The Perfect Training Program

The Cure for the Lost Generation  

Is it only me or do you too feel that the generation in general is getting lost? People do know how to speak much more nicely, perform in front of cameras, and state their opinions confidently; they know how to stick to their guns and talk about the soul and values – but practically speaking, they are much more broken; much more in need of medication or behavioral treatments. There is a frightening increase in emotional problems: depression, anxiety, paranoia etc. Everyone feels it. 

So, all of us need treatment. But who is the therapist? The way to tell the difference between a true tzaddik and a false one, between a real therapist and one who lies to you, is that the true therapist will always make you work. He will always make it clear that there is no substitute for personal work. None. As long as the patient thinks that his salvation will come from the therapist, he will be thinking wrongly. Even the greatest, real tzaddik does not do the work for you. He can guide, provide tools and help – which is extremely important, but only you can and should do the work. 

If we understand this, we can get started. But – just a moment, we need a work plan… What is the plan? 

The Trainer of the world gave a perfect training plan, bringing thousands of people from the most difficult situation to the highest point, to complete healing. Magic. But it is not magic – it is just working correctly according to the right plan, from which we will learn the greatest principles of personal growth.  

Sefirat Ha’Omer (The counting of the Omer) is the perfect training program, the perfect guide for a person in this world. It has so many messages! If we manage to apply them all to our lives, we will begin to really progress, rise, be successful and live a life of truth, a satisfying life with a purpose.  

Counting Lives 

The first message of Sefirat Ha’Omer is that a person should always be counting, in other words, wanting to acquire great things. Our Sefirat Ha’omer is our looking forward to the Giving of the Torah, to the holy event in which Hashem revealed Himself to us, face to face, so to speak. 

Ask yourself: Do I have a goal? What is it? What are my aspirations and aims? And, of course, what am I doing to achieve these? If a person does not have an answer to these questions, that means that he is simply asleep. He is drifting from day to day without any chance of positive improvement. That is not called living. 

The second message is that no matter what your starting point is, strive for the highest goals. The Jewish people were on the lowest level both emotionally – after decades of oppression and subjugation – and spiritually, for they were idol-worshipers. Therefore, the Omer offering brought on the day the counting starts is made of barley, which is animal fodder, to allude to the fact that we are not even on the level of human beings, and yet we are aspiring and setting out on a journey towards the greatest thing to aspire to: Mount Sinai! 

The third message is that every day is important, every day counts. Every step forward is critical. There are no shortcuts, there are no extraneous days and there is no rest on the way. One cannot sleep through life. Every day is significant when it comes to your tikkun – correction. If you didn’t make good use of it – it is your loss! And at the end, the great success is the culmination of all those little days that seemed so meaningless, but they were what added up and together created the great change.  

To Connect Aspirations to Reality 

The fourth message is that the way of Sefirat Ha’Omer is the only way to rise to new levels in this world: You set a goal and the daily effort you will make to achieve it. It may be only a “baby step”, but if you take that step daily and really count every day and consider it significant, you will go forward and get to precisely the place you want to be.  

That is why a person has to have a set time for hitbodedut for that one thing, for one aspiration that he prays about every day and about which he beseeches Hashem to help him and advance him. The details of this whole beautiful way I have already written up at length in my book A New Light. 

The fifth message is to divide up the big goal into small, realistic aims. Every week during Sefirat Ha’Omer is dedicated to one middah – trait. And every day is dedicated to one particular aspect of that middah. So we are, in essence, dividing up the great task of perfecting ourselves to tiny parts, bite-sized aims that we are capable of achieving, and so we can advance from one middah to the next.   

Counting Backwards 

The sixth message is to always remember our starting point. That is why we count la’Omer – “for the Omer”; in other words, we look back to our starting point, which is the Omer offering, as opposed to counting the days remaining until we reach our goal and purpose. 

Because reaching the target and actually succeeding – that is not under our control. That will happen when Hashem yitbarach wants it to happen. But it is under our control to keep on empowering ourselves and moving forward, without ever letting go of our desire to do so. That is why we keep on looking back at the beginning: Where we were, at which animal-level, as we mentioned above.  

And so, a prisoner counts the days to his release because he is happy that every day that goes by means less “bad” days, but a person who is working on himself and going forward is happy that he has added more good days, days of work! The prisoner attaches no importance to the days beyond the fact that they go by. But in Sefirat Ha’Omer the main thing is that the days not go by meaninglessly. The main thing is what one does with the days and what one fills them with. Therefore, we count backwards and appreciate the distance we have come and what we have achieved.  

At the Heart of Success 

There are two huge advantages in doing this: 

The first is that we do not give up. Usually, one does not see results from one day to another, and to work without feeling any advancement is discouraging, and produces despair. Therefore, we must always remember our starting point. That way, we will always see objectively that there is, indeed, some progress and a huge improvement. That is what will give us the strength to overcome all the difficulties and crises and cope with all the inhibiting factors.  

The second is very deep, and is actually the heart of the success. In the end, our goal is to become closer to Hashem yitbarach. True closeness to Hashem is not a competition, who does more and learns more, but the real question is how close are we to Hashem.  

Closeness to Hashem is measured only in humility. Whoever succeeds in elevating himself and attributes his success to himself – outwardly it looks like he is increasing his closeness. But the pnimiyut (deep, inner truth) is that he is far, far away from Hashem. Because pride is the exact opposite of closeness to Hashem. Hashem says about a proud person that “He and I cannot live together.” 

But someone who always remembers that any success he experiences comes only from the Creator – that is true success, because he maintains his humility even when he is moving forward and becoming more elevated. He never attributes anything to himself and always sees only Hashem’s mercy and loving kindness.  

Therefore, when a person counts backwards – la’Omer – in other words, always looks at his starting point, he is always reminding himself where he would be without Hashem’s great mercy and loving kindness, and so he will never become proud and haughty, since he does not feel that he owns his success.  

The Daily Exercise 

All these wonderful principles can be applied and embedded in life only by a set, daily time frame that you spend alone, only yourself and the Creator, time in which you clarify your aspirations, divide them up into achievable aims, remember where you started and give thanks for every forward move. You never stop aspiring and praying to Hashem that He will help you and move you further and higher in your way. That is the practical exercise that sums up and realizes all those principles. 

Sefirat Ha’Omer is not only a complete and perfect way to make progress, but it is a way of life. A life without counting and without aspiration and without forward movement – is not a life. Sefirat Ha’Omer is the way to heal the soul. It is the way that led a broken, shattered nation to the highest peak, and today, too, it has the power to lead and move any person, both bodily and emotionally, materially, and spiritually, to the top.