{"id":52747,"date":"2022-04-26T18:03:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T18:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?p=52747"},"modified":"2022-04-28T12:58:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T12:58:32","slug":"sefirah-middot-and-instant-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/sefirah-middot-and-instant-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sefirah, Middot and Instant Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The\u00a0<i>gematria<\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0<i>middah<\/i>\u00a0is 49. This is very logical as it\u2019s a person\u2019s\u00a0<i>middot\u00a0<\/i>that determines whether he is on the 49<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0level of\u00a0<i>tumah<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0<i>tahara<\/i>. The fact that the 49 notion falls out on\u00a0<i>Sefirat HaOmer<\/i> is very logical based on an idea expressed by Rabbi Biderman, <em>shlita<\/em>. He says that the middle mitzvah in the Torah is\u00a0<i>Sefirat HaOmer<\/i>, a time to work on\u00a0<i>middot<\/i>\u00a0and perfect one\u2019s character. Therefore, a\u00a0<i>middah<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 in concordance with 49 &#8211; should be perfected at this time. It\u2019s true that G-d did the work in terms of redeeming us from\u00a0<i>Mitzraim<\/i>\u00a0when we reached the 49 levels of<i>\u00a0tumah<\/i>, but that was a divine intervention whereas, the\u00a0<i>middah<\/i> that measures who we are takes place with us taking the initiative and counting.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that a\u00a0<i>middah<\/i>\u00a0measures our status comports with the Midrash (Vayikrah Rabbah 1:15) that says, \u201ceven a dead animal is better than a\u00a0<i>talmid chacham<\/i> who lacks <i>da\u2019at<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0This is line with the Mishna in Pirkei Avot (4:12) that says, \u201cRabbi Shimon\u00a0says: \u2018[There are] three crowns: the crown of\u00a0Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of kingship and the crown of a good name rises higher than them.\u2019\u201d We are preparing for\u00a0<i>Matan<\/i>\u00a0Torah, yet as far as we get in that realm, it is still trumped by good\u00a0<i>middot<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>In relation to the power of good <em>middot<\/em>, I heard the following story relayed to me by my wife, who heard it from Rav Paysach Krohn at a shiur he gave at Agudat Yisroel Bircat Yaakov of Passaic Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A large\u00a0<i>chareidi<\/i> family was taking a trip in Eretz Yisroel. They budgeted their expenses in a way that they only had a certain amount to spend. At one point, the son had to go to the bathroom, and they found a nearby restaurant. The father walked in to the eating establishment and asked the waitress if it would be okay to use the bathroom and she said it was fine. Upon exiting the bathroom, the owner, who knew nothing of what the waitress said, started to berate them and hurl insults at them, expressing that they fit into the typical\u00a0<i>chareidi\u00a0<\/i>stereotype of using other people for their own needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">At that moment, the father had to think how to respond. He thought to himself what Rav Avrohom Genechovsky ztz\u201dl would do in such a case. He then said to the owner that his family was in fact eating at the restaurant and his family was coming in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">After some time, the owner came to find out that the waitress gave permission and that the only reason the father brought his family in to eat, though he couldn\u2019t afford it, was to protect the dignity of this waitress. The owner apologized profusely and covered all of the meal expenses. A\u00a0<i>kiddush Hashem<\/i>\u00a0resulted. This is an example of someone exercising exemplary<i>\u00a0middot<\/i>\u00a0that could give him a score of 49 immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">This story reminded me of another story of Rav Avrohom Genechovsky ztz\u201dl that shows how sometimes split-second decisions change the whole fate of a person. Rav Avrohom ztz\u201dl\u2019s parents emigrated to Eretz Yisroel. The way they became <i>olim<\/i> was quite extraordinary. While visiting Eretz Yisroel one time, it was the second day of <i>yom tov.<\/i> Rav Avrohom ztz\u201dl\u2019s mother, Gita Genechovsky a\u201dh, suddenly took out her purse and bought something. Her husband was astonished as it was still <i>yom tov<\/i>. Gita a\u201dh proclaimed that they are now residents of Eretz Yisroel and therefore the second day is no longer\u00a0<i>yom tov<\/i>. Instant decisions can bring transformative results, just as that father made an instant decision to create a major\u00a0<i>kiddush Hashem<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">There was a rav who once said that if you\u2019re\u00a0<i>mevater<\/i>, you will always win. That seems like a good piece of advice during this time period, during\u00a0<i>Sefirah<\/i>\u00a0that is the center mitzvah of the Torah and everything else dovetails off of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0gematria\u00a0of\u00a0middah\u00a0is 49. This is very logical as it\u2019s a person\u2019s\u00a0middot\u00a0that determines whether he is on the 49th\u00a0level of\u00a0tumah\u00a0or\u00a0tahara. The fact that the 49 notion falls out on\u00a0Sefirat HaOmer is very logical based on an idea expressed by Rabbi Biderman, shlita. He says that the middle mitzvah in the Torah is\u00a0Sefirat HaOmer, a time to work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133844,"featured_media":52748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[352],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sefirat-haomer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sefirah, Middot and Instant Decisions - Jewish Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/sefirah-middot-and-instant-decisions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sefirah, Middot and Instant Decisions - Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The\u00a0gematria\u00a0of\u00a0middah\u00a0is 49. This is very logical as it\u2019s a person\u2019s\u00a0middot\u00a0that determines whether he is on the 49th\u00a0level of\u00a0tumah\u00a0or\u00a0tahara. The fact that the 49 notion falls out on\u00a0Sefirat HaOmer is very logical based on an idea expressed by Rabbi Biderman, shlita. 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