Torah

We are now a bit more than a week past Chag Matan Torah, Shavuos. It has come and gone—and hopefully, you’ve recovered from the lack of sleep and overindulgence in cheesecake. Most importantly, I hope it was an inspirational Yom Tov. But now that it’s over, is there anything left for us to hold on to? Or are we just waiting to fast-forward to the next exciting event?

In our previous article, we began exploring the depth of Sefiras HaOmer. Based on the Maharal and Ramban, we explained that we are not counting down to Matan Torah, but rather we are building up towards it, ascending one day at a time. We do not wait for Shavuos to arrive; we actively bring it ourselves through the time and effort we invest as we count the Omer.

Everyone wants to contribute something significant to the world; to play a meaningful part in the cosmic symphony we call life. This desire is an inherent part of being human. We yearn to expand beyond our limited sphere of existence and become a part of something meaningful, something infinitely greater than ourselves.

Here in Eretz Yisrael, we are seeing many events unfold without fully understanding what we’re seeing—political messes (well, that’s not new), massive call-ups of reserves, and President Trump sending mixed messages about the war. Baruch Hashem, a hostage, Idan Alexander, was released by Hamas this week. We hope the rest will be released soon! And it happened… because President Trump waved his hand? What about the others? There is a lack of clarity in the situation; the picture is definitely unclear.

Last Thursday night, on Lag BaOmer, we in Eretz Yisrael experienced yet another miracle: A missile fired by the Houthis was intercepted without causing harm. Remarkably, this happened on a night when more people than usual were out celebrating at bonfires across the country. And now, once again, the army is being sent into Gaza while the world rises in defense of the so-called “poor Palestinians.” What’s going on?

Imagine a teenager lying on a grassy field, gazing into the night sky. As he stares up at the stars, he thinks to himself, “Look at how enormous the universe is. The sky just expands endlessly... It must go on forever.” After sitting with that thought for a few moments, he becomes uncomfortable. “How can anything go on forever? Everything must stop eventually.”