With Shavuot just a couple of hours away, I feel I need to make a post.

Sefirat Ha'Omer is about growth and spiritual development; it is about striving to become more than you were and reaching greater heights. And Shavuot, the culmination of those seven weeks of progress and awareness, is a good time to look back and see how far you have come.

Of course, a Jew should always be striving toward perfection (according to Torah values), and it should not matter so much whether it is Sefirat Ha'Omer, Aseret Yimei Tshuva, Rosh Hashana, or just any common day. But it is easier to work within a frame, when you have the feeling of, "During this time, I should be working on myself. I better do something."

I did not think about it much though until my school's Shabbaton this month. There were many speakers, and a few of them discussed Sefirat Ha'Omer. It is a pity that most of the speeches were on Shabbat, or I would have written them down. But on the whole, when I left the Shabbaton and returned home, I took with me a lot of inspiration and a higher sense of awareness.

Now that it is almost Shavuot, I am looking back on the past couple of weeks (since Shabbaton) and I do see a difference in the way I am living my life and my attitude toward it. I never really expected there to be any change this year, but it is amazing how things work out, and you find yourself improving unexpectedly.

I just want to wish all of you a Chag Sameach and a year full of growth and accomplishment.