I'm elevating myself on Shaba, Shava, Shabbat tomo. They should be seven full, complete, pure weeks, but at least seven complete pure shaba. At the very least. Since the main A is to make myself a whole new creation ish, the best time to do this is Sha. I can make myself into a totally new creation because it's on that the whole world is renewed based on the concept that the whole world originally was only supposed to be seven days long. The whole of creation led up to the sixth day. On the sixth day Ava were created. Ava were meant to fulfill the sva. The mitzva was don't eat from the fruit for six hours. Fulfill the one and then go into. That's what we daven for. Give us the eternal shaz forever and ever. What's the eternal sha? The sha, that was supposed to be six days of creation, and then Sha forever Aaba. That's why SHA is. So then They mess up and they are punished. And eventually after Shabi are removed from Ghanaian. But there was only supposed to be seven days. Where does the world get the AK to keep going? Shabi gives birthed the next week. And so too from creation on since the seven days of creation every single week. The new week is birthed from the previous chais. And so to a whole new us, we're brand new every Shabbas. So during the time of year where the whole goal is, is to make myself new, make myself fresh, recreate myself, he says, at the very least, let the Shabbas be to Mi most. Let the Shabbas is be complete. Let the Shabbas is be full of Kha. Let me overcome on shave and help make myself a whole new creation on Sha Kodesh every single week for these seven weeks, just like we get a whole new week that's birthed from Shaz. So too, can we merit? To transform ourselves and be a, a whole new creation coming out. Every single sha al and therefore sha is the main time in that process. every day, right now, every day of Sirah is supercharged again. If you read the introduction to that Safer that I mentioned to far m he says this, that the capacity to transform ourselves during Spsa Omer to change our internal world is like tenfold what it is on a normal day, I forget exactly what the numbers were there, but it's like tenfold what it is on a normal day, the amount that we can accomplish in terms of transforming our own internal world, our own mi. So every day we should be working to do this. But at the very least, on Chavez, which is designed to be a day of bringing out a whole new reality, we should bring out a whole new reality of ourselves. Today, we just barely scratched the surface of Sira Omer but what do we take out of it is that sphere er in the silk comes from these cor bonos, which is always a good indication that it seems boring on the surface. There's a lot more going on underneath the surface when all of Sira Oma has only tied back to CoreOS. That's basically God putting a signpost, saying good people who are not ready, space out, and everybody else. Let's get into the serious stuff. There's a lot going on here underneath the surface, and what's going on here is based on what we learned today, is that in ome, we're starting off with a barley offering. We're starting off as animals. Animalistic. Having just come out of Metri with barely any merit of our own, takes us out, out of his love for us and his kindness towards us. And we're totally impm purified with me shrine. And so for 49 days, we work to purify in every detailed level of our internal world, every aspect of ourselves to every day move one aspect out of Tam Kaha, out of Toa. One more aspect, one more aspect to the process omi. And to become an aam. Because only an Adam can truly be macal. Vitor, I'm taking my internal world and if you want a different visual, a different muscle, there's all of this toma, there's all of this gunk and dirt and garbage inside of me, this Toma that's inside of me, of me trying. And every day I am cleaning out another part of my internal world, another media. And by cleaning out that gunk, I'm making space. Space for what? That's the space em that the Torah will be able to come into and reside within me. The more space I make inside through Pur Ami Mitos, the more space there is inside of me to hold the Torah that God wants to gimme ous. The more of an animal that I leave behind and an bin Adam, I become the more of an Adam I am, the more space there is inside of my mitos capacity within me to hold the Torah that Ako wants to give me and bind me to him. The Kha. In the wedding that is VUIs with the katuba. That is the Torah that binds me to him. There's more of an adom there to be able to bind myself and connect myself to a kvu rah, to take advantage of every single day, every single step that is every single day, to purify those MUTOs, to overcome our animalistic urges and become a binman rule over our internal world. To be vibrant, emotional humans who are in charge of our emotions, channeling our emotions, living in a way of kaa, in a vibrant way of Kaa, but with our moak that's in charge, and through that bi to beam, to, to receive the, to and to connect to a qou on vu by all of us. Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. If you enjoyed the episode, please rate the podcast and hit the follow button and join us every week for a new episode. Once again, thank you so much to our sponsor and a reminder that you too. Yes, you can sponsor an episode of the podcast. Email Rabbi chernoff@gmail.com for more info or to share any thoughts, comments, or feedback on this week's episode? See you in the next one.