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From the Rabbi:
This week we finish off the Sefirat HaOmer with the sefirah of Malchut, often translated as Kingdom. This stands in relationship with the previous six as the kingdom to the king. While the previous six traits could be understood as character traits of the king himself, this seventh and final Sefirah represents the Kingdom for which he is responsible, and specifically the characteristic of the kingdom's acceptance of their king as king. In halachic language we call this "Accepting the Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven". In many ways, this trait of acceptance is essential to this Sefirah, and therefore it makes sense that this would be the final stage of the prerequisite counting before the 'Acceptance of Torah' on Shavuot.
Malchut, being the seventh Sefirah is akin to Shabbat and her unique relationship to the six days of creation. So to understand Malchut and her receptive, feminine nature let's look at the familiar opening line of the story of Shabbat which we repeat several times every Friday evening: (Gen 2:1) וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ וְכׇל־צְבָאָם׃
וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה "And the Heavens and the Earth were completed with all their inhabitants, and God finished on the Seventh Day all His work which He had done". The words ויכולו and ויכל which here are translated 'completed' and 'finished' share the root כלל which also means 'included' such that we could understand that on Shabbat, no part of creation was rejected, and Shabbat included all parts of Heaven and Earth. Similarly, having "finished all the work' means accepting the entirety of the world and all of creation exactly as it is.
This kind of wholesale acceptance is indicative of the nature of Shabbat and the trait of Malchut. Not just accepting a part or a moment within a larger context, accepting the entirety. Complete and total acceptance requires enormous trust. When we refrain from doing work or doing business on Shabbat or refraining from farming on the Sabbatical year we're expressing great trust and closeness with the Creator of all. That trust extends through all of halacha when we accept it and commit to follow the instructions of our King. Our statement at mt Sinai (Ex. 24:7) נעשה ונשמע "We will do and we will hear" is indicative of this trust and this acceptance. We commit ourselves to total acceptance of the Torah without knowing all the details. First we accept, then we try to understand the content.
Every year in preparation for Shavuot we read Parshat Bamidbar in which Moshe and Aaron took a census of the entirety of Klal Yisrael. There's that word כלל again - Israel Inclusive, nobody left out. We read this yearly to reenact our encampment at mt Sinai at exactly this time of the year as 'one person with one heart'. (Ex. 19:1-2) "On the third Month after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai... Israel encamped(singular) there in front of the mountain." The total unity of Klal Yisrael is the critical prerequisite for acceptance of the Torah.
It is well known that the approximately 600,000 souls counted in the census match up with the approximately 600,000 letters of the Torah. Each of us are like a letter of the Torah, without which it would not be whole. So, complete acceptance of Klal Yisrael IS complete acceptance of Torah, and complete acceptance of Torah IS complete acceptance of Klal Yisrael. We are us, exactly as we are and we ARE the Torah.
Along these lines, the great early Chassidic Master, Rebbe Pichas of Koritz taught that when a person is unable to understand something in their learning it is because they are incomplete in their love of Am Yisrael and only if they can resolve their inner conflict and love all of Klal Yisrael completely will they come to a correct understanding in Torah. Ipso facto, if our Torah leads us to divisiveness and hatred of other Jews, there's something off in our understanding.
May we truly accept ourselves, each other, all of Klal Yisrael and accept the Torah anew this Shavuot.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Smaeach,
Reb Shlomo
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