The Power of a Smile: A Journey through Sefiras HaOmer
All right, welcome back. A parsha preview. Parsha's Mr. Okay. So the Golbhabachba in general talks about the names of the Parsha's and he likes to dwell on them and highlight them. And every single name has a tremendous significance. And so our parsha is no different. It's called Parsha's Emr. And there's no subject in the name of the Parsha. What I mean by subject is just the Parsha is called say. It's called Parsha's Emor. You would think that whoever you know put it together would use the subject that the Torah uses. Because the Torah doesn't just say Emor, there's a subject involved says say what? Say to the Kohanim. So the name of the Parsha in theory should be Emor El Kohanim, but it's not. It's just an isolated Emr. So this is like a unique type of way to view the name of the Parsha that it's hard to find in Swarim, but the Bhagavad Chava does talk about this and he highlights it. What is this generalized say? The fact that it didn't choose to the Kohanim, right? That means that the say, the Mr, is talking to us. It's talking to Gans Klaisal, to everybody. What is it saying? What are we supposed to say? I thought we're not supposed to talk a lot. The Mishnah says, Emor ma'at, va se harbe, talk a little, do a lot. So maybe you want to think, says the Babuchab, maybe it's talking about say words of Tira to discuss Tara, but he says, he proves that it's not because there's already an explicit verse that says Vidibartam, and you shall speak the words of the Tarah. So this has to be coming to teach us a kidish. What is the khirish of Emur? What is Emur coming to say? What is say coming to say? So the Labamitrabbah, he quotes from the Mishnah in Pirky Abos that says everybody, you know, everybody does things wrong, but our job is to view as if somebody did something right. Some people say, Oh, I'm not creative, or you know, people define themselves as certain personalities. There's a there's a it's not a mitzvah, but there's a command of down the kafsakos to judge your friend favorably. And that is Hashem's way of telling every single person, doesn't matter what you think your personality is, you have an element inside of you, or you have the ability to be creative, right? Because the Gamar talks about crazy examples of Rabbi Kiva and different things, different um Tanam who who just went to like like this all the way just to convince, oh no, that you probably doing something right, or but this happened because there's always uh a reason, and this this um creates our creative juices to flow. So Dan the Adonis call Adam Lakaf Zakhus, to judge everybody favorably. Zakhus doesn't just mean favorably, it means more literally zakhus are merits, but it also means like zah, like pure, shaman zach, zai zach, right pure. So what's going on? What does that mean? Like judge people in a sense of purity, in the sense of that they're meritorious. So the the Reb explains a beautiful idea. He says that people do things that look wrong, that can be judged as in a negative way. That that act that a person just did, it seemed like if you you know, like just look at it, it was an undesirable act in God's book of right and wrong. But the command of Dan Lakaf Zachus is saying, even within that, to find, to try to put on a different lens, like we were saying, to be creative, but to find an element and focus on the good. To to find some way, to some creative way to say, no, no, this may maybe there's something, maybe there's something that is desirable here. Maybe, maybe it was for this reason or or that reason. And what happens at that moment is that you actually give the person who was going through that act that looked undesirable, you're actually giving him the power to unleash his his own power. You're giving him the power to unleash his own internal power to overcome that that bet. What meaning to say that Dalakav Zuchus is a system in which we are able to impact our brothers and sisters in a positive way without being in their shoes, because we're not in their shoes, right? You can't judge someone until you reach their place, and since you never will be in their place, you can never really judge somebody. But this way of Dalakav Zuchus is Zakhus like Zach to pure. You can help purify them, you can actually help bring out their goodness by judging them favorably in whatever act you witnessed them doing, whatever thing they did, you're now giving them the power to turn that bad into something good. So it's actually like a practical, I mean, it doesn't seem practical, but there's a there's a real thing that's happening when we are down the kavsukas. Um, then from there the Rebbe says, he answers why it's called Parsha's Emur. Again, there's no subject of to the Kaihanim because it's talking about to everybody. Emor means just to say good things about yiddin. That's what the Rebbe says. Just to say good things about Yiddin. And he brings from the Rambam that the Rambam, I think the Rambam is going on this Mishnah to judge people favorably. And the Rambam adds, uh, he's talking about like a Torah scholar, that he should talk good about others and not talk bad. And the Labam Sharba's like going into that. Like, why does the Rambam add that, talking good about others? And this is the lesson that the Rabba is bringing out is that just MR, a person should try to always find good things to say about other people. And when you say the good things and you focus on the good things and you're creative enough to focus on those good things, then even if a person was, in theory, struggling in a certain thing, you actually are giving him a real ability to over to overcome that. So you're helping yourself by by you're gonna be happier yourself because you're not judging someone negatively, but you're also helping him get out of whatever state he was in. Because at the end of the day, it's not even like it's pretend, because it's true. At the end of the day, every person, this idea that, you know, it's idea in Hasidis in general. Hello, welcome. Right? Hasidos. I mean, it's a dean chasid, but it's a it's an idea in the Torah that everybody has latent inside goodness. And so it's not like a joke or it's not like a trick, it's not pretend to focus and to be down the kaf such, because at the end of the day, there is a part of a person that is zah, that is pure, right? And so if a person can be creative enough to focus on that, then you can help a person get out of whatever mud and whatever quicksand he was in. So that's what the Lababuchabah says. The name of the parsha, it's not Emur al-Okanim, it's just Emmur, find good things to say about Yiddin. And it's especially true, Emr always falls out in this time of year during this tekufa, where the Talmudra Kiva Shalonagu Kavaid Zelazet were on a certain level, on their level, there was this not inability, but this lack of appreciation and respect for another. A lack of tapping into this idea of Emr, just to say good things about other yid. And if you don't find something good to say about another yid, it doesn't mean that person doesn't have something good, it just means you're not looking hard enough or you're not being creative enough, and you could say, Oh, I'm not creative, I'm not a creative person. Well, guess what? The Mishnah says, Vidan is called M Lakav Sakhus. That's Hashem's way of telling you, you are creative, you can be creative. So the beginning of the parsha, which is emr, rashi tells us, emar of the amarta. It says say and say, right? So the Tara tells us that you shall say, Hashem almost, emar elakhanim. Hashem said to Moses, Moshe, say to the Kahanim. Then it doesn't say what to say, and it breaks it up. And then it says, right, say Aviamartha alaim that you shall tell them, and you shall tell them. So it's emar of say and say. They're saying and they're saying. And Rashi tells us, Lahasir Gedalim ala Kataanim, to warn the Gedilim, the olders should be to should warn the Kataanim. And technically speaking, the Pasik is talking about that the Qayanim are now allowed to be tami, they're not be Mitami Mes. Okay, but the you know, as as we generally do, there's there's the context within the Pasik, and then there's the context within the broader framework of of our lives. And you don't even have to go to such a Hasidisha source, or Moshe Weinstein has um, it's a one of the his more well-known pieces in Daresh Mesha, where he asks this question what does it mean, Emma or the Amarta? Say to them and tell them. It indicates there's two sayings, like what is being said twice. And he explains that when Rashi says the Hazir Gedilim al-Katanim, that the adults should warn, the Gedailim, the older ones should warn the smaller ones, it's a reference to it's a reference to how we are to educate to our children, students, or or maybe our future selves, however you want to say, the child inside. It's always applicable, whether someone is, even if someone's not a parent or if someone's not an actual educator. So the first say, what is the first MR? The first say is actually just like delineating, like what's there? Like this is Asa, this is Matar, you could do this, you can't do that. Like there is a framework that needs to be taught of this is allowed and this is not allowed. That's the first MR. That's the Mr Alakon, and this is what you're allowed to do, this is what you're not allowed to do. But what's the Vyamartha? What's the saying? And then there's the saying. So Cesar Moshe, the second, and tell them Vyamarta implies that the parents should make the mitzos chaviv to them, meaning that the way in which they practice Torah and Mitzos, the way in the they the way in which they carry out their own yahados, that is the second and primary mode of education. So meaning to say, yes, there's a it there's a part of the educational system where you tell the kids this is what you can do, this is what you can't do. But even more than that, that's the first MR. But then there's the Vyamartha. What do you when are you when are you really talking to your kids? When are you really conveying a message? It's not when you say something, but it's when you when you actually do it. And that's what it means, lah, getailim al-Kitanim. It's brought down that lahzir doesn't just mean to warn, because if a person warning connotes like a negative, sormey ra, it connotes focusing like don't do this, desist from that, it's a warning. But the a lot of the the the Svaram point out that Lahazir has another word, another meaning. It means lahazir, it means to glow, to be radiant, to shine. And so when the Tara tells us, or when Rashi's speaking it out, MR of the Amarta, they're saying, yes, framework, what to do, what not to do, but then there's the amartha. When you the real impact that we have on other people is not the things that we say, but it's it's saying by example, by saying by the things that we do, by being excited for our Yiddishkite, that's what it means, Lahazir. When our own Yiddishkite is glowing, and meaning us pertaining to us as Gedalim, then that's going to have an impact a la Kitanim on the on the youngsters. So the Baal Shemtiv says something amazing. He says, La Hazir Gddailim Al-Gitanim, he picks up on these words, Gdalim and Kitanim. So in the first time the Torah uses these terminologies, it's in reference to the luminaries, the great luminaries, right? They were saying they were their first big, right? Two big ones, but they couldn't, right? There was sun and the moon, but they couldn't, uh that wasn't a proper system for two kings to have the same crown. And so one of them became small, that was the moon. And then you had the big one, the moon, the sorry, the sun, and you have the small one, the moon. So the Bal Shemtiv connects that. He says, Lahazir Gedalam al-Kitanim, he says, that's the Sod, that's the secret of the Ma'arha Khatan and the Marhagadal. It's the secret of the sun and the moon. And beyond that, I don't understand or really know what the Baal Shemtav said. But just to use that analogy, it's very relevant to what we just brought out from Rubmisha Feinstein. And that is just like a sun and the moon reflect each other, right? The sun, the moon, imagine if there was no sun, so the moon wouldn't shine. It has nothing to reflect. And it's the same thing in when it comes to Godal and a katan, right? If the in if the Yiddish kite of the Godal is not shining like the sun, then there's not going to be anything for it to glow, there's not going to be anything for the katan to reflect. So it's the the Ramosha doesn't bring this analogy of the sun and the moon, but the Balshamtav does on the same Maimer Chazal. So I'm just bringing it out as a way to bring the two together that they they are, they really do, they kind of have the same similar approach. Um, you've heard this story before, but there's a very interesting story from, and it's a it connects to this idea about following by example. Rafkuk was by was sitting around his shoulder and Rafkuk, you know, the the great Rafkuk, the Rebbe. And what happened was it was it was on a Shabbos, and his people came to him and said they clapped on the beam, and they said, Everybody stop learning, everybody stop davening. There's a member of our town, his name is Shmuel, the cobbler, and he's being Michal Shabiz. So let's go berate him, let's go yell at him and say, Shabiz, goi, Michal Shabbis. Right, he's being Michal Shabiz Bithahesia, it's a big no-no in Yiddishkite. It's also hard, too. That's true. But Remo, but not Ramosha, but Rivkuk said, Follow me. Don't do anything, don't say anything to him, just follow, just follow me. So they all followed him. He's the he's the man in charge, and they followed him. And he went to Shmuel the cobbler, he had his place open at Rosh, and he turns to him and he smiles and he says, Good Shabbos, Riv Shmuel. And he walked away. And slowly, every single person, they did exactly what the Rebbe did. They said, Good Shabbos, Reb Shmuel, Good Shabbos, Rashmuel, and they followed suit. And slowly but surely, you know, after after some time, maybe it wasn't that that long, Rush Mal the cobbler, he closed down his store and and and that and that's it. He he was okay. It was having an issue with Parnassa, and it was hard for him, and he he worked he worked through it. But imagine it was the other way around, right? Imagine they did yell at him, or they did berate him, or they did throw stones and yell at Shabbos. People don't really become more religious from that. But when you approach somebody with a smile and say, Good Shabbos or Shmua, that's what Rav Cook did, and it was he set an example, and then everybody else followed suit. That was a prime example, I was thinking of this concept. Lahazir Gedailam Alakatanim. So this time period, really, the sphira, is a time of Lahazia. Lahazir means to shine. It's a time of light. It's an interesting parallel if you think about the seven days and the seven weeks with the seven branches of the menara. Um right? And what's interesting, that's why I actually have this picture. I was trying to find if there are any sources to this concept with the seven, right? This time is a time of illuminance, uh, illuminescence, a time of illumination, a time of radiance, right? Eeyar is is called the month of Ziv, the month that shines. Chodish Ear is the only month of the year which is entirely in Svera. It's entirely in the Yemea Sphera, Chhodish Ear. So there's something really special about this month. It's the month of Ziv, the month that shines. And it's interesting, the seven weeks and the seven branches of the minera. Maybe there's a maybe there's a connection. So I found this, it's like um, it's some, what is it? It's some type of um, like it's an auction. It's some type of auction. It's from the 18th century, an Italian piece of Judaica, where it's literally a minora, has the seven branches of the minora, and it has, it's hard to tell exactly what's on it, but if you look in the in the text, it says, seven branched minora with each branch divided into seven. The branches are adorned with verses from Tehelim and the or in the order of the counting of the Aymir. In addition, the prayer anabakar and the holy name is written artistically on jars at the sides of the base of the minora. So it's just interesting to see that there is this real concept of the connection. But what I'm trying to bring out from this minora connection is that this time period of sphira is very fundamentally connected to the idea of Lahazir, to the element, to the idea of shine of radiance, of shining, right? Because as much as we're going to celebrate in a couple weeks' time, the Shavuas is called weeks. Shavuas is the only yantif that's brought down, Rehersh talks about this. It's the only yantif that the name is something that it's not, meaning Pesach is on Pesach, right? We we right Hashem passed over. That happened on that was on Pesach, Matsus, Khamatsus. We had Matsus on Pesach, right? Sucas, we lived in booths, so it's called sukis. Shavuis is talking about weeks, which are the which is the time period before the actual, right? Shavu is mat and tire, but it's called the the name of the holiday is called by what happened beforehand. That's that's novelty, that's a kiddos. So shavu is because because shavuas, it's all about the prep. It's all about being ready for the there's gonna be a time where there's gonna be kolos and brakim, lightning and thunder, and we're gonna receive the taira, but but do we make ourselves a clee that's ready to receive the taira? So the time period to do that is this time. It's well, it's the entire sphera, but especially during the Khaidish ear, the months of the month of shining, the month that that's radiant. Because it's afka during this tekuv, during this time where we're able to become that vessel, we're in those shavuas that are leading up to Shavuas, the holiday of Shavuas. And this is the time to learn, to become a cle, to become a right, in a vacuum, in a in a in a what's it called, a a black uh a black hole. There's no light because it just sucks everything out. You can't even have light. So what we're trying to do now is not to be in a black hole where light doesn't exist, but we're trying to create a vessel where we we can receive, we're available, we aren't capable of receiving light. That's what a minor was. It was a pl that was what right the Nerma Ravi, that that was the place where the Shrikina Sh was Shaira Tambit, everything, all the six outer branches look towards the towards the middle. It was a play the Minoya represents the Nishama, represents the fact that we all have an element of good inside. That's the part that yes, we could be Dhamma Kapsakhus to everybody because there's an element of good in everybody. And that there's that that that's the element of of truth. That's the element that there's a part that's shining inside every one of us. And Shlonaga Kob Zelze was a mistake in not seeing that, of just it's putting on not, yeah. I mean, not putting on eye glass glass, it's not even putting on the wrong prescription, it's putting on blindfolds where you can't see, you're not seeing the light. The Balashentav also has an analogy, just bringing out that this is it's not like like this. I'm always thinking this is like one of the main ideas of Svira. It's just to connect the idea of light, even the name Svira. Svira is Meloshan sapphire, sapir, which means sapir means to radiate. The Maggot of Meserich um has a has a famous speech that piece. This is quoted actually in the Yom Yom from a couple days ago, but he quotes from the Rebbe, quotes from his grand his great-grandfather, the Alta Rebbe, who said in the name of the Maggit of Meserich. He says, Usfartem Lchem, which is a post-gnistic parsha, you shall count for yourselves. That's literal meaning. Usfartem, who mean shine spheros behirus. The word usfartem is from the language of to to of brilliance and bright, brightness, spherus, behirus. Usfartemchem. So what does it mean? Usfartem luchem? It means exactly that. Srichim Lansos Shia Halakhem. We're supposed to make lachem means you. We're supposed to make ourselves bahir. We're supposed to make ourselves shining. We're supposed to make ourselves brilliant. We're supposed to see the element of Lahzir in ourselves. The Basaim points out La Hazir Gedalim al-Kitanim represents the fact that the Kitanim represents the physical world. And a person, as much, yeah, it's pretty obvious you could enlighten the spiritual world, of course, Lahazir Geddalim. But the Basain says it's supposed to be channeled al-Kaitanim, that we're supposed to take whatever spiritual shine is shining in the spiritual world, because the spiritual world shines, that's what it does. We're supposed to take that same energy, al-Kitaanim, and show that even in the physical world, even in the mudin, even in whatever uh relationships and in work and whatever it is a person's doing, that there is an element of shining in that thing. Usfartin lachem is a message of sphere salamir, but it's a message for all of us in all time. Like the mag the like the maggot is saying, Uspartum lachem, your lachem has to be what's sapir. Your lachem has to be what's shining. And if you can't see that in somebody else, that means you're not looking hard enough, means you're not being creative enough, or it means you're putting a blindfold on it. The morale says something interesting. Kavat, respect, is is related to R, which is light. So covet and r go hand in hand. Shalodnagu Kavatzella Zen means on some level they didn't see the light in the other. They didn't, you know what's interesting? I was thinking about this. Um, I was thinking I didn't have time to even write this down in my notes. I was thinking when it comes to plants, so there's a few elements, right? So you need the air, you need oxygen, right? You need some nutrients, but their two primary ways to grow a plant or a flower, a tree, is water and light. You need both of those things, photosynthesis, blah, blah, blah, right? You need water and light. The Talmud Rebecca, they had they had water, right? They were they were Talmud Reba Kiva, they learned everything. But the problem, well, as Slow Nukovizel is that they didn't have light, right? That was the problem. You can't grow something without light. You need you can't, right? If you're not connected to the element of the sun, to that radiance, and you're just focused on the moon, but the moon doesn't have the light to even reflect of, well, then you're not gonna have any light, it's just gonna be pitch black, right? It's a couple years ago, I think there was the first time they were able to bring a plant, or they planted something on the on the in the in space. They had special LED lights, but they needed to work a way around. But without those elements, you can't grow something. So very nice, you have the tire, you have the water element in Mayamala tire. But if you don't have covot, covod represents art. Covod represents light. If you don't have that, then that's a time of desolation, that's a time of destruction. You have to you have to come up with another another method. Okay, single. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so we said one idea, the film Gabhiraba, MR. Just to say, try to find good things and to say good things about Yiddin. But number two, I think it's even more practical, and it's it should in theory should be easy, but sometimes it's hard. And that is what the Mishnah tells us to be makable every person, besavy upon a miathos. To be makable to just to smile. What's interesting, scientists have discovered, is that smiling has a very similar effect as turning a light on in a room. And it's even a terminology people use, right? His smile lights up the room. So what's that idea? It's the same idea, right? A person can be in a dark place, but there's this mirror effect. Just like the person who has strep and you you cough on them, they they might get that. It's contagious. It's scientifically, biologically proven that a smile is contagious. It has a contagious effect, and it's ki ilu, it's like you turning on light on in the room. The same way when you it's bright outside, your body releases certain, I don't know, endorphins, serotonin, whatever it is. When a person smiles, it's the same thing. And that means even a person fakes it, it's going to make him happier. And it's going to not just make you happier, but the person who's watching you, because we we're live, it's a serab in your face, the person, whoever you're watching, that's how you have the ability when you smile to light up a room. Because it has a real contagious effect. It's it's so it's an amazing, it's such a practical thing to work on of smiling, not just it's as kaladin, which means not just to you didn't, but to everybody to work on just receiving others with a happy countenance. I'm sure I've mentioned it here before, but it's a fascinating study that they've done, Frontiers of Psychology, that the used to be watches when they would sell them, they would be at the time 820. But then they they slowly realized that, well, if we flip the, if we flip the hands to 1010, you know what? They know they notice people started buying watches more because people were happier. Why? Because 810 looks like a frown and 1010 looks like a smile. So that's why most of the time in marketing ads, a watch is positioned at 1010. Yes, there's practical because the logo is almost always in the dead center by 12 o'clock. So that's a practical reason. But another practical reason is because when a person, and this is also that's why it's not gonna usually be at 11, 11:30, because that's just like that's like a flat face, it's like neutral. People buy the watch what much more often when it's 1010, because they feel when you feel in a good mood, you're more likely to spend a lot of money to buy it. It's an amazing thing. So if it's true when it comes to a watch, which is like a fake smile, because it's it's just a hand on a watch, then certainly Kavakhamir, when a person smiles himself, uh, all the more so. And um, yeah, we should be zeiched. Oh, wait, just to end off, the Darchaim, which is the morale on Pirkeyavos, he says, Ulafika, omar, shay kabel, oisa biser paranyavos, a person should receive everybody with a savor panemyathos, ki dovrza hu kovoid la odambia. He says, because this thing, meaning to smile at somebody, is the greatest honor a person could give to somebody. I was thinking this morale is Mamashlash, because we already mentioned the morale who says that covid is art, covid is light. So now the morale is saying that when you smile at a person, with savor panemyathos, that's the greatest respect you could give to somebody. What's Shaikha's respect and smiling? It's the same thing, because what we're saying is smiling is the same thing as light. Light is art. So it's all it's all one and the same. And what we're doing when we smile, we're mimicking the Briya, right? Hashem, in his great um wisdom and chesed, he doesn't whip out the sun from its nartic, from its sheath, right? Because we would all not be alive, right? It's a gl it's a slow, gradual process that we're able to, right? Because you can't go from dark to light immediately. It needs to be a process. And so we don't go from shavuas, we don't go from Pesach to Shavuis right away. We don't go because yes, there's going to be that time where it's a tremendous hashpa of light, right? It's got it, of course, we're gonna get there, but it needs to be a gradual process of the Yamehasfira, of this time period of La Hazir D al Aqdan, of this time period of Usfartulchem, like the Magad of Madras said. That's a time of finding your shining light and find it in others. There's a time period to work on that smile. It's a time period to do exactly that. And I was thinking there's a minhug that's not brought down, I don't think, by any other Yamtiv, and that is to um to put out grass, right? There's a specific uh minog of putting out grass and flowers and even trees, although many don't put trees because it's similar to what non-jus do. But there's this idea of putting out trees, flowers, and grass in the base matrash, in the in the even in one's home, on shavuas in particular. And we know because the Matantaira had Aesib, it had grass, it had flowers. But based on what we're saying, maybe maybe the idea is a little bit deeper, is that there's an element of grass, there's a right, Adam Asa Sada. A person is compared to a tree. Every person, we say, nota bisar chainu, implanted. There's something implanted inside each and every one of us. And so it's specifically this Indian that we're trying to work on. Yes, you could have all the tire in the world, you could have all the water in the world, but without the light, without the out, you know there's no photosynthesis, there's nothing, you're not gonna get the energy that you need, you're not gonna be able to actually produce and become this the sprouting um yid that you can be and that the other person can be. And it's so easy because we just have to smile at ourselves more and smile at each other, which is like a few years. So you see a photographer always says, okay, everybody smile.
