Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Shavua tov and chodesh tov! Today the new month of Sivan begins. We spent Shabbat with my parents in Herzilya. They suddenly noticed that our little daughter would not let me go to bed until she checked to see if I had counted the Omer.
This is something that we started this year, half-jokingly. I simply asked her to remind me every night to count the Omer. 49 days that begin on Pesach, when we celebrate the exodus from Egypt and end with Shavuot, when we celebrate receiving the Torah.
She took this assignment with the utmost seriousness and now, this week, we will celebrate Shavuot. Meanwhile, the two of us did not forget to count even once thanks to her reminders.
If in previous years I tried to remind her to count, this year the roles were reversed. It could be that there is a message here that is appropriate for the festival of the giving of the Torah: Sometimes we need to give a child a task in order for them to develop attachment to a meaningful mission. To receive the Torah, each of us needs to first take on some responsibility that gives us a sense of purpose. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once said: "The best way to tell children a story is to make them part of the story."
Today is the 45th day of the counting of the Omer. Have a good month and, in a few days, have a chag sameach, a joyful holiday.
