Matzah Meditation Part Two

When G-d told Moses of His plan to redeem the Jews from Egypt, it was with the expressed purpose, “So that they will serve Me on the mountain (Mt. Sinai).”

The Exodus was not just about freedom from slavery, it was about freedom from purposelessness.  G-d wanted to give us the Torah.

But to be worthy of receiving the gift of G-d’s infinite wisdom, we needed to up our game.

As the matzah mediation taught us, the beginning of freedom is tough and tasteless.  

“It’s easy to take the slave from slavery, but it’s not easy to take the slavery from the slave.”

And this is why G-d gave us the mitzvah to “Count the Omer”.  These 49 days from the Exodus until Shavuos (the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah) are days to reflect on becoming a refined person (as the post counting prayer mentions the different character traits and how we learn another one each day).

So it’s three stages:

1. Passover- We work on becoming free (in a tasteless way)

2. Omer counting- We work on fitting into the shoes of free men and women.

3. Shavuos- G-d knows that a human could never reach heaven no matter how much they work on themselves.  This is the theme of Shavuos, but we’ll talk about that later.

Counting the Omer is an easy mitzvah.  All you have to say is, “Today is 15 days, which is two weeks and one day, to the counting of the Omer“.

When you do this or any other mitzvah (Commandment from G-d), you bring G-d into the world and make it holy.