WHAT WE STAND TO GAIN (OR THE OPPOSITE)

We are now counting the Omer, and it is only now that I'm beginning to understand how crucial this time really is.

Sefiras HaOmer is a time for teshuvah, and Rabbeinu says in Torah 6 that teshuvah is an aspectd of "ana zamin lemehavei" - "I'm preparing to be". Cleansing ourselves during the Sefirah and accepting the Torah anew on Shavuos is going to change our lives so drastically that it is almost like starting a new and better life.

Yet it is not only Kabbalas HaTorah that we're getting ready for. My experience shows that the quality of our teshuvah during the Sefirah is going to determine our quality of life during the whole year afterwards. After all, Nisan when we start to count is the first month of the year. So I was really happy today to find another confirmation for this in gematrias. The words ספירה ("Sefirah"; "Counting the Omer") and שנה ("year") have the same gematria, so I think this proves that the first is really going to determine the second. So it will indeed be worth it to make some more effort with our teshuvah!

But since we are in the middle of the holiday of Pesach and have a mitzvah to be happy, I don't want this post to be too heavy. Instead, I'd like to end it on a humorous note. I'm a real fan of gematrias, but it was only recently that I found the Hebrew Gematria Calculator - https://www.gimatria.co.il/. Not only can it count gematrias in the blink of an eye, but it also provides you with scores of other words and expressions that share the same numerical value. So today it told me that the word "ספירה" ("Sefirah") has the same gematria as "אדם עם כנפים" ("a person with wings"). What can we learn from this? I can't be sure, but maybe this means that our teshuvah will give us inspiration and wings, so we will practically fly towards Kabbalas HaTorah on Shavuos as well as a happy and meaningful year afterwards.

So let's get ready and get to work!