The Machzor Vitri holds that if you didn’t make a bracha on Sefirat HaOmer you have to re-count. Why is the bracha on Sefirah part of the mitzvah unlike other mitzvot? Shiur provided courtesy of Torah Anytime

Sefirah is unique in that the entire mitzvah is a preparation. What are we preparing for – there are no mitzvot unique to Shavuot! If ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם was fulfilled when we accepted the Torah, why is it part of the Pesach Seder? Why is sefirah part of the moadim in Emor? Shiur provided courtesy […]

  Shiur provided courtesy of Torah Anytime

How does learning the Zohar cause us to merit the final redemption? Why does the gemara say the world was desolate after Rebbi Akiva’s students died – they weren’t the only talmidei chachamim alive at the time? Why did they die between Pesach and Shavuot? Why do we celebrate when they stopped dying – they […]

The tradition of kabbalah from the Arizal, his disciple Rav Chaim Vital, and how kabbalah was handed down through the generations via Rav Yisroel Saruk and the Rama MiPano. Download the mekorot here Shiur provided courtesy of Torah Anytime

Q. Is the self-improvement thing during sefirah kind of made up? What do all the middos mean or where do they come from? A. Sefirah is an unusual… I was going to say holiday but it’s not exactly a holiday, is it? It’s something we do between holidays. All the Torah commands is that we count […]

Physicists teach us that the movement of time is constant through space.  It moves on and on with the precision and consistency of the finest timepiece.  Tick, tick, tick.  At times reassuring.  Other times maddening.  Tick, tick, tick.  We measure our lives by these perfectly precise segments.  Tick, tick, tick.  Sixty to a minute.  Sixty […]

The Gemara mentions that the students of Rebbi Akiva died between Pesach and Shavuot but doesn’t mention anything about mourning. The Rama says that during Sefirah we recite Av HaRachamim even if Shabbos falls on a no-Tachanun day because of the massacres during the first Crusade. Shiur provided courtesy of Torah Anytime

The Chatam Sofer questions why the yahrtzeit of R’ Shimon bar Yochai warrants a holiday – we generally don’t celebrate a yahrtzeit! He then enumerates four historical events occurred on Lag BaOmer. Download the source sheet here Shiur provided courtesy of Torah Anytime