Rabbi Rael Blumenthal

A short while ago, I was sitting with some Chevra discussing our rapidly changing world. Every day seems to bring something more unbelievable, and the news can barely keep up with major world events, let alone focus and analysis.

For us, in our lives, it almost feels like we’re passengers on this ride. We’re strapped into to our rollercoaster seats, unable to change or control the track ahead. It’s like we have a front row seat to the greatest show in history, but we’re all in the audience.

And if all of that is as true as it seems, why does Hashem want me here? What am I supposed to be doing with life?

It’s a profound question and one that is uniquely apropos to Sefiras HaOmer. And it begins with a misunderstanding:

When creating humanity, the Torah tells us that Hashem placed Adam in Gan Eden לְעׇבְדָהּ וּלְשׇׁמְרָהּ – to work it and to preserve it.

Naturally, we read this Pasuk as an instruction to develop and protect the Garden of Eden. It’s the charge of humanity to make this world into a better place, whilst ensuring that our creativity doesn’t overstep into the realm of destruction.

That’s how we have always read it and that’s why we feel so inadequate. There is very little that I can effect in the vastness of this Garden.

But the Seforno is bothered by the verbiage used here. Surely, if the Pasuk was commanding us regarding the Garden, the words should read לְעׇבְדו וּלְשׇׁמְרו, since גן is a masculine word.

Rather, writes the Seforno, the pasuk is commanding us something radically different:

לעבדה. לעבוד את נשמת חיים כאמרו ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים To develop his living soul, as the Torah tells us: “Hashem breathed into him a living soul.”

The primary task of mankind is not about the world. It’s not concerning the Garden at all. The real Avoda begins with working, developing and refining our unrefined selves. And truthfully, this work never ends. The Garden is simply the stage and setting that Hashem gives us to do the work of fixing ourselves.

In the words of the Vilna Gaon (אבן שלמה פרק א):

כל עבודת ה' תלוי בתיקון המידות...עיקר חיות האדם הוא להתחזק תמיד בשבירת המדות ואם לאו למה לו חיים

The entirety of service of Hashem depends on correcting our character... the primary life force of a person is that they should strengthen themselves to break their negative traits, and not, what is the point of living?

Or in the words of Reb Elimelech of Lizensk (צעטיל קטן אות טז):

האדם לא נברא בעולם רק לשבר את הטבע The only reason we are created in this world is to break the hold of our impulses.

Paradigmatically, the days of Sefiras HaOmer are the days between the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. Or, in language of Chazal, the movement between unrefined animal food to refined human food.

Seeing the deep resonance between the land and its people, Chazal understood that the agricultural works between Pesach and Shavuos is deeply linked to the personal work we are charged with during this time of year. We are to transcend our animalistic tendencies and become people through Tikkun HaMiddos.

Rabbeinu Bechaye writes (שמות יח כא):

Come and see the greatness of character traits. For the great people of the Torah, such as Noach, Avraham, Yaakov, Moshe and others were never praised for their intelligence and wisdom. The Torah never praises their genius. They are always praised in terms of their middos tovos. This teaches that the main thing is not wisdom, but integrity of character.

In essence: It is far more important to be good than to be smart, happy or successful. It might be difficult to know what Hashem wants us to do. But it is certainly not difficult to know who Hashem wants us to be.

All of this is to say that Hashem is not asking us to change the world. He is asking us to change ourselves. To grow a little more each day, to push ourselves a little harder to become the people that represent Him in this world.

With the passing of the great Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the founder of the Daf HaYomi and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, in 1933, the Yeshiva appointed Rabbi Aryeh Tzvi Frumer to lead.

A short while after his appointment, he stood in front of his students and told them that Rav Meir Shapiro had appeared to him in a dream. In the course of their celestial conversation, Rabbi Frumer asked his predecessor how he was received in the heavenly court. “Surely you, who lead the Yeshiva, founded the Daf Yomi and worked tirelessly for the Jewish people, would be lauded for his achievements?”

Rabbi Shapiro replied: “In this place they care less about achievements, and more about Middos. They don't want to know what you did. They want to know who you became.”