The essay by HaRav Leib Baron zt"l of Montreal, was originally published in 1995=5745, that is, 26 years ago.
"Moshe Rabbenu [at the time of the redemption from Egypt] told Bnei Yisroel Hashem's message, that `this will be a sign for you that I sent you; when you take the people out from Egypt you shall worship Elokim on this mountain'(Shemos 3:12). The people then asked him: `Moshe Rabbenu, when will this worship take place?' He answered: `At the end of fifty days.' And the Jews counted each single day separately . . .." (aggada cited by the Ran in Pesochim [28a of the dapei HaRan] in reference to the obligation of sefiras HaOmer).
When Moshe Rabbenu was still serving as a shepherd of Yisro's sheep it was foretold to him that fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt the Jews would worship Hashem. This revelation was in the Sinai desert when Hashem revealed Himself at the burning bush, long before Bnei Yisroel left Egypt.
Interestingly, the Torah does not mention at all that HaKodosh Boruch Hu commanded Moshe to let Bnei Yisroel know His intention. It seems that Moshe Rabbenu of his own accord decided that it was necessary to let the Jews know that fifty days after their leaving Egypt they would receive the Torah.
What was the reason for Moshe Rabbenu's decision?
Rovo rules (in Rosh Hashanah 28a) that mitzvos are not intended to bring us pleasure. Rashi (s.v. Lav) adds that mitzvos were given to the Jews to serve as a yoke pressing on their necks. The receiving of the Torah and the acceptance of its mitzvos after leaving Egypt was to be a veritable yoke for Bnei Yisroel, not a source of pleasure.
Why, then, did Moshe decide — without a direct commandment — to notify them during their redemption from Egypt, a time when they were utterly delirious with joy at being freed from their long and bitter enslavement, that in another fifty days they would have to accept a yoke on their necks? Was that the proper time to inform Bnei Yisroel of future challenges?
It is apparent that Moshe Rabbenu intended to warn Bnei Yisroel of something. Specifically he wanted to emphasize to them that the redemption from servitude in Egypt was not the fullness of Hashem's intention in redeeming them. Even if the Jews were to reach Eretz Yisroel and live as a sovereign state — not dependent upon any other nation in the world — still their redemption would be incomplete. "There is no free man except one who engages in Torah study" (Avos 6:2). A physical redemption without a spiritual one would not be complete freedom.
Moshe wanted them, at the time of their initial redemption from Egypt, to be fully aware of this principle. At that time Bnei Yisroel were idol worshipers just like the Egyptians, as indicated in various midroshim. It was, therefore, essential for them to change dramatically — indeed from one extreme to another.
Beforehand they were lowly idol worshipers, and now they must transform themselves to become a people living on sublime spiritual levels — a nation perfect in all its character traits. Such a task could only be achieved by their elevating themselves through Torah study.
As Chazal (Sukkah 52b) write, "If you encounter that contemptible one [the yetzer hora], drag him into the beis hamedrash." Chazal are teaching us that even if a person meticulously fulfills the Torah's mitzvos he is still unable to control and perfect his innate evil traits — "the yetzer of a man's heart is evil from his youth" (Bereishis 8:21). It can only be done if he studies Torah.
Since Moshe was the trusted leader of klal Yisroel, he immediately warned them when they left Egypt, and were freed from physical servitude, that their joy was not yet complete. History shows that a people enslaved for many years, when it is liberated, is naturally rowdy.
Yet this was not the case with Bnei Yisroel. At their liberation Moshe told them that in another fifty days they would receive the Torah and that they must prepare themselves for this event right from the outset. Klal Yisroel fulfilled its duty, and each person expectantly counted the days until matan Torah with the same joy as a kallah counts the days before her wedding.
Study of Chazal's teaching reveals that the physical redemption from slavery to freedom happened in fact six months before their exodus from Egypt: "On Rosh Hashanah labor ceased from our fathers, and in Nisan they were redeemed" (Rosh Hashanah 11a). They were perhaps even granted equal rights, and citizenship in Egypt, like the other people living there. It is also possible that after being freed, some even became rich. Thus they might have enjoyed full physical freedom.
Yet even after their slavery was rescinded, Moshe Rabbenu continued to deliberate with Pharaoh over the redemption of the Jews from the land of Egypt. Moshe Rabbenu knew, from what Hashem had revealed to him at the burning bush in the Sinai desert, that the main objective of the redemption was a spiritual one. This would only occur in the future, fifty days after their exodus from Egypt, at Mount Sinai when they receive the Holy Torah.
Now it will be understood why Rashi (parshas Bo, Shemos 10:22), writing about the plague of darkness, says that there were Jews in that generation who were reshoim and refused to leave Egypt. (These wicked people died during the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians would not see them and say that the Jews were suffering just as they did.)
At first it seems impossible to understand these reshoim. After suffering for so many years in slavery, after being harassed with so many wicked decrees, why would they be interested in harming themselves by remaining in bitter Egyptian servitude?
However, according to the gemora, on Rosh Hashanah — half a year before the Exodus — their servitude in fact terminated. In that case the view of the reshoim is quite understandable. For these wicked people the main redemption was the physical one — being freed from physical labor. These reshoim probably became friendly with the Egyptians and succeeded in businesses they established. They naturally came to the conclusion that there was no further reason to leave Egypt. Their opinion that the main redemption was from slavery to physical freedom — not any spiritual redemption — was what made them into reshoim. They were therefore killed by Hashem during the three days of darkness.
This is actually written explicitly in the Torah. In the first six months of the last year in Egypt, when Moshe started making efforts to free the Jews, he never mentioned their suffering to Pharaoh, nor did he mention the Hashem's promise to the holy Patriarchs that Bnei Yisroel would be independent in their own land.
Moshe only conveyed to Pharaoh what Hashem had said: "Send out my people that they may serve Me" (Shemos 7:27, 8:16, 9:2). Each time when he met Pharaoh he emphasized that the main freedom of Bnei Yisroel was spiritual — freedom to serve Hashem and the freedom that service brings about within man.
It was the same when Moshe spoke to the Jews at the end of forty years in the desert, immediately before his death. He said, "This day you have become a nation to Hashem your Lord" (Devorim 27:9), meaning to emphasize that not by entering Eretz Yisroel and functioning as an independent people would they gain the status of a nation like all other nations. For Bnei Yisroel, only because of "This day . . .." — only by accepting the yoke of the Torah and studying it intensely for forty years in the desert, and only after the Torah had penetrated their very essence — had they become worthy of being considered a nation.
Sefer Hachinuch (mitzvah 306) writes the following about the reason for sefiras HaOmer:
"The roots of this mitzvah, such as can be plainly understood, are that the entire essence of Bnei Yisroel is only the Torah. The reason they were redeemed and left Egypt is so that they would receive the Torah on [Mt.] Sinai and fulfill it. This is their fitting objective [in life]; it is more significant than their emerging from slavery to freedom.
"We were, therefore, commanded to count from the day after the Yom Tov of Pesach until the day that we received the Torah, so as to arouse in our soul a great desire for that great day. If you should ask why we start from the day after Yom Tov and not from the first day of Yom Tov, the answer is that the first day is entirely set aside for mentioning the great miracle of leaving Egypt. This miracle is the sign and proof of the world's creation and we should not mix in our happiness and mention any other matter. For this reason the counting starts from the second day."
It is thus explicit that freedom means spiritual freedom, and the mitzvah of sefiras HaOmer is intended to perpetuate the eternal connection between the yom tov of Pesach, which is the redemption from Egypt, and Shavuos, when we received the Torah. Sefiras HaOmer is meant to emphasize to us that real freedom is spiritual, which can be obtained only by studying the Holy Torah. Even the first day of Pesach, which is, according to the Sefer Hachinuch, a separate yom tov, is still not a holiday that merely commemorates our being freed from slavery. Rather it is intended to hallow the great miracle of am Yisroel being redeemed, which is a sign and proof of the world's creation by Hashem.
If so, our mention in the tefillos on Pesach of "the time of our freedom" does not refer to freedom from physical slavery, but to the connection between Pesach and Shavuos, when we received the Torah. Only through our receiving the Torah have we have arrived at true freedom, which is spiritual.
This connection between Pesach and Shavuos extends even further: when we mention on Shavuos in our tefillos "the time of our receiving the Torah," we are emphasizing that through receiving our holy Torah our freedom has been fully instantiated, both physically and spiritually.
HaRav Leib Baron zt"l was rosh yeshivas Merkaz HaTalmud, in Montreal, Canada.
