6.5.07

the alchemist

This past Shabbath was amazingly special, from kabbalath shabbath (the recieving of the Queen - the opening of Shabbath) through to the melaveh malka. (the escorting of the Queen - the closing meal after Shabbath)

It was such a special day, so extraordinary in how easily the tefilloth and the Torah just flowed. I told my wife it was a really special day, and I was so curious why it was, but, being shabbath, I couldn't go online to uncover what made this day different than any other. First of all the most obvious reasons, it was the 32nd day of the counting of the omer, 32 as we've mentioned previously is the gematria of the word heart or לב - lev. So, it was the heart of the counting of the omer. [Still, the last time I remember a day being so full of light and bright with joy was the day of hillulah (the yarzheit) of the אור החיים - Ohr haChayyim. (Rav Hayyim ben Atar who wrote a commentary on the Torah.)]

Today, checking out the Zchus Aleinu blog, I found out that Shabbath had been the yartzheit of the Noda B'Yehudah. [You can read up on just who he was, by clicking here.] I hadn't really heard of him until now, but I can tell you the day of his yartzheit is a very special day. I loved the way Hassidut embraced him, despite his complete opposition to them. He even intimated that they were sinners by replacing the word sinners with the word Hassidim in a passuk he quoted. The Hassidim's response? He turned sinners into Hassidim, what could be better than that?

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