In a few days, we will be celebrating the holiday of Shavuot and completing the cycle of “the counting of the omer.” One of the age-old questions regarding Sefiras Ha’Omer is why the days are counted ‘up,’ rather than ‘counting down,’ as often happens when we anticipate something. There are many great answers, but I will give my version of the one that resonates most with me.
Rav Shimshon Pinkus z”tl has a great analogy to answer this question. Imagine the following two scenarios. In the first scenario, someone approaches you and says, “I will give you one million dollars at the end of fifty days if you visit me every day.” In a second scenario, he says, “Visit me, and I will give you twenty thousand dollars every day for fifty days, totaling one million dollars.”
In both scenarios, you walk away with one million dollars, yet there is a substantial difference between the two. In the first scenario, the fifty days separate you from your one million dollars, and it will seem like forever. You will want those days to pass by as fast as possible, and every day is an obstacle to your end goal.
In the second scenario, each of the fifty days creates your one million dollars. Every day you are getting richer. On the first day, you have $20,000; on the second day, you have $40,000, and so on. Every day counts and directly impacts your wealth from the day before. You have access to the money, and you can already take advantage of it, using it to your benefit.
Over the past ten months, I lost a considerable amount of weight. When people see me after not having seen me in a while, they always want to know what I did to achieve my results. As I tell them, in addition to being mindful of what I was eating, I adopted a daily exercise schedule where I would walk outside or on the treadmill.
After a few weeks of being on the treadmill, I realized that I wasn’t losing any more weight as I had when I began. I started to track my numbers each day. I also decided to implement a new routine where I would force myself to increase at least one metric compared to the day before. Whether it was an extra second longer on the treadmill, an extra burnt calorie, or one fraction of a mile further, I committed to simply doing “one more” every day.
That one shift helped me combine my new daily discipline with a growth-minded attitude, making all the difference. On the surface, the workouts were all very similar to the day before, with one slight, seemingly insignificant modification. Each day was marginally different from the day before, but they were substantial compared to the weeks prior and from when I began.
That is the lesson of Sefiras Ha’Omer and the power of making our days count. The message holds true for all of our pursuits and aspirations. Our goal should be to make small minor improvements each and every day. May we all be blessed with maximizing our moments and bringing value to each day.
Special shout out and birthday wishes to Erika Baldino, Dr. Jody Bardash, Chaim Davidovitch, Erica Goldstein, Robin Greenfield, Rabbi Heshy Grossman, Racheli Israeli, David Joyandeh, Brian Ladenheim, Jennifer Schlusselberg, Elie Schwartz, Daniel Tennenbaum, and Kenny Yager.
Shmuel Shayowitz (NMLS#19871) is President and Chief Lending Officer at Approved Funding, a privately held local mortgage banker and direct lender. Approved Funding is a mortgage company offering competitive interest rates as well as specialty niche programs on all types of Residential and Commercial properties. Shmuel has over 20 years of industry experience, including licenses and certifications as a certified mortgage underwriter, residential review appraiser, licensed real estate agent, and direct FHA specialized underwriter. He can be reached via email at [email protected].
