27 Apr A SEFIRA MESSAGE

The Gemora calls our
ancient sages Sofrim,
people who know how
to count. This seems
to be an odd name for
our great men who
were endowed with
encyclopedic knowledge, erudition, and
deep piety. However, the name Sofrim
depicts a fascinating angle of the giant
luminaries of old; namely, that they
were able to compute incredible numeric
revelations from the words of the Torah.
A millennium before the first Tandy
computer and centuries before DOS was
even imagined, they were able to reveal
intricate gematrios that were stunning in
their complexities. For example, they
taught us that the verse, “Shema Yisroel,
HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad
– Hear Yisroel, HaShem is our G-d,
HaShem is One,” has the same gematria
as the verse, “Hashem hoshi’ah,
HaMelech ya’aneinnu b’yom koreinu –
G-d save! May the King answer us on
the day we call.”
They further unearthed the incredible
fact that the only posuk in the Torah that
has the same gematria as the two words
“Eretz Yisroel,” is the verse, “Hashem
Ish milchomah, Hashem Shemo – G-d
is the Master of war, HaShem is His
Name.” (Parenthetically, this teaches us
that any victory in the history of Eretz
Yisroel must be attributed to the prowess
of HaShem and nothing else. Albeit, our
brave Jewish soldiers are worthy agents
of HaShem’s will.).
The computations of the Sofrim are not
reserved to gematria alone. There are
myriads of number related secrets in the
Torah. An elementary example is the
fact that the twenty-fifth word counting
from the beginning of the Torah is the
word ohr, meaning light. This hints to
the fact that it would be on the twentyfifth day of the month of Kisleiv that
the great miracle of lights, namely
Chanukah, would occur!
With this in mind, let me share with
you a fascinating gematria from the
Ziditshoveh Rebbe. He revealed that the
numeric value of the
verse, “V’ahavta
l’rei’acha k’mocha,
Ani HaShem – And
you shall love your
fellow like you love
yourself, I am G-d,”
is exactly the same
gematria as the
verse, “V’ahavta es
Hashem Elokecha
– And you shall
love HaShem, your
G-d.” When I
spotted this, I thought to myself, ‘Wow,
this is consistent with the idea that in
Judaism the responsibility of bein adam
l’chavero, interpersonal relationships,
is equally important as bein adom
l’Makom, the responsibilities between us
and HaShem. Indeed, this is the reason
why the two luchos, the two tablets of the
Ten Commandments – one representing
our relationship with HaShem and one
representing our relationship with our
follow man – were the same size and had
the same number of commandments.
But, the Ziditshoveh Rebbe takes
this gematria in a different direction.
He explains that if you love someone,
by extension you love his or her
children. Therefore, since we are
commanded ‘V’ahavta es Hashem
Elokecha – to love G-d,’ the directive
of ‘V’ahavta l’rei’acha k’mocha, to
love our fellow Jew like ourselves’
follows naturally, for the Jewish
people are the children of Hashem.
As it says, “Banim atem l’HaShem
Elokeichem – You are the children of
HaShem, Your G-d.”
When Hillel was confronted with
the gentile who seemed to have 21st
century patience, i.e. very little, he
demanded that Hillel teach him all
of Torah while he stood on one foot,
(doesn’t it sound familiar, people
these days want to be convinced in
thirty second sound bites). Hillel
was up to the task. He exclaimed,
“Ma d’soni loch, l’chavrecha lo
saavid – What you dislike, don’t
do to your fellow man. Zeh kol
haTorah kula; v’idach perusha –
This is the whole Torah; everything
else is commentary.” Rav Avigdor
Miller, Zt”l, Zy”a, points out that
it’s astonishing that Hillel didn’t tell
him, “Anochi HaShem Elokecha – I
am the Lord your G-d,” which is, after
all, the pillar of all of Judaism. Rav
Miller concludes that Hillel’s words
should reverberate continuously in our
ears – how important our interpersonal
relationships are in our being successful
Torah Jews.
During these days of sefira, when
twenty-four thousand disciples of Rabbi
Akiva died from the most horrible
disease of diphtheria because they didn’t
show enough honor one to another,
we should take out the time to reflect
honestly about our sensitivity to others,
our care in avoiding embarrassing,
hurting, disgusting, or annoying our
fellow man. Let us make this season
in which we abstain from music and
haircuts as a springboard to discuss these
priorities with our loved ones. In that
merit, may it be the will of Hashem to
bless us with long life, good health, and
everything wonderful.