In The Smartest Kids in the World, journalist Amanda Ripley writes that when American education officials tried to understand why our students performed so poorly on the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), a test given to compare the educational achievement of students around the world, these officials founds that while the the United States does provide superior educational resources to many countries, we continue to struggle in terms of knowing how to execute education in a way that leads to excellence. Ripley writes:
“In essence, PISA revealed what should have been obvious but was not: that spending on education did not make kids smarter. Everything—everything—depended on what teachers, parents, and students did with those investments . As in all other large organizations , from GE to the Marines, excellence depended on execution, the hardest thing to get right” (Amanda Ripley, The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way, 17-18).
When we compare American students with students around the world, what we discover is that all the fancy gadgets and high-profile commissions are meaningless unless we can create an educational culture of rigor, excellence, and sweat. Day-after-day, we have a choice learn in a culture of excellence, a vision echoed in this week’s parasha’s description of Sefirat Ha-Omer.
When describing the process for counting the omer, Parashat Emor states that, “Seven complete (temimot) sabbaths shall there be” (Vayikra 23:15), leading our commentators to ask why the Torah uses the term temimot for “complete,” when one could argue that counting an entire week implies that the one counted the entire week, and it might make more linguistic sense to use the term sheleimut for “complete.” The Ramban argues that the essence of Sefirat Ha-Omer is that one should perform the mitzvah exactly as God proscribes; no more, no less. He writes:
“They must be complete”: They must be counted precisely, neither less nor more--each week must be “without blemish,” as the same Hebrew phrase is translated elsewhere (e.g. 22:21). Too much is as much of a blemish as too little” (Ramban on Vayikra 23:15).
On the one hand, this passage from the Ramban is decidedly simple; a person should simply perform the mitzvah exactly as God commands it. At the same time, an implicit message of the Ramban’s commentary is that even something as simple as counting a measure of grain must be done with care and commitment, for even small acts are opportunities to demonstrate a Jew’s devotion to Torah.
Taking a spiritual approach, an early midrash connects counting the omer with the larger task of fulfilling all of God’s mitzvot. The midrash states: “R. Hiyya taught: Seven complete sabbaths shall there be--when are they complete? When Israel fulfills God’s will” (Vayikra Rabbah 27:3). Expanding upon this midrash, Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi of Mecklenburg writes in his Ha-Ketev V’Ha-Kabbalah that the counting of the omer is not merely a mimetic collection of grain, but a process of spiritual fulfillment:
“R. Hiyya taught: Seven temimot complete sabbaths shall there be--when are they temimot complete? When Israel fulfills God’s will. This homiletic interpretation is based on the use of temimot instead of sheleimut in the text. Whereas the latter implies quantity, the former signifies quality. Our Sages carefully analyzed the text...Thus the quality as well as the number of the days is important in the counting of the omer” (Ha-Ketev V’Ha-Kabbalah on Vayikra 23:15).
In this commentary, the omer must be counted in weeks that are temimot because the process of counting the omer is one small step in living a life of mitzvot. By extension, the way that a Jew lives a life of Torah is through a daily commitment to caring passionately that mitzvot are performed diligently and lovingly.
Finally, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the German-rabbi generally identified as the founder of Modern Orthodox Judaism, writes in Horeb that Sefirat Ha-Omer is a public statement of the Israelites’ liberation, an acknowledgment that freedom from slavery requires communal ritual if the Israelites are to show gratitude for the blessings God bestowed upon them. Hirsch writes:
“You have celebrated the Fear of your Liberation and remembered before your God your independence, living in your land and eating its produce. You have therefore reached your freedom and the benefits of independence, the very goals all nations aspire to. You, however, are but on the threshold of your calling as a nation, and have started counting the days to the attainment of another goal. The Torah expresses the command of the omer counting in the following terms: “From such time as thou begins to put the sickle to the corn, shall you commence to count seven weeks” (Devarim 16:9). When others cease to count, you begin your counting” (SR Hirsch, Horeb, in Leibowitz: Vayikra, Vol. 2, 431).
According to Rabbi Hirsch, the danger of the Exodus from Egypt was that the Israelites might see the Exodus as the end of their journey, when, in reality, the Exodus was just the beginning of a lifelong journey to serve God. The moment the Israelites begin the counting of the omer, they are working towards an individual goal that is a piece of a much larger goal, to live a life of excellence through Torah.
No person’s personal, educational, spiritual or professional success is guaranteed, and it should go without saying that achievement is only the result of hard work and commitment to excellence. At the same time, Parashat Emor reminds us that the mitzvah of Sefirat Ha-Omer symbolizes how daily commitment to precision and excellence is the process by which the Israelites will come to embody Torah, and provides a model for how we might pursue a similar excellent in our spiritual and personal lives. As we continue the period of Sefirat Ha-Omer, may we continue to encourage our children and Schechter Community to strive for the high standard presented in our parasha, ensuring that each day is step on a larger journey towards a life of excellence.
Shabbat Shalom!
No comments:
Post a Comment