Sefirat HaOmer 177 articles

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Delivered at the OU Israel Center, April 17th, 2018 This shiur is sponsored by Helen Gross in loving memory of her Husband Alex Gross on his Yahrzeit The Gemara says Rebbi...

What does the Gemara mean that Rabbi Akiva’s students “לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה” and that losing those 12,000 pairs of students caused the world to be desolate? How did Rabbi...

Counting is always for a purpose, what then, is/are the purpose(s) for the counting the Omer? An answer based on the pesukim in Parshat Emor and Re’eh. The four differences between...