"Yesh" May Ayin

Yesh is not just the Israeli way of saying an emphatic Yes!, nor is it only the  local grocery store called Yesh in most Israeli towns.(see sign below)

We are nearly finished counting the days between Pesach and Shavuos otherwise known as Sefiros HaOmer. It is a period of self examination of  ourselves as we  once again receive the Torah on the holiday of Shavuos.We not only commemorate how  Hashem  in His great chesed for us, freed us from Egypt , but also we realized He pulled us from  the depths of the depths of Mitzrayim,(Egypt) the lowest of all spritual places. We had to earn our way up from the 49th level of tumah (spritual impurity) to deserve Matan Torah (receiving the gift of the Torah)

Sefiros HaOmer is the tikkun of the peh- the mouth. We count with our lips. All-of our avoda, tefilla, speech and thoughts are elevated . The goal of the jew at this time is to watch carefully what we say and we try to speak to each other with more respect, kindness and care.  We daven with greater kavanah and we make brachos with more devotion.

The gematria of omer =10= the gematria of yesh

The roshei tevos(first letter of each word) of "yesh" are the same as "yiras shamyim"

We know from our sages of blessed memory, that Hashem created the world "Yesh May Ayin".

Something from nothing. This Light, or revelation of Hashem ,was in existence before He "measured "out His infinite light to create midos. Our world was created with this very powerful light , filtered many times because it was too strong and powerful  for  finite creatures like humans to handle.

According to the Beis Aaron, we are meant to do the reverse: to take "yesh" and make into "ayin". We are to bring what Hashem gave us and give it back to the Source of all life. During Sefiros HaOmer we work on tikkun ha middos, "correcting, and fixing" our character traits that Hashem has given us. He distinguished us from animals by giving us the gift of speech. Humans in hebrew are called "medaber"; the one who speaks.

"Yesh" is the omer because our avoda is to take the yesh, the gashmi, the physical of the world and elevate it back to Hashem with more pure speech.  It is our helek in olam Haba.  

We spent Thursday at Yam HaMelech! (The Dead Sea ) What did you do?

To celebrate a couple of birthdays, six of us good friends hopped in my car for a tiyul (trip)
 We  experienced "Yom Kef" (day of fun)  at the spas in the Daniel Hotel, located in Ein Bokek at the Dead Sea.
Happy Birthday Pesha and Marlene!
The Group: Yehudis, Sondra, Elaine, Pesha, Marlene and Evelyn

We take lag ba'omer seriously over here!

Collecting the wood and building the fire is half the fun!!

In Ramat Beit Shemesh (Israel) this is what it looks like as the community gets ready for the big bonfires on Lag Ba'omer... This is the "BEFORE " and  "AFTER" !

Second Chances: Today is Pesach Sheini

What was the korban Pesach?
The Korban Pesach was the eating of the sacrificial lamb before the jews left Mitzrayim (Egypt)
We know that one had to be ritually pure to partake in the korban Pesach. However, there was a group of people who were tameh (ritually impure) and couldn't participate. They went together to complain to Moshe and Aaron that it wasn't fair; after all, they were doing the mitzva of carrying the bones of Yosef ha Tzaddik and others out of Mitzrayim.
Eating korban Pesach is like "eating emuna" According to our sages of blessed memory It was a way to get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Who would want to miss out on that?
After consulting Hashem on the matter, Moshe told the group that from then on, the 14 Iyar, (if one was ritually pure: ie, not coming into contact with the dead) they could again participate and eat the korban Pesach by following all the laws relevent to the original Pesach.

So- what did this say about these people?
If they would have been silent and complacent, they wouldn't have the chance to complete this great mitzva. They had was great power of desire, the koach of ratzon to be close to Hashem. Thier persistence not to be left out brought a tremendous tikkun: it helped to channel the ability to do complete teshuva into the world.

What does this mean for us today?

Hashem in his great rachmanos gave us the ability to have a second chance to do things right. Ratzon is the desire to get close to Hashem no matter what obstacles are in our path. This is what make a yehudi a yehudi.
The essence of a jew is to do the right thing, and these people of old were rewarded with this ratzon.

Pesach Sheini teaches us that no matter how we fail, no matter how far away we are from Hashem, there is still tikveh; hope that we get another chance to renew our relationship with Him. Hashem will always make more opportunities for us to do teshuva and rectify whatever it is we need to correct.
The Zohar HaKodesh says "kesef/kissufim": Kissufim is longing, kesef is money. The way people long for and dream of being rich, is how we should long for and dream of being close to Hashem, to be delivered from galus, and to bring moshiach.
May we all realize this and never give up hope!

Noam Shalit for Israel's 62nd Independence Day

Please watch this video of Noam Shalit.
To commemorate Yom Hazicharon 2010, he speaks about his son, Gilad, who has been missing for 1409.9 days thus far
Only 200 hits- he deserves our kavod for 4plus minutes

Rememberences

In commemoration of Yom Hazicharon and the celebration of Yom Hatzmaut we remember:
all those who died in the creation and protection of Eretz Yisroel, that we are His beloved nation, and that we are proud to say "ani yehudi"