Sefiras Haomer as zecher L’churban and chol hamoed

Question of why there's no shehecheyanu on the mitzvah Sefirat Haomer. So the Ba'al HaMa'or at the end of Pesachim answers that we can't say shehecheyanu on Sefirat Haomer that Sefirat Haomer is

להגמת נפשינו בחורבן בית מאוויינו. להגמת נפשינו בחורבן בית מאוויינו.

Shehecheyanu has to be associated with simcha. Sefirat Haomer bizman hazeh evokes agmas nefesh. It reinforces our awareness of churban beis ma'avayeinu. Now the Gemara in Menachos does say that at least Amemar at any rate in the Gemara in Menachos says that Sefirat Haomer is zecher lemikdash. But most people don't shed copious tears when they take lulav kol shiva. People are usually rather you catch someone taking a lulav kol shiva they're usually in a good mood. We pasken I think the Mishnah Berurah quotes that if for some reason a person didn't say shehecheyanu hadn't bensched lulav first day so you can say shehecheyanu kol shiva also. So lulav kol shiva is also רבן יוחנן בן זכאי zecher lemikdash. So the Rav zichrono livracha famously used to explain that there are two types of zecher lemikdash. There's a zecher lemikdash bevinyano that we're supposed to be aware, we're supposed to know, we're supposed to be reminded of the way things are really supposed to be. That because we're born into an anomalous situation we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that reality as we know it is skewed and having lulav only in yom rishon is not the way it's supposed to be. That there's supposed to be a place where lulav is kol shiva. So there's zecher lemikdash bevinyano. And then the Rav said but there's another type of zecher lemikdash such as a zecher lemikdash bechurbano. When you take efer and you put it on the mekom tefillin of the chassan and you do that zecher lemikdash, that's not zecher lemikdash bevinyano, that's to remind us not of the way things are supposed to be but that's to reinforce our awareness of churban. So then the question is how did the Ba'al HaMa'or know that when the Gemara in Menachos said that Sefirat Haomer zecher lemikdash so how did the Ba'al HaMa'or know that it's zecher lemikdash bechurbano? So the fuller quote from the Gemara is the Gemara there is discussing whether or not when we count Sephirah we should count in units of days and units of weeks or whether only count in units of days. So the Gemara says that אמימר מנה יומי ולא מנה שבועי אמר זכר למקדש. Okay, so Amemar holds it's only derabbanan, it's not de'oraisa. It's so onerous to add שהם שבוע אחד וששה ימים not all right so for the Vilna Gaon can sign to bitul Torah but I think for the rest of us we can find the time in our schedule to add that so what do you mean? So take a look at Rashi, so Rashi says zecher lemikdash be'alma. I think that's Rashi's lashon in Menachos. Sounds like that Rashi learns pshat that Amemar is saying that the kiyum is not a kiyum Sefirat Haomer but is a kiyum zecher lemikdash. That you have the same shayla by Korech whether Korech is a kiyum matzah umaror or whether it's a kiyum zecher lemikdash. So Rashi seems to be saying that Amemar just says it's overkill because it's not a kiyum Sefirat Haomer it's a kiyum zecher lemikdash. But the Rav said that apparently the Ba'al HaMa'or learned pshat that it's a zecher that we bedavka according to Amemar should be performing the mitzvah shelo bishlemusa because heyos that the whole zecher lemikdash is a zecher lemikdash bechurbano so what we want to reinforce our awareness is of what's missing, of what's lacking. So the way you do that is bedavka to have the מצוה ספירת העומר שלא בשלימותה and that's why Amemar says not that it's enough to be moneh yomei and not moneh shavuei but bedavka we should be mimoneh yamim and not moneh shavuos. So what emerges according to the Ba'al HaMa'or's understanding in this Gemara in Menachos is that Chazal honed in. on the mitzvah of Sefiras Ha'omer as an instrument of zecher l'mikdash b'churbano. Ma ro'u al kach? The Gemara in Yevamos, Talmidei Rabbi Akiva died שלא נהגו כבוד זה בזה. Whatever microscopic shortcoming there was in the Talmidei Rabbi Akiva due to the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu מדקדק עם צדיקים כחוט השערה, for which they were punished, so presumably their behavior was uniform. Whatever again, whatever microscopic shortcoming existed, mistama existed in not only during Chodesh Iyar or the end of Nissan or the beginning of Sivan. So כל מידותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא is midah keneged midah. So why is it that the middas hadin paga bahem davka in this tekufah? The answer lachora is clear that since the period between Pesach and Shavuos is a period of hachana for kabbalas hatorah and Chazal tell us that the tnai kodem lama'aseh for kabbalas hatorah was ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר כאיש אחד בלב אחד. So that means that a central avoda, the central avoda but certainly a central avoda during this tekufah is working on our bein adam l'chaveiro, working on our ahavas yisrael, on contributing our part to the כאיש אחד בלב אחד. So when that's the avoda, so then whatever shortcoming, whatever deficiency rachmana litzlan exists in the לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, so the severity of it is magnified and is accentuated because now of all times when the avoda, when the mitzvas hayom, when the avoda is to be working on the כאיש אחד בלב אחד, the ahavas yisrael, now of all times to be found not to measure up to standards and to expectations, so that's lachora why the middas hadin struck down the Talmidei Rabbi Akiva davka at this time of year. Bayis sheni was nechrav because of sinas chinam. So this is the time of year that there's always an inyan of zecher l'mikdash b'churbano. There's always an inyan, always an inyan of leaving the אמה על גבי אמה in one's home vechulu vechulu. It's not that, it's not that one is ever supposed to,

ראוי לכל יראי שמים להיות דואג ומיצר על חורבן הבית,

it's not as if we're ever supposed to be unaware or desensitized to the fact of churban. But davka this time of year we should be conscious of churban, we should be conscious of the underlying and ongoing cause of churban, of sinas chinam, because this is the time of year especially when we're supposed to be looking to repair that. And hence Chazal chose the mitzvah of Sefiras Ha'omer according to the Ba'al HaMa'or that the mitzvah of Sefiras Ha'omer should be an instrument of zecher l'mikdash b'churbano לאגנת נפשינו לחורבן בית מאויינו. Could be that a little bit this softens, I don't know that it entirely resolves ayen alav, but at least softens the tension between on the one hand whether it's the Ba'al HaMa'or's characterization of mitzvas Sefiras Ha'omer, whether it's the minhagei aveilus we have based on the Gemara in Yevamos, with the famous Ramban al hatorah where the Ramban says that the days between Pesach and Shavuos, he says al pi... And that the same way between the first days of Sukkos and Atzeres, Shmini Atzeres is Chol HaMoed, so too between the days of Yom Tov of Pesach and the Atzeres of Shavuos is also Chol HaMoed. So again there is on a certain level a tension between that we sort of layer on aveilus and according to the Ramban it's the days with Kedushas Chol HaMoed. So again I don't know that what we're going to say adequately addresses that but it at least softens it somewhat perhaps. Yom Tov, every Yom Tov, leaving aside for the moment the Ramban's sort of new Yom Tov as it were of these days, the newly discovered, newly revealed Chol HaMoed for us, but leaving that aside, so every Yom Tov has its avodah, every Yom Tov has its avodah. Chol HaMoed is part of Yom Tov has its avodah also. The peshat is, agam that mitzad the Yom Tov also, so the avodah of the days of Chol HaMoed is also the transition, the bridge between Yetzias Mitzrayim and Kabbalas HaTorah. So even though again according to the Ba'al HaMa'or al pi the Gemara in Yevamos, the focus and the emphasis on the bein adam l'chaveiro is emerging out of aveilus, but practically l'halacha l'ma'aseh the Ramban's Chol HaMoed points you in the same direction. The upshot, the l'halacha l'ma'aseh of the Ramban's Chol HaMoed is the same as it is of the aveilus. And just finally, the fact that כאיש אחד בלב אחד Chazal explain to us is the sine qua non for Kabbalas HaTorah is rooted in the fact that HaKadosh Baruch Hu bestowed the Torah not on 600,000 yechidim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu bestowed the Torah on Klal Yisrael as a whole, Klal Yisrael as a single indivisible entity. Whatever chiyuvim each of us are blessed with and obligated with as yechidim is because we belong to the klal. But the Torah wasn't given to yechidim, the Torah was given to the klal. In order for there to be a Kabbalas HaTorah so there has to be a sense of being one, there has to be a sense of being a klal. It can't, the sense of being a yachid and whatever causes rachmana l'tzlan divisiveness, whatever causes friction, tension, that detracts from the unity, the cohesiveness of the klal, and if there's no klal, if there's no כאיש אחד בלב אחד, there's no one to give the Torah to. The Torah isn't given, Torah's not given to thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of yechidim, it's given to the one klal. That one klal is held together by its bein adam l'chaveiro, it's held together by its כאיש אחד בלב אחד, hence that's the avodah, whether it's the avodah of the Yom Tov or whether it's the avodah of the aveilus of these days, and it's again a central, central focus as we prepare for in five weeks' time or so b'ezras Hashem for Kabbalas HaTorah.