12 April 2013 - Yeshiva College

MENAHEL’S MICHTAV
Dear Friends,
It is with great excitement that I welcome you back to school for the second term. I hope that you had a
wonderful Pesach with your families and a rejuvenating break.
We find ourselves in the midst of Sefirat Haomer on Rosh Chodesh Iyyar. I spoke to the boys this week at
line-up about a very interesting term that we find every day in our davening. As we approach the Amidah,
we find that Hashem is described as, ‘Mashpil gei’im u’magbiah shefalim’, ‘Lowers the haughty and uplifts
the lowly.’ It seems like a strange expression – that we see Hashem as lowering one and then lifting one
up again. I think we get an insight into this description during this time of year. Just a few short weeks ago,
on Pesach, we turned Bread and Chametz into Public Enemy no. 1. However, if we look just 7 weeks after,
we find that the sacrifice that we bring to the Beit Hamikdash is bread! Not only that – the Torah refers to it
by the term, ‘Chametz’! The answer to this revolution in our relationship with bread lies in the period
between Pesach and Shavuot – Sefirat Ha’omer.
The Ramban on Parshat Emor comments that if you look at Shavuot closely you will see that it is very
connected to Pesach. It is called Shavuot which literally means ‘weeks’ – denoting the counting from
Pesach to Shavuot. Another one of its names is ‘Atzeret’ which means ‘stop’ or ‘end’. He says that
Shavuot to Pesach is like Shmini Atzeret is to Sukkot – it is the end of a process, with Sefirat Haomer
playing the role of Chol Hamoed between Pesach and Shavuot. The period in between is an opportunity
for incredible growth, as we go through all the Middot (character traits) that make up who we are. On
Pesach, we get ‘rid’ of everything – we search through our personalities – reverting to our core selves –
Hashem ‘lowers the haughty’. Following this, we progress through Sefirat Haomer, re-engaging with all the
elements of our personality in a healthy and constructive way, so that we emerge ‘rebuilt’ when we get to
Shavuot – after passing through all the 49 levels of the Sefirah. On Shavuot, therefore, we bring bread as
the actual sacrifice, representing bringing our best, refurbished, fullest selves to serve Hashem – ready to
receive the Torah. Hashem ‘uplifts the lowly’.
I stressed to the boys that the growth of Sefirat Haomer is also very much about levels – we count every
single day as we ascend upwards – just as we can’t miss a day in the counting, we can’t miss a step when
it comes to perfecting ourselves. I shared with the boys that while growth is different for all of us, for
everyone there is one commonality – it is about moving from where we are to where we aspire to be – and
that is the same for all of us. It is so important for us to all take stock of where we truly are and then grow
step by step to become our best selves – each in our own unique way – to bring out our true best self.
On the subject of achievement, we are all so proud of our two talmidim that left last week to go represent
us in the International Bible Quiz in Israel – Sam Cohen and Yonatan Ovad. It is with incredible pride, that I
share with you the great news that Sam has reached the finals of the quiz and we wish him so much
hatzlacha for this next stage – kol hakavod!!
This time of growth during the Sefirah is coloured by two of the incredible miracles of our time – Yom
Haatzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim! As a school and community we have lots of incredible events
organized and we look forward to having you join us in celebration. We are introducing a special event this
12 April 2013 – 2 Iyar 4