Follow in the ways of Avraham Avinu - make sure that every day of our sefira, is truly ‘ours’ - that we have given it content, by serving Hashem.
Our Rabbis, in the tefillot of our Chag, and in its kiddush, added the words זמן חרותינו: ‘The Time of our Freedom’.
These additional words allude to the wondrous delivery of Bnei Israel, from slavery to freedom - מעבדות לחירות.
This, as we read, was the glad tidings that Hashem commanded Moshe to foretell to Bnei Israel:( Vayera 6:6 ):’Therefore, say to Bnei Israel: I am the Lord and I shall take you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will save you from their labor.’
As the time of the slave belongs totally to his master, the direct result of the release from slavery, was that the time of Bnei Israel became THEIR time.
Let us suggest that a different addition of words, to the name of our Chag, may also be apt.
Our starting point is the comment of the Tur, that the three regalim allude to the three Avot, Pesach alluding to Avraham Avinu, as the Torah relates: ( Vayera 18:6 ):’.And Avraham hastened to the tent of Sarah, and he said: ‘Hasten three seah of meal (and) fine flour, and make cakes’.
Our Sages comment, that this was because it was Pesach, and add ( Yoma 28: ), that Avraham observed all of the Torah before it was given at Sinai to Bnei Israel.
We find a more direct teaching in the Midrash, that we received the Chag of Pesach in the merit of Avraham.
The Midrash Tanchuma ( Parashat Vayera ), states:’In the merit of the three acts of hastening of Avraham, Hashem repaid Bnei Israel by giving them the Mitzvot of Pesach’.
The three acts of hastening - the Midrash relates - are:(18:2)’And he saw and he ran towards them’; (18:7)’And to the cattle did Avraham run’; and:(18:7)’And he hastened to prepare.
The Midrash makes clear that this reward was not merely because of the hospitality, hachnasat orchim, of Avraham Avinu, but because of the alacrity with which Avraham acted.
Indeed , this attribute is alluded to in the name of Avraham: אברהם in reverse order of its letters, reads: מהר בא: ‘came quickly’.
We learn from this speed with which Avraham treated his guests, how precious the mitzvot - especially helping others, gmilut chasadim - was to his soul: despite the great pain of his recent circumcision, and the heat of the day, he ran at every stage, to attend to the wayfarers.
The Be’er Mayim Chaim derives a beautiful lesson from this episode.
He expounds:’There is a fundamental difference between one who merits the exalted title of ‘an איש חסד׳: a ‘man of chessed’, AND one who merits to be called איש רחמים: ‘a compassionate man’.
‘The former runs after those that may need his chessed, as he has a need to do good in this world; his first prayer when he wakes up each morning, is that he merit to find someone whom he can help, so strong is this need to his very being.
‘The Zohar Hakadosh states that he merited each day of his life, to perform acts of hachnasat orchim and other acts of chessed.
‘One who may be called ‘a compassionate man’, on the other hand, when someone in need comes before him, he will come to his aid; but should no opportunity to do chessed come before him, he will not go out to seek it, nor will he feel any lack in his soul, that he did not perform an act of chessed, that day.’
We can readily understand why Avraham Avinu merited the singular praise: ( Isiah 41:8 ) : אברהם אוהבי: Avraham who loves me - AND why Hashem fulfilled the need of Avraham to do chessed each and every day.
We find an allusion to this, in the Pasuk: ( Chayei Sarah24:1 ):’And Avraham was aged, בא בימים: of venerable age, and Hashem blessed him in everything.’
The hassidic masters expound the words בא בימים, homiletically, as:’came with all his days’ - that he merited to make each and every day ‘his’, because Hashem blessed him by fulfilling the need of his soul, enabling him every day to do chessed - as the Zohar Hakadosh we brought, teaches.
If we have established a special link between Avraham Avinu and Pesach, we can proceed to expound our suggestion - which arises from this - that Pesach is also ‘the time of the freedom of our time.’
Let Rav Gedalia Scharr elucidate:’As a result of the deliverance from servitude, Bnei Israel became masters of their time, as clearly a slave’s time is not ‘his’, but belongs to his master.
‘Indeed, by the very first Mitzvah that we received in Egypt - sanctification of the new month - Bnei Israel were elevated to a new level: they were given ‘control’ over time, through the power of determining when the moadim would be - a determination that bound even the heavenly hordes.
‘Whilst they were enslaved, their time was also ‘in bondage’, as the Egyptians believed that all was predetermined by the laws of nature, without room for renewal or change.
‘When Moshe Rabbeinu proclaimed to Bnei Israel:’This month is for you’, he infused into their souls a new wind, at the heart of which lay the power to control time - it was given ‘to them’, for their use and benefit, including the powers of renewal and change.
Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl adds:’The main freedom that Bnei Israel received, was that, from then on, time was theirs.
‘Here we ask: Was it only when we left our enslavement in Egypt, that our time became ‘ours’?
‘We said that we received control over time on the preceding Rosh Chodesh, when we when we received the Mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon, and were told that ‘time was ours’!
‘The answer is that, whilst our time was indeed ours - in the sense that it no longer ‘belonged’ to masters, as the servitude had ceased some months earlier.
‘However, ‘time’ in itself had no meaning, until it was utilized for the purpose for which it was given: the purpose for which we were redeemed from slavery in Egypt - as Hashem declared:’To be for you a G-d.’
‘At that point we had not been given any Mitzvot, and therefore time being ‘ours’, had no meaning, no substance.
‘Only when we were given the Mizvot of Pesach, could it be truly said that time was meaningfully ‘ours’- when it could be used for the purpose for which it was given to us, by Hashem.
‘We can now understand that Hashem took us out of slavery in Egypt, for the objective that time should be ‘ours’, to serve Him, and not to waste it in meaningless pursuits.’
We can now also connect our Chag to the ways of Avraham Avinu, who - as we brought - used every day of the gift of time, to serve Hashem by acts of chessed, thereby making each day truly ‘his’.
This, may we suggest, is the reason that, immediately from the first day of Pesach, we are commanded with the Mutzvah of Sefirat Ha’omer
Haktav veHakabala expounds that the word ‘omer’ alludes to ‘servitude’, and that the Mitzvah is to each and every day, ascend in our service of Hashem, till we reach the pinnacle on the last day: to merit to receive the Torah.
This requires us to- following in the ways of Avraham Avinu - to make sure that every day of our sefira, is truly ‘ours’ - that we have given it content, by serving Hashem.
Therefore, if we have failed to do so on any day, we can symbolically no longer continue to count with a bracha.
May we merit that our counting shall be תמימה: complete, and to have truly made time ‘ours’
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