“Omer 5785 - Closing”
by Helaine Sheias
On the 32nd day of counting the Omer – lamed bet or lev in Hebrew, which is the word for “heart,” my grandson was born at 10:47 pm Israel time. Within the 24 hours that led to his birth, American-Israeli hostage Idan Alexander was finally released from the horrors of Hamas after more than 585 days of darkness and despair, torture, and turmoil. Idan was captured as an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldier on the unforgettable Shabbat of October 7th, 2023. The coming together of these two miraculous events, has revealed to me an extraordinary connectedness between Idan and my grandson, that I can only explain as the result of the majestic cosmic forces imbued in the counting of the Omer during these auspicious days.
Seeing Idan freed and liberated from the audacities of the Hamas regime, whilst witnessing my grandson’s lineage of dor leh’dor (generation to generation) reclaimed, has restored a sense of hope and emunah (faith) in me. Throughout this past year and a half, time and time again I have found myself losing the connection to my sense of shleimut (wholeness) and shalom. Instead, I have found myself struggling to function amid a shattered and broken reality, a continuous state of tumultuousness and turmoil.
Arbel is the name that has been given to my grandson – spelled alef, reish, bet, lamed – which has the letters that compose the word lev that are embedded in his name. Arbel means “to join” or “to mix.” The name is often associated with the beauty of Israel's countryside, specifically the Arbel Mountain located in the lower Galilee region, which from its top one can look down over the Sea of Galilee. With the wonderment of the connectedness I feel with his precious soul I am experiencing a divine calling to join and mix hearts – especially now, as we prepare as a Jewish nation to climb to the top of Mt. Sinai – “k’am echad b’lev achad’” – as one nation within one heart.
At the start of our counting the Omer, our teacher Avi Fertig shared the following quote in his opening essay:
Each person naturally possesses a unique positive quality and trait through which they can change their entire being to the good. This is their spiritual work, and it is in this way that a person achieves wholeness (Da’at Chochma U’Mussar, Vol. 1, p. 340, Avi’s emphasis).
He expands upon this with another teaching of Reb Yerucham Levovitz’ who sees our strengths as the tools we can use to change our entire beings to the good. Reb Yerucham describes two ways to do this: one is by striving to reach ever greater wholeness in our naturally strong middah; and the second is to lean on our natural strengths to overcome our weaknesses and life’s challenges.
Reb Yerucham emphasizes, “Only through guarding one’s naturally good attributes can a person achieve wholeness …” We use our natural strength to live our highest values by always ensuring that our strength is the guiding force of our behavior.
As I reread Avi’s words, I find myself drawn to the Ten Commandments; specifically the commandment that focuses on Shabbat. We are told to both remember (z’chor) and guard (sh’mor) the Shabbat so that we may keep it holy. I understand this as a mind-body-soul integrated command. We are asked to remember the Shabbat by paying attention and by activating our conscious awareness. We guard Shabbat's holiness with the actions and deeds of manifested by our physical bodies and intentions. The merging of remember and guard creates the holy and sacred space in which the strength of our souls becomes actualized. The counting of the Omer shares the concept of remember and guard; we count each day, remembering, focusing on the strength of seder. It is the extraordinary strength of zerizut (alacrity) that guards us as we move through the auspiciousness of these 49 days.
In Alan Morinis’ Omer essay, he invites us to explore the teachings of Rav Yisrael Salanter who held by the general principle that:
Every individual must serve God by drawing upon one’s own powers of intellect, emotion, and character ...
Rav Salanter revealed the significance of our own individual inner powers by saying:
“a person’s abilities represent a degree of hashra’at ha’Shechinah,” which means the manifestation of the Divine Presence.
And so, we understand from this that every individual is created in the image of our Creator and that image is the source of our strengths. And yet, each of us is extraordinary. Alan teaches us that we are each unique beings and with that uniqueness comes our own set of strengths that equip us to lead the life that we are meant to lead.
Alan shares Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe’s poignant teaching:
“There was never a person like me; nor will there ever be a person like me throughout history. I, with my special character strengths, the child of my particular parents, born in a specific time period, and in a particular environment – certainly there is a unique challenge that is placed upon me. I have a special share in the Torah, and the entire world is waiting for me to complete my challenge. For my mission cannot be exchanged with anyone else in the world!”
In her fascinating Omer essay, Naomi Wittlin reminds us that:
Transformation is not about becoming someone you are not. It’s about being able to see who you truly are and then living your life from that place.
Naomi expands on Rav Wolbe’s lesson explaining that true growth requires self- awareness and a willingness to embrace the lessons embedded in life's experiences. Naomi emphasizes the significance of the Omer period “as a time of tikkun ha’middot (refining one's character). The practice of counting each day symbolizes incremental self-improvement, echoing hitlamdut — the idea that every moment is an opportunity for learning and transformation.”
As we approach Shavuot and the celebration of Matan Torah, “the time of the giving of our law” and the Divine revelation at Mt. Sinai, we turn to the parasha that is usually read before this holiday. In the beginning of the parasha, the space where the revelation is to take place is referred to as “the wilderness of Sinai,” whereas when we reach the Divine revelation the Torah refers to Mt. Sinai. Why then is the emphasis on the Sinai wilderness we may ask? We read in Numbers 1:1: “And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”l, explains that both the wilderness and the Torah are free to the inhabitants of the world, as is quoted in the book of Isiah 55:1: “Oh, all who are thirsty, come for water – even if you have no money.”
The Torah satisfies our spiritual thirst; it offers us direction. The wilderness is the space between, the place where we embark upon our journeys. The wilderness is that sacred, silent space in nature where we can hear the voice of God, and where one can focus on the presence of the Divine. It is a place where we are able to connect with our inner landscape, to feel our vulnerability, and allow ourselves to reach out to a force beyond us. The wilderness is the unique space where we are able to reclaim and rediscover our genuine strengths. This very lesson is seen in a teaching from the Talmud, taken from Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Talmud Torah 3:1:
With three crowns was Israel crowned: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of kingship. The crown of priesthood was conferred on Aaron .... The crown of Kingship was conferred on David .... But the crown of Torah is for all Israel .... Whoever desires it, let them come and take it.
Counting the Omer, rekindling our understanding of our relationship with our strengths is a vivid reminder of the magnitude of the relationship with our Creator. Our desire, our passion, our vibrant ratzon (will) to embark upon this sacred journey, to relinquish our spiritual enslavement from the narrow straits of our collective past and to enter into the kedusha (holiness) of the Sinai wilderness so that we can become fully present for Matan Torah is the crown that each of us a descendant of the sacred community of Israel – Am Yisrael – is crowned with. This majestic crown has been passed on from generation to generation – meh dor leh’dor. It is our z’chut
and achrayut (privilege and responsibility) to don this crown with kavod and kedusha (honor and holiness), and to embrace the beauty of the strengths bestowed upon us by our Creator.
This year’s Omer program was a collaboration of many leaders from our community. Our primary teachers were Avi Fertig, Alan Morinis, Naomi Wittlin, Eric Gurvis, and Helaine Sheias and we thank them for their wisdom and guidance. We are grateful and appreciative to the gracious contributors to the Omer webinars, who generously shared their knowledge, talents and passion for Mussar with us: Kate Shane and Sandy Greenstein, Gali Levkovitz and David Ebstein, Calyah Chanah Isaacs, Judith Golden, and Rick Dinitz.
Moe Howard designed, created, and helped to deliver our beginner program and we thank him for his efforts. We thank Devorah Fuchs and Palmer Rubin for designing and delivering all aspects of the Omer program and Rivka Felsher and Dianne Benmayor for masterfully administering the myriad details this program included.
Our collective heart overflows with gratitude to the many sponsors who contributed to this year’s Omer program so that we could bring this rich counting of the Omer program to our community. A special mention of gratitude is due to the “captains” of our sponsorship initiative who worked tirelessly to solicit donations: Annabelle Tuck, Alan Morinis, Avi Fertig, Alison Lukacsko, Jeff Agron, Eric Gurvis, Helaine Sheias, and Rivka Felsher.
We welcome the many newcomers to the TMI community who joined this year’s Omer program. For those new to Mussar, we extend a personal invitation to join us for our upcoming introductory course, Five Steps to a Life of Meaning, which begins on June 22nd. Learn more and register here: https://mussarinstitute.org/five-steps/
The upcoming holiday of Shavuot (lit., “Weeks”) represents the culmination of our seven-week journey towards Sinai. Shavuot is also called Atzeret, which means, “to stop.” Though our journey forever continues, we take a pause to stop, and to reflect upon the gained insight and awareness this 49-day path has led us to. We pause to look back and appreciate from where we have come, and we pause to renew our energy to forge our path forward, towards an ever-growing and deepening knowledge and awareness of our unique strengths, of how we might use these gifts to elevate our lives and the lives of others. We pause to reflect in gratitude on how the Holy One has blessed our Mussar community’s efforts to come a little closer to the holiness we seek. And we pause to reflect with great hope on our community’s boundless future possibilities.
With wishes for a Chag Shavuot sameach, a joyous celebration of Shavuot, and with
endless gratitude for you being together with us on this journey,
The Staff and Leadership of The Mussar Institute
Helaine Sheias, Ph.D., made Aliyah to Israel in her teens, served in the IDF, and settled in Israel for more than two decades. She is a graduate of The Mussar Institute Yesod Facilitator Training Program and the Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training. She is currently the Director of Facilitator and Program Development at TMI, after joining the TMI Staff a few years ago.
Helaine continues to facilitate a variety of TMI courses. She co-created the Tapestry course with Nancy Weiss. In her Va'adim she facilitates circles of transformation and change by modeling spiritual awakening, and self-reflexive learning, or Hitlamdut. Facilitating Mussar courses offers Helaine a continuous sense of awe and wonderment as it continuously strengthens her personal spiritual practice.
Helaine currently resides near Haifa, Israel and is blessed with 2 amazingly wondrous grandchildren and three adult children, who all bring her great nachas and joy.