A Good Heart

Lag Ba’Omer | לַ״ג בָּעוֹמֶר

May 26, 2024 | 18 Iyar 5784

Sefirah is a deeply spiritual time that encompasses much depth and meaning, but to many of us it can feel esoteric and unrelatable. In this piece, I’d like to share some insight to help us connect to this particularly unique moment along our unique path of remembering our soul on our journey towards healing and reconnection with ourselves and our source.

Remembering

Previously we’ve discussed the concept that through Pesach and the Angel in the womb, we are given the “download” of Torah. But just as upon birth we forget all we’ve learned, so too after Pesach we lose the spirituality that was instilled upon us. We asked, what is the point of all this knowledge if we’re only going to forget it? We answered that we can only understand that which we have context for. Torah and spirituality are beyond the confines of the material world and therefore unrelatable. Learning in advance leaves a mark upon us and even though we may forget it we have the wherewithal to remember it. 

When one perceives a painting, he can appreciate it entirely. He can note its detail, its beauty and its message. But the moment that it is no longer present, it quickly becomes forgotten. Sure, he may remember the feeling or even catch glimpses of its memory, but its true nature is gone. The only sure way to appreciate it in perpetuity would be to replicate it in its entirety. This must be done immediately, while the inspiration is still fresh, but it cannot be done in a moment. Rather, with patience and skill, the witness must embark in a painstaking step by step process to slowly but surely recreate the art with his own hands. 

Leaving Mitzrayim was more than just the freedom to leave. It meant a complete paradigm shift, the belief and empowerment to shift from a slavery mindset to a freedom mindset. Only a moment of absolute clarity, of the oneness and transcendence of Gd could provide such a crystal clear understanding of absolute truth and our place within it. This painting only Gd Himself could paint for us. But our memory would not forever experience or recall this awesome event. Instead we immediately focus on replicating that experience inside of us, through a painstaking but necessary step by step process of focus and refinement as we aim to replicate that experience within us.

If this world is about remembering though, what exactly are we meant to remember? Moreover, how are we to remember, to understand this goal and walk path towards it?

This is the essence of Sefirah.

Reconnection

The בני יששכר¹ teaches that this world is limited within the confines of seven. We have seven days of the week, seven primary planets and interact within seven Sefiros. We also have the concept of Shmita every seventh year followed every seven cycles by Yovel. Why is this? He explains that everything until seven represents the limitation of this world, which is distinctness and separation. Whereas the number eight, represents reconnection back to the source, transcendence. This is why a Bris and the Mitzvah of Mikvah are on the eighth day, removing separation back towards attachment. Similarly, the days of Sefirah are a microcosm of our reality. The seven Sefiros and each subset of the other (7x7) represent the inner work and re-alignment of ourselves as we work through our limitations culminating on the fiftieth day - Shavuos - a reconnection with the source, our Creator. 

This life is all about rediscovering, remembering, our connection with the divine, our original source. This is our life’s journey and path.

Here lies an essential truth. Alone, we are limited, disconnected and helpless - slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Our strength lies in our unique capacity in this world, our relationship with the Creator. It is in this state that we are truly free and limitless; driving the spiritual energy of life into the world as divine partners of cosmic proportions.

Following this we are faced with the next  obvious question - how? What is the path to finding the attachment our soul seeks? 

Avos

The Gemarah teaches us that during Sefirah we learn Maseches Avos which teaches us about Middos and Derech Eretz. It’s clear that the work itself is that of our Middos, a word often interchanged with the Sefiros. The בני יששכר explains that just as the Avos themselves came before the Torah, so too are we to understand that before we can accept the Torah, we must refine our character. 

This is not only on a practical level but also on a spiritual one. We explained previously that the Torah must make a mark on us so we can remember, but before one can remember we must have the proper container to store this unique otherworldly information. This “כלי” (receptacle) is the Middos. And it is within it that the “אור” the Torah resides. 

This can be understood by recognizing how we identify ourselves. As spiritual humans we are part ego and part soul - part individual and part connected. In this life, much of our work is to disidentify with our ego, our limited protective shell (Klippah) and instead identify with our Neshama - our infinite soul. It is by working through our Middos that we achieve this. 

The path towards finding attachment begins by working through our Middos and finding our connected soul. It is here that we experience the infinite light within our limited human existence - a true relationship. 

I’d like to pull this together with an incredibly powerful idea.

A Good Heart

The Mishna in Avos² states: R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai asks his students to “צאו וראו איזוהי דרך טובה” (“Go and see which is the path of good”), to which he receives five answers. R’ Eliezer answers “לב טוב” (“A good heart”) to which R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai responds “אמר להם רואה אני את דברי ר״א בן ערך מדבריכם שבכלל דבריו דבריכם” (“He said to them: I prefer Rabbi Elazar ben Arach’s words, because I see all of your words contained within his words.”).

The בני יששכר³ as part of an in depth discussion of this Mishna explains, that R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai’s original question refers not simply to finding the path of good, but he is intimating that they study the first time to Torah itself uses the word “טוב” “good” and extrapolate its true essence.

Each of the students learn different lessons referencing words and messages that surround the original use of the word “טוב”, but R’ Eliezer uses an entirely different prism which encapsulates not just a specific association, but the entire perspective. He counted every word from the beginning of the Torah until the word טוב was written, intuiting that it is everything until that point that culminates in the “good”. This number is thirty-two - which is לב. It is the heart that is the path, through the refinement of the Middos in search of the Soul, the “כלי” that culminates in accessing the טוב, understood as the “אור” of Torah. 

It is for this reason that we celebrate on לַ״ג בָּעוֹמֶר, after we’ve achieved לב and it is from there that we count the additional 17 days (טוב) until we’ve finally reintegrated ourselves back to our source, culminating in Shavuos, the ultimate expression of our relationship Hashem.

1. Nissan 12, 13

2. Avos D’Rabbi Nosson 14, 3

3. Iyar 3, 1