Hayom Yom: Tackling Life's Tasks - 10 Iyar

Day 25 of the Omer

According to our custom, the piece of bread over which the blessing HaMotzi is recited is dipped into salt three times;1 one does not shake the salt over the bread.

During the festive meal on the second day of Shavuos, 5621 (1861), the Tzemach Tzedek related that during the festive meal on the second day of Shavuos, 5555 (1795), his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, had said: “During the festive meal on the second day of Shavuos, 5528 (1768), my Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, [interpreted the command],2 U’Sfartem lachem (lit., ‘And you shall count for yourselves’) as follows: The verb U’Sfartem (lit., ‘you shall count’) shares a root with the Hebrew word for the translucent sapphire. [Hence, on the non-literal level of interpretation known as derush, this verb implies an additional meaning — ‘you shall make luminous.’]3 [The object of that verb is] lachem (‘yourselves’). [Thus, on a mystical level, the message of the above command is]: ‘You shall make yourselves luminous!’”

The Tzemach Tzedek continued: “My revered grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, then leaned on his forearms and sang the Niggun of Four Themes4 in a rapt state of intense dveikus. He then raised his head and asked in a rhetorical singsong: ‘And how do you make yourself luminous?’ He immediately answered his own question, again melodiously: ‘By counting seven perfect weeks — by refining the seven primary character traits,5 so that each of those character traits is [tempered by being] interconnected with all seven attributes.

“ ‘The seven character traits will then be seven Shabbasos [i.e., they will be Shabbos-like], in the sense that Shabbos does not need to be refined.’ “6