Although we are post-Pesach, we just can’t let go, because Yetziat Mitzrayim is every day of the year. In our lessons before Pesach, we mentioned the concept of Mazalot, which are certain signs in the heavens, for which the secular term ‘horoscope’ is used. It was the belief of the ancient Egyptians that the sheep was the most powerful of the horoscopes. In Hebrew it is called T’leh, and in Latin it is Aries. The sign that follows, for the month of Iyar, is called Taurus in Latin, and Shor in Hebrew, and it’s an ox.
As we discussed before Pesach, the Jewish people were commanded by God to slaughter the sheep down here, which is an indicator that with the power of our Mitzvot, we are above Mazal. With that, they knocked out that sheep, and therefore, we no longer needed to deal with the sheep. It was no longer a power, because God is above the sheep. It is hard for us to fully conceive of the concept of Avoda Zara, or to understand the ancient need for a middleman, but it was deeply entrenched in the culture and ways of those times. This was why, when the Jewish people left, the Prosecuting Forces said, “They (the Jews and Egyptians) are both idol- worshipers.”
They believed in God, but they also believed in the concept of a middleman, and this was the source of the sin of the golden calf.
As Rabbi Yonatan Eibeshitz brilliantly explains in Yaarot Devash, the Jewish people were convinced that the sheep had fallen, but then they looked and saw that what comes after the sheep is the ox, or the baby ox which is the calf. They mistakenly thought, based on the Erev Rav, that they were no longer supposed to deal with the sheep, and that they should now be dealing with the ox. They thought that is what God meant. They thought that the sheep, which was docile, was not suited to the desert where they would need more power. It was their mistake to use the ox as an intermediary- hence, the golden calf.
Rav Wolbe says that this is a deep rooted mistake, this need to use the middleman. Rav Wolbe, in his introduction to the Seder Roni Akarah ( Faith and Folly in English), written by Rav Yaakov Hillel, he writes that people go after charlatans and phony Makubalim in search of salvation, and sometimes they even go after real people in search of salvation. But he says that something is wrong with that. If a person realizes that he has a person next to him that’s his father, he doesn’t go and ask his father‘s friend for an afikomen present, for example.
If you need something, you ask your father. And if you have some kind of issue with your father, you try to make up. You don’t ask your father‘s friend.
The mistake of the golden calf was that they went through the back door, rather than dealing directly with their Father. Children deal with their father. Of course, we believe in the concept of a blessing from an Adam Gadol, but still, there is nothing better than going directly to your Father.
When someone came to him for a blessing, the Chafetz Chaim once said, as I heard from Rav Wolbe, “There is more blessing in a perek of Mishnayot than in my entire body.” Learn some Torah, and that is dealing directly with the Boss. Deal directly with God. We have this misconception that we always need to deal with somebody else. We are children. And children deal with their father.
That was one of the lessons of Yetziat Mitzrayim. Every day, we have to remember Yetziat Mitzrayim. Beni Bechori Yisrael/ You are My children.
There is a specific Yetzer Hara called the Arami, that says, Oved Avi, that wants to destroy my father. This simply means Yaakov Avinu, but the deeper explanation, as we have said, means that He wants to destroy my connection to my Father in heaven. He wants me to think that I can’t deal directly with my Father. That is the force of Amalek, which causes you to say, “Where is my father?”
What do you mean, “Where is my father?” You are on His shoulders!. He gave you everything!
There is a force out there called, Where is my father, and that is the force of Amalek. And as we have said, this force come specifically at this time of year, As we are on our way out of Mitzrayim heading towards Matan Torah, this force comes in and says, “Where is my father?”
Rav Chaim Palaggi says that as we count Sefirat HaOmer, the letter ע Ayin in עומר Omer stands for עשו, Esav. Because Esav was the original force that wanted to steal the Berachot and wanted to be the chosen son. “No Yaakov, You’re not the Bechor, I’m the Bechor…” that’s the Ayin.
The next letters in עמר, Omerמ , Mem and Resh ר stand for רם Ram, which is the numerical value of Amalek. During this time of the Omer, we have to uproot all thoughts of Esav and Amalek, that are trying to say You aren’t the chosen people, you aren’t the child, you can’t deal directly with God.
That’s a mistake. You can deal directly with God. This is one of the important take- aways of Yetziat Mitzrayim, and that is what Rav Chaim Palaggi says we should be thinking about, during the time of Sefirat HaOmer.
Have a wonderful day.