This is a D'var Torah that I wrote last Passover. If you make it to the end, I have a very important question:
Who knows 46???
***
There are two eagerly
awaited traditions at my family’s Passover table. When we get to the point of
the seder when we describe the symbols of the shankbone, the matzah, and the
bitter herbs, my cousin Michael reenacts a story that my Grandpa Fred, of
blessed memory, used to tell: “Why Matzah has Lines.” My grandfather would take
a piece of Matzah, fold it in a napkin and sling it over his shoulder. “The
Jews left so quickly, and they wrapped their dough in their rucksacks – and
when they opened it up – it took on the lines of their sacks and became matzah!
We learned something new this year that gave even deeper meaning to this
seemingly silly ritual. My dad recently had dinner with my Great Uncle Murray
down in Florida, and he asked him what our family’s seders were like back in
the day. Turns out that my grandfather inherited this bit about the matzah from
his own father, my great-grandfather Morris, who used to tell the exact same
story! Incidentally, my cousin Michael is named for Morris – and thus the
ritual comes full circle, L’dor Vador.
A final tradition comes at the very end of the seder. It
is long-awaited by some; dreaded by others – and that is the singing of “Echad
Mi-Yodeah” – “Who Knows One?” Maybe it’s because it’s late; maybe it’s because
we’ve all had a few too many cups of wine – but we can never seem to get
through this song unscathed. Each of us gets assigned a number, and we must
always read this number wherever it appears in the song. But inevitably, someone
gets distracted, or forgets, or just feels like purposely throwing things off
to make things even more ridiculous – my cousin, jokingly, declared that “Five
are the fingers on the hand” instead of the original lyric, “Five are the Books
of the Torah.”
Even
though we can’t keep the numbers straight as individuals, we have essentially
memorized what each number represents, even the seemingly less obvious ones
like “Six are the Order of the Mishnah” and “Eleven are the Stars in Joseph’s
Dream.”
What does this song, which is modeled on a non-Jewish
German folk melody from the 15th or 16th century, have to
do with Passover anyway? And why do we sing it at the end of the seder? Like the Four Questions, it’s a device for
engaging the children in the seder ritual and overarching Jewish journey. The
main theme of Passover, and particularly of the seder is not only the physical freedom of a nation of
slaves. Each number represents an important step in our people’s history as
well as our future. From the two tablets that we received at Mount Sinai, to
our four matriarchs and three patriarchs, to the nine months leading up to the
creation of new human life – we would be nothing without our numbers.
Numbers
are particularly on our mind at the end of the second seder, which begins the
counting of the Omer, which is the 50 days from the Exodus to Sinai – from
Pesach – the harvest of barley – until Shavuot – the harvest of wheat. This is
described in the Torah in Leviticus 23:15-16. Traditionally, the Rabbis
interpret the counting as reflecting Israel’s eager anticipation of the giving
of Torah at Sinai on Shavuot. As it reads in the Conservative Movement’s Siddur
Sim Shalom: “As we often count the days leading to significant events in our
personal lives, so we count such days in the life of our people, times past and
present, culminating in this instance with the revelation of Torah, essential
for our spiritual sustenance. We also call to mind the close connection with
the soil of the Land during centuries past, as well as in modern Israel. We
recount the gratitude of times past, and we articulate our own gratitude, for
the harvest of grain through which God renews life each year."
It’s
possible that the mnemonic counting song of “Echad Mi Yodea” helped to transition
us into this period where we focus so intently on numbers. As I flew from LGA
back to Milwaukee this morning, I refined this connection between Echad Mi
Yodea and the Omer. In doing so, I challenged myself to extend the song to
incorporate each number that we count during this time period. And I succeeded
– except for one number, which I’ll challenge you to help figure out for me.
Since
the purpose of freedom is not simply freedom from servitude but freedom to
devote ourselves to God’s purposes, I looked towards creating associations with
each day of the Omer that would resonate with us in modern times. I wanted
these additional numbers to reflect both Jewish history and our future as we
perpetuate and add to our rich traditions.
Associating
themes with the omer numbers is not an entirely new concept. The Kabbalists
have specific emotions and messages allocated for each day, including kindness
and wisdom. But these numbers seemed kind of arbitrary. I wanted a more
tangible relationship with the numbers. And so – I present to you – a
continuation of Echad Mi Yodea, Omer-style:
14: Fourteen are the steps of
the Passover seder
15: Fifteen is the date of the
month when the full moon occurs.
16: Is the year of
Confirmation, or Affirmation, where our young Jewish adults commit to lifelong
Jewish learning.
17 – is the day of the fast
of Tammuz, which commemorates the day the walls of Jerusalem were breeched
leading up to the destruction of the second temple.
18 – the Gematria for Chai,
the Hebrew word for life – a symbol of good luck.
19 – are the blessings in the
weekday Amidah
20 – is the chapter of Exodus
that contains the Ten Commandments
21 – is the age you must be
to legally drink Maneshewitz
22 – are the letters in the
Hebrew Alphabet
23 – are the number of judges
needed to carry out a trial for capital punishment in Judaism.
24 – the total number of
Books in the Tanakh, or the hours in a day.
25 – is the date in the Month
of Kislev Chanukah begins, or the hours we observe Shabbat.
26 – the Gematria value of
YHWH, one of ways God’s name appears in the Bible.
27 – Is the date in Nisan of
Yom Hashoa – this year, it happens on the eve of April 27
28 – Is the frequency of
years that we say Birkat Hachama, the rare blessing of the sun, which is said
each time the sun returns to its supposed position at creation – every 28
years.
29 – Are the days in some
months in the Hebrew calendar
30 – Are the days of Sheloshim,
the secondary period of mourning after shiva.
31 – The number of Canaanite
kings conquered by Joshua, or the Gematria value of G-d’s name, El.
32 – is the number Jewish
baseball hero Sandy Koufax wore
33 – Is the day of Lag b’Omer
– a mystical celebration on the day in which Rabbi Akiva’s students stopped
dying from a horrific plague.
34 – Is the chapters in the
Book of Deuteronomy
35 – was the twentieth
century year in which the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws were established.
36 – is for the lamed vavniks,
the 36 righteous people in each generation that the Talmud declares to be
deserving of greeting the Shechinah.
37 – the nineteenth century
year that marked the first printing of a Haggadah in America
38 – is the twentieth century
year of Kristallnacht, the night of Broken Glass, or the age Daniel Pearl was
when he was murdered by Al Qaeda.
39 – is the twentieth century
year in which Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America
40 – is the number of years
the Jews wandered in the desert.
41 – is the day that life
began after Noah survived the flood
42 – is the number of lines
written in each column of a Torah scroll
43 – is the twentieth century
year of the Warsaw ghetto uprising
44 – is the total number of
candles lit during Chanukah
45 – is the twentieth century
year in which Auschwitz was liberated
46 – HELP!
47 – is the twentieth century
year in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered at Qumran by a Bedouin
boy
48 – is the twentieth century
year in which Israel became a state
49 – the number of nights of
counting the Omer
50 – is the day when we
received Mattan torah – our gift of the Torah.
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