By the Grace of G-dRosh Chodesh Iyar, 5730Brooklyn, N.Y.

Greeting and Blessings

The month of Iyar - on the eleventh day of which the Annual Dinner of the Oholei Torah institute is taking place - is distinguished from the other months of the year in that each and every day of this month has the Mitzvah of Sefiras Ha'Omer.

The origin of this Mitzvah, our Sages tell us, goes back to the time of Yetzias Mitzraim. The intent and purpose of the liberation from Egypt was to receive the Torah at Sinai, as G-d told Moshe Rabbeinu, "When you will take the people out of Egypt you will serve G-d at this mountain." Moshe Rabbeinu told this to the children of Israel in Egypt, and they were filled with a great longing for that day. Thus, no sooner did they leave Egypt than they began to count the days and the weeks to the promised day of Receiving the Torah. Seeing how eagerly the Jews counted the days to that event, G-d gave us the Mitzvah of Counting the Omer.

Like all narratives of our Sages, the story of the origin of Sefirah also has an important and eternal message for all Jews, at all times, and in all places. It is that we should know how to cherish the Torah, and how eagerly, devotedly and diligently we must study it and observe its Mitzvoth.

This, indeed, is the purpose of Oholei Torah: To implant into the children the utmost measure of eagerness, devotion, and diligence for Torah and Mitzvoth, which should be evidenced in their conduct and every-day life.

The present days are days of preparation for Receiving the Torah, when every Jew, man and woman, should draw increasingly from the wellspring of love for Torah and Mitzvoth, which flows to us as an inheritance from our ancestors of old. This inspiration must be fully utilized for the benefit of the self and, especially, for the benefit of the children - one's own as well as all children, as our Sages explained the words "Thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children" - "this refers to the talmidim", meaning the pupils of the Chedarim and Yeshivoth. Certainly, where children are concerned, it is human nature to endeavor to give them the best and in the maximal measure.

It is to be hoped, therefore, that in these auspicious days everyone will respond generously to the call of the Oholei Torah institute, and give it the utmost help, in the spirit of usfartem lochem ("you shall count unto yourselves," but indicating also - "you shall make yourselves glitter like sapphires"), which brings glittering light and purity into one's own life, into the life of the family, and all Israel, materially and spiritually.

With esteem and blessing for Hatzlocho and good tidings,

/Signed/ Menachem Schneerson