One Day at a Time

Like all the commandments, the Biblical mitzvah of counting the seven weeks between the festivals of Passover and Shavuos comes complete with a detailed ritual. This counting known by the ancient title, the Omer, consists of each individual reciting, “Today is the first day of the Omer,” followed the next evening with, “Today is the second day of the Omer.” “After the counting, we beseech G-d to give us strength to rectify one specific character defect.

When we think of the wondrous miracles of the Exodus, we may overlook the greatest miracle of all: The slaves who had been oppressed and degraded to a sub-human existence, were in seven weeks able to stand at Mt. Sinai and achieve a level of sublime spirituality that was never again duplicated in history. How did such a transformation occur? What magical means metamorphosed the person whose only goal was to rest his weary muscles into a spirit whose devotion surpassed that of the heavenly angels?

The answer is the mitzvah of counting the Omer, whereby one develops spirituality by addressing one defect one day at a time. The Torah teaches us that no challenge is so great that it cannot be successfully overcome if it is only broken into manageable morsels.

Evil always tries to discourage us by magnifying the obstacles. It calls us foolish for undertaking tasks that we can’t possibly finish. Our response must be, “ “I am not concerned with lifetime challenges. I have only today to worry about, and for what I need to accomplish today I have the necessary ability.” “

This piecemeal approach not only makes today’s challenges workable, it provides the means for dealing with the greater challenges in the future. How foolish it would be to confront a child just beginning to learn arithmetic with the knowledge that one day he will have to master calculus. First he tackles addition, then subtraction, multiplication and fractions. Eventually he moves on to algebra, trigonometry and finally to calculus. Each level conquered prepares the student for the next level.

There was no way the newly emancipated slaves could have imagined being spiritually fit for Sinai. But as Moses and the counting gradually brought them closer to their appointment with destiny, the achievements of each day became a resource for meeting the challenges of tomorrow. While the mitzvah of counting the Omer is restricted to the period between Pesach and Shavuos, the principle of living one day at a time is not. In fact, it is the success formula for confronting life’s challenges.