We live in a generation of diverging currents, of two world views flowing apart at amazing speeds, yet remaining remarkably complimentary. On the one hand, our age is marked by an increasing specialization. Wherever we look, from sub-atomic particles to astro- physics, we find endless detail and complexity. Each field of human inquiry is bursting with so much information that no individual can master it all. Gone are the days of the general doctor, the jack-of-all trades, and the Renaissance Man. Instead, we have specialists: a heart doctor and a liver doctor, an eye doctor and an ear doctor, a doctor for your right nostril and another for your left!

Logically, this explosion of knowledge should lead to greater division between the various fields of study and a decreasing ability to maneuver the great information highway that is spanning the globe. And yet, exactly the opposite is happening, the world has become smaller than ever, and never has communication between individuals been easier: cellular phones, faxes, computers, Internet. The face of the world is changing, and communities that stretch across continents are being formed. It is as though the Gates of Communication have been opened, and whoever has something to say is able to find a format. (For instance, every year the Library of Congress receives 10,000 journals on various topics . . . from India alone!) Thus, the inward trend toward specialization is being matched by an outward trend toward communication. Compartmentalization of knowledge is not causing division, but rather, adding to the creation of a greater whole.

This combination of radical specialization and rapid communication is forging a new reality, a unity born out of the greatest diversity. This is already apparent in certain fields. The computer industry, for instance, depends entirely upon the specialized talents of numerous individuals pooling their knowledge to produce integrated and advanced technology. Another example: scientists foresee a time when tremendous amounts of information, processed by super-computers, will reveal simple and unified principles of life and society. If enough information could be gathered about a specific topic, and then analyzed by the fastest computers available, scientists would be able to derive basic underlying principles that are at work beneath the myriad details of society and the cosmos.

This means to say that it is precisely when the unique attributes of each detail of creation are expressed in a framework of ultimate integration that a unified whole emerges from the confluence of the parts. It suggests that the world is moving to a state of such total integration that every member of the global community will be able to realize and express his or her own unique place and potential in the world, so that in the unity of the parts a larger, holistic vision of humanity will emerge. There is a tremendous urgency in the world today, as though society were racing madly towards some unspoken goal. The pieces of a giant jigsaw- puzzle are being set into place, but it is being assembled face down. Only when the last piece is fitted in place will the whole puzzle will flip over to reveal a vision of transcendent unity. "All is being prepared for the Banquet," said the great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, commenting on the multitude of forces active in the world each day (Ethics of the Fathers 3:20). The entire creation is quickly being prepared for the moment of final revelation.

The concept of unity born out of diversity is central to the Torah's metaphysical world- view. The path of Torah involves the integration of all aspects of reality within a greater framework so that in the alignment of the parts, a transcendent vision of G-d emerges. The halacha -- the law -- is concerned with even the minutest details of daily life. No particular is too small for the Torah's concern, for nothing may be left out of the grand plan of creation. In his book The Thirteen Petalled Rose, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz writes:

The system of the mitzvot (the commandments) constitutes the design for a coherent harmony, its separate components being like the instruments of an orchestra. So vast is the harmony to be created by this orchestra that it includes the whole world and promises the perfecting of the world. Seeing the mitzvot in this light, one may understand on the one hand, the need for so great a number of details and, on the other, the denial of any exclusive emphasis on any one detail or aspect of life. The mitzvot as a system include all of life, from the time one opens one's eyes in the morning until one goes to sleep, from the day of birth to the last breath.

This is the Kabbalistic concept of Tikkun HaOlam -- universal repair -- which lies at the heart of Jewish mysticism. It means the reordering of creation into a vessel for Divine revelation. This is the underlying process of human history, the paradigm of which is alluded to in the Pentateuch, in the passages concerning the construction of the Mishkan -- the Desert Sanctuary. The Mishkan was a microcosm of a redeemed creation in which all the components worked in perfect harmony to reveal G-d's Presence.

The Torah describes with great detail the design of the Mishkan. After several chapters delineating its construction, the moment of its assemblage arrives:

"And the L-rd spoke to Moses, saying: On the first day of the first month shall you set up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting. and you shall put in it the ark of the Testimony, and hang the veil before the ark. And you shall bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and you shall bring in the candlestick, and light its lamps. and you shall set the altar of gold for incense before the Ark of the Testimony, and put the screen of the door to the tabernacle. And you shall set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacles of the Tent of Meeting . . .

"Thus did Moses, according to all that the L-rd commanded him, so he did . . . So Moses finished the work . . .

"Then a cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Glory of the L-rd filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the L-rd filled the tabernacle" (Exodus 40).

This same scenario is repeated many centuries later, in the building of the Beit HaMik- dash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Once again, after several chapters of detailed descriptions as to its construction:

"So was ended all the work that King Solomon made for the house of the L-rd. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, he put in the treasuries of the house of the L-rd . . . And the priests brought in the Ark of the Covenant of the L-rd to its place, into the sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.

"And it came to pass, when the priest came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the L-rd, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the L-rd had filled the house . . . " (I Kings, 8).

So too, all of creation is "G-d's house," and every individual a holy vessel. When all the parts have been put into place, G-d's glory will fill the universe. According to the Kabbalah, the creation, as we know it now, is in a broken state. The "pieces" do not fit together to reveal the presence of the One Creator. Through the study of Torah and the practice of mitzvot, we reassemble these pieces so that G-d's glory can once more fill His house.

This process is further explained in the teachings of Kabbalah. According to the Arizal (R. Yitzhak Luria), the first step in the fulfillment of G-d's desire to emanate a creation was the creation of "vessels" that could hold the divine light. These vessels are the sefirot that are at the heart of Kabbalistic study. Kabbalah teaches that these initial vessels were not strong enough to hold the subsequent revelation and they "shattered," causing the vision of G-d to be lost in the world. This is known as the "breaking of the vessels" that occurred at the beginning of creation, and continues to occur at the spiritual roots of reality, and within the human consciousness. One of the primary reasons for the breakage, according to the Arizal, was the fact that the sefirot did not act in unison with each other. Each one was meant to serve as a unique channel for conveying divine light. But, because they failed to function as a unit, none of them alone could hold the blast of revelation.

The repair of the sefirot , the cosmos, and the consciousness, occurs through the path of Torah and mitzvot. The word mitzvah is grammatically related to the word "to join" for mitzvot join man to G-d, and man to man. The Talmud teaches that "love your friend as yourself" is the fundamental principle of the Torah. Each mitzvah adds to the perfection of the world. The repair of the sefirot is achieved through their reintegration, so that each sefirah contains within it all the others, and can thus be in active communication with the entire system. (Just as two people can only act in unison when they can each accept the another's opinion). Each sefirah retains its original function, but now operates in harmony with the entire "tree." Thus, as a whole, the sefirot are able to hold G-d's light.

This is reflected on the human level in the dual process discussed above. Every single individual has a unique contribution to make to the creation, just as every sefirah is a particular and unique channel for revelation. Yet, only when each individual can integrate his potential within the larger framework of humanity will the presence of G-d be revealed. "When will the Messiah come?" asks the midrash. "When all the souls that need to be born finally emerge." Meaning to say, when each aspect of creation that is still in potential is born into actuality (including the unrealized potential of each individual's soul). Only then will the picture be complete.

Thus, every individual can and must contribute to the perfection of the creation. The Talmud states, "Do not belittle any person, or dismiss anything, for there is no man that does not have his hour, and no thing that does not have its place" (Ethics of the Fathers 4:3). Rabbi Moshe Rosenstein of Lomza, one of the great ethical teachers of Judaism wrote of this:

"It is a basic principle of the Torah that we are bound to value every individual. For 'Each man must say: the world was created for my sake' (Sanhedrin 37a). Yet, the thought steals to mind, 'How is it possible to view each man as a world in himself?' When we see that man is as numerous as the fish in the sea, are we to truly think that each is worthy to have G-d create the world for his sake? How can we imagine that G-d would make a covenant with each and every one?

"But when we gaze upwards, to the heavens, towards the billions of stars and realize that each is a world in itself, immense and important, then we can believe that, even if the people of the world are like the sands of the shores, each is a world in himself. G-d created all for his sake and he is worthy to hear the word of G-d and enter into His covenant." (From The Pesach Haggadah . Mesorah Publications)

There is the Torah of the creation, in which all individuals share a part, and there is the unique Torah of the Jewish People, which is G-d's manifest will for man. Just as the myriad individuals in the world each have their own viewpoints waiting to be expressed. So too, every Jew has a unique portion and approach to the Torah. Each one can write his own commentary based on the perspective of his soul. The Zohar states that the word "Israel" is an acronym for the words, "There are 600,000 letters in the Torah," corresponding to the 600,000 root souls that left Egypt (Exodus 12:37). Meaning to say, each letter in the Torah corresponds to another Jewish soul, implying that every Jew has his own unique outlook on the Torah. Rabbi Avraham Azulai, one of the great Sefardic Kabbalists, wrote that in the World to Come, every Jew will study the entire Torah from the perspective of his soul. The Baal Shem Tov, in a complementary idea, taught that when the Messiah arrives, he will explain the entire Torah from the perspective of each and every letter, starting from the first letter of the Torah to the last. Then he will join all the letters together into one long Name of G-d and explain the entire Torah from the total perspective. Meaning to say, first he will explain the Torah according to the unique view of every individual, so that each one will to hear an explanation of Torah that rings harmoniously with the root of his soul. Then he will join all the letters together, and reveal the unity of the entire Jewish People through the Torah. Thus we request in our prayers, "Build the Temple quickly in our days, and give us our portion in Your Torah," for the two ideas are related. When the unique potential of every Jew is revealed, then all the parts of creation will be assembled into a Temple to house the Glory of G-d.

All of these ideas are part of the inner meaning of the days of Sefirot HaOmer, the seven weeks between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The Torah commands us: "You shall count fifty days, seven complete weeks, from the morrow of the rest day (Passover) when you brought the Omer wave offering, until the morrow of the seventh week, and then offer a new meal offering to the L-rd" (Leviticus 23:15). We perform this counting in a special prayer recited after the evening service. The entire period of Sefirot HaOmer is one of growing anticipation that culminates on Shavuot, the day of receiving the Torah.

Kabbalistically, the seven weeks of the Omer correspond to the seven lower sefirot. Each week a different sefirah is perfected and refined. The first week of Sefirot HaOmer is the time when the attribute of Chesed -- love -- predominates. The second week is the period of Gevurah -- restraint. The third week, Tiferes -- grace. Furthermore, the seven days of the week also correspond to the sefirot, amounting to forty-nine combinations in all (7 x 7). As we explained above, the repair of the sefirot entails the integration of each sefirah within the others. Thus, in the course of the week, the predominant characteristic of the governing sefirah is integrated with the unique attributes of the other six. Thus, the first day of the week of Chesed corresponds to the attribute of Chesed within Chesed -- pure, gratuitous love. The second day of the first week is Gevurah within Chesed, a restrained love that takes into account one's own needs and limitations. The third day is Tiferes within Chesed, a graceful kind of giving in which the recipient does not realize that he is receiving a gift. Likewise, the sefirah of Gevurah is expressed through the prism of all seven sefirot, including Netzach (continuity), Hod (honor), Yesod (stability), and Malkut (authority). This process repeats itself for forty-nine days, until each attribute is developed and expanded. By being aware of the daily sefirah, and working on the quality that it conveys, we can slowly perfect all our different character traits. (Even if we do not do this consciously, the simple act of counting effects a transformation on the unconscious level.) When the sefirot are in their repaired state, each one containing all the rest, then a new unified vessel is formed to contain G-d's light. At that point, we reach the fiftieth day -- Shavuot: the day of receiving the Torah. The day on which G-d revealed Himself to the entire nation of Israel.

"And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with G-d; and they stood at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai smoked in every part, because the L-rd descended upon it in fire: and the smoke of it ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And the voice of the shofar sounded louder and louder; Moses spoke, and G-d answered him in a voice. And G-d came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain . . ." (Exodus 19).

In these verses can be found the two stages discussed above. First, the period of human activity in which the various elements of creation are woven into a harmonious whole, and then the moment of revelation, when the Almighty descends into our lives from above, as He did at Mount Sinai, the Mishkan and the Temple. When we, as human beings, can achieve a total love and integration among ourselves, then a transcendent unity, greater than the combination of the parts, becomes revealed through us.

This process, which extends throughout the period of the Sefirot HaOmer and culminates on Shavuot is also at the heart of a special holiday that occurs during that time. On the thirty-third day of the Omer, there is a minor holiday, something of a Jewish folk-festival, call Lag B'Omer (literally, the 33rd of the Omer). The day is usually commemorated with family outings and the lighting of bonfires. Two significant events occurred on this day. In the second century c.e., lived one of the most influential sages in Jewish history, Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef. At the height of his greatness, Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students. But in one year, they all died of a plague that started after Passover and continued until Lag B'Omer. Even today, these weeks remain a period of mourning for the Jewish nation. Yet, despite this tremendous tragedy, Rabbi Akiva continued teaching and spreading Torah. He began again, with five brilliant pupils, and once more established the Torah in Israel. In fact, the entire Oral Torah we have today came through these disciples, whose legal opinions form the basis of the Mishnah, the essential compendium of Jewish law.

According to the Talmud, the 24,000 students died for one reason -- they did not show respect for one another. In other words, they were unfit vessels for receiving the teachings of Rabbi Akiva, perhaps the greatest master of the Oral Torah. Their deaths reflect the process of sheviras hakelim -- the breaking of the vessels, whereas the five students of Rabbi Akiva's old age -- representing the world of tikkun -- were able to hold the light of revelation. Thus, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, one of the five, said about himself and his companions "we exist because of the love between us." It is precisely during this period of Sefirot HaOmer that the vessels are made or destroyed. Either we forge a greater whole into which G-d's light can shine, or we remain autonomous, unenlightened, and ultimately, broken individuals.

Furthermore, Lag B'Omer corresponds to the sefirah of Hod within Hod, "Honor within Honor." Honor is an attribute dependant upon others, i.e. it is not something intrinsic to an individual but acquired from without. A person gains honor and respect according to his deeds, words, or even dress. True honor, however, comes upon actualizing one's innermost strengths. Lag B'Omer is the day when the inner beauty of each individual can be revealed.

All of these ideas can be seen in Judaism's great emphasis on community as a spiritual path. Although the Torah has always acknowledged the importance of solitude, ultimately, its vision of holy community is primary. This is because community (both the wider social community and the family as basic communal unit), with its interaction and interrelation of parts is seen as the primary vessel for the revelation of G-d. The outstanding difference between a true Torah-based community and that of modern Western society is that while in both cases, the individual's unique potential is acknowledged, in a Torah community, realization of that potential does not separate the individual from the whole. Whereas, in contemporary Western society, uniqueness leads to pride, and a sense of superiority, in Jewish community, the individual's talents are seen as merely one contribution to the overall glory of a nation dedicated to serving G-d -- merely one gem set in the great robe of the King. Uniqueness is expressed within the framework of the whole. This is the lesson of Sefirot HaOmer and the story of Rabbi Akiva and his students.

Thus, the period between Pesach and Shavuot is a time to work on both individual strengths and community relations. Rather than remaining separate, we must reveal our unique potential and integrate it into the whole. Then we form a powerful new vessel to hold the light of G-d.

May the Holy One shine His light upon us, and may we be vessels worthy to receive it.

On the first night of Chol HaMoed (the second night of Pesach in the Diaspora) after the evening prayer, we begin to count the sefirah. The enumeration can be found in any prayer-book. The counting is preceded by a blessing: "Blessed are you, L-rd our G-d, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us on the counting of the Omer." We count days and weeks, for instance, "Today is the twenty-fifth day, which is three weeks and four days of the Omer." Thus we acknowledge the importance of the individual sefirah within the context of the whole.

If one forgot to count the sefirah one night, one can still do so anytime the next day, however, without making the preliminary blessing. If one completely forgot to count that day's sefirah, one can still count the next night, but may no longer make the blessing any of the remaining nights of sefirah. This implies that blessing can only descend when the wholeness remains intact.

In most prayerbooks, the nightly Kabbalistic sefirah is noted in the prayers. It is good to be aware of this sefirah, for it is the governing energy of that day. Everything one sees and hears during that time is a direct reflection of that spiritual energy. By refining one's behavior according to the sefirah, one repairs the corresponding spiritual energy. An excellent book discussing the emotive and cognitive aspects of the sefirot is Tomer Devorah, (The Palm Tree of Devorah, Targum Press), by the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero.

On the thirty-third day of the Omer is Lag B'Omer. (This year Tuesday, May 4th.) It is a time for festivity and family outings.

On the night of Shavuot, the fiftieth day, the evening prayers are delayed until complete nightfall so that forty-nine complete days will have transpired since Pesach. The vessels must be completely in place before the light descends from above.

This article was originally written as a holiday supplement for A Still Small Voice, a correspondence course in Jewish esoteric wisdom.

(C) Eliezer Shore, Bas Ayin

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