The Days of Sefira – a time of spiritual growth

Passover – Sefira – Shavuot
In the Torah (Leviticus 23:15) it says that we have a mitzvah to count the 49 days between Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. Since we are celebrating the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot, it is an expression of our anticipation to count those days. From a mystical point of view we will actually receive the Torah again this year and every year. In other words there is a potential experience of divine inspiration on the day of Shavuot every year. Therefore we count every year the days leading up to that holiday.

In fact, getting the Torah is even more monumental than freedom from Egypt. When we got out of Egypt we weren’t that much different than any other nation. The Torah, its values, and religious philosophy forever branded us as a unique group of people with a mission to spread that “light”. It’s a bit ironic that more Jews celebrate Passover when Shavuot has much more power and spiritual ramification.

A mitzvah of growth
While there is a debate over whether or not the mitzvah to count the days is still Biblical considering the fact that the Holy Temple does not exist at the moment or it is a Rabbinic commandment. Nonetheless, it is a holy time period with a potential for spiritual growth.

Indicated by counting each day, it is a time period for slow incremental growth. Each day is an opportunity to make some small contribution to your spiritual health, an opportunity to get one small step closer to oneness with God.

The mystics say we have “encrustations of evil” that can be eliminated at this time. Each is a different challenge for a different subtlety of our personality, our soul. Keep your eye out for a subtle challenge each day from a different area of life.

Seven weeks of seven days
According to the Zohar, the pattern of seven weeks is similar to the seven days of “spiritual cleanliness” that a woman experiences after her period before she and her husband can resume intimacy. A spiritual barrier must be overcome. The Meam Loez writes that since there were seven types of barriers in Egypt we had to wait a week for each barrier, or type of spiritual impurity. Seven times seven.


Pesach is backward
Most of the time Judaism places high importance on cleansing oneself before elevating oneself. As it says in Psalm 34 “Turn from evil and do good”. First we must remove our bad habits before we can properly adopt good habits. If you party all night, your morning prayer service will lack depth and importance. The Cohen in Temple times would first wash before doing any service in the Temple. Yet on Passover it seems to be the opposite. The first two of the fifteen words of the Passover seder are Kadesh. Urchatz. (Sanctify. Wash) This indicates that on Passover the order is different. We can elevate to sanctity even before we “wash” away our transgressions. That’s the symbol of Pesach, that even though we weren’t worthy of coming out of Egypt, we were down to the 49th level of spiritual impurity, God took us out anyway. Now after Pesach we begin doing the work of being “worthy” for the influx of wisdom on Shavuot.

It’s a pleasure
Some of us avoid spiritual growth because it is uncomfortable to introspect and seems like work, a four-letter word. I went to the gym at the JCC recently and saw so many people paying to work out! Huffing and shvitzing to lose weight or keep healthy. They don’t mind the work because they’re focused on the benefits. During Sefira the work is not only free, but you actually get paid to do it. You gain from the spiritual growth by being a better person, receiving a reward in the next world, and being worthy of more divine inspiration on Shavuot. When you think about it, that’s a pretty awesome payback for a little bit of inner effort. Minimal effort = infinite benefits.

So take pleasure and joy in any effort you put in at this time.

Remember your fellow man
Our sages tell us that out of all the work that we could focus on during this time period to become worthy of divine inspiration, one area of spiritual growth stands out in primary importance – treating your fellow man with respect. If you’re not sure what to work on during this time period, take the time to review “Love your fellow man.” Think about how you could give your fellow human beings a little bit more kindness, patience, and respect. Think about how you could save someone a little bit of embarrassment. Figure out what might be troubling your friend or family member.

And then when it comes time for Shavuot, get ready for a flood of insight.

Teves – a month of unity

According to the Book of Creation, (an ancient kabbalistic book written by the patriarch, Abraham) every month has a Hebrew letter associated with it. Teves is associated with the letter “ayin,” the sixteenth letter of the alef-bet, which has a numerical value of seventy. What is the meaning of the number seventy?
Ayin = 70
Those who read a weekly Torah portion in the synagogue find that Genesis chapter 46 is always read around the month of Teves, and includes the verse which mentions that seventy “souls” went down to Egypt. These souls were the children and grandchildren of Jacob. It is not merely coincidence that this group was seventy; as with many numbers in Judaism, the number seventy has a special significance.
Earlier in Genesis, at the incident with the Tower of Babel in Chapter 10 the Torah lists seventy nations who were the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Noah. In Jewish writings, these are known throughout history as the Seventy Nations of the world, indicating that they were stamped into creation at the time of the Tower, and something of those original seventy mindsets and personalities are the roots of all the nations of the world for all time. Even their spiritual significance is carried on throughout the ages. Seventy, therefore, symbolizes the entire spectrum of human perspective.
We are all different yet unified
In this light, the seventy souls who descended to Egypt represented the entirety of the Jewish nation, and the experience in Egypt would be engraved on the national consciousness for all time. What they experienced still lives inside the souls of Israel today. Similarly, the sages say that there are seventy facets to the Torah, seventy ways to interpret each point.
In Numbers 11:16 we find another example of this. God asked Moses to gather a group of seventy sages to be the High Court of Israel. With seventy judges on hand we expect their judgments to have included all the possible perspectives any court case in question. Amongst those seventy judges there was also a requirement for each of the seventy languages of the seventy nations to be understood by at least one of those sages. In other words, their judgment shouldn’t be based on a translator, but on a direct understanding of the litigants involved.
This High Court, known as the Sanhedrin, was seated at the Temple in Jerusalem, and was called the “eyes” of the people. With wisdom, a person can see the future. A wise person also thinks through the potential outcome of an act before proceeding, as it says in Ecclisiastes 2:14, “A wise man has eyes in his head.” To come full circle, the word “ayin” that we started with is not only the name of the sixteenth letter of the alef-bet but it also means “eye”.
Diversity and Unity
Tying this into the month, Teves focuses us on the Temple from two angles. First, the end of Chanukah celebrates of the return to the Temple. And secondly, the fast day on the 10th of the month marks the siege against Jerusalem. These are intense opposing reminders of our national unity, and the Temple in Jerusalem. In order to be a united people we have to appreciate all of the different perspectives we have amongst us. In order to have the benefit of the Torah we have to appreciate all of its facets. When we will appreciate every facet of the Torah we will be connected with the source of all power. When we will appreciate every personality found amongst our people, we will have God’s blessing to be at peace in our land with the holy Temple in Jerusalem. And when we appreciate the seventy nations of the world we will appreciate the love the Almighty has for all humanity.
This is the power that’s inherent in the month. Diversity and Unity.