The Rebbe
& New Zealand

Your previous letter was received and your letter from 12 Sivan has now arrived. No doubt, my response from the day before Shavuos, together with the kuntreis for the holiday of Shavuos, reached you a while ago and you have shared it with people at large. I hope that you will begin exerting yourself in our holy mission, particularly with regard to establishing study sessions in public. You should begin anew with what you concluded in Paris and continue with success.

With regard to establishing oneself in a new enterprise or a new place: A connection can be drawn and instruction taken from what I previously heard from my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe: “After our wedding, rooms were built for us (in the family home in Lubavitch). The first step was to bring a class of young boys there to study.”

Implied is that opening a channel is through the medium of the Torah and its mitzvos.

With regard to your questions concerning the fact that in the course of your journey from Europe to Australia, you skipped one day. You ask concerning the reason for the matter and, in particular, how one should conduct himself with regard to the Counting of the Omer.

Since the earth is round and not flat, the shining of the sun is not visible at one time in all parts of the world… Thus if you come to one place from east to west, you will say that it is Sunday, but if you come to the same place from west to east, you will say that it is Monday.

In order to solve this difficulty, you have to find a place from which the days will start. And this touches on the crux of the problem. Since the heavens and the earth are round and circular, the concepts of beginning and end are not relevant. Thus any point could be considered the beginning.

There are three opinions regarding the place where the day starts: a place 90 degrees east of Jerusalem; 145 degrees east of Jerusalem; and 180 degrees east of Jerusalem.

With regard to Australia, according to the last two opinions, since it is east of Jerusalem, its place in the reckoning of the days is the same as that followed by the non-Jews living there. And thus, you should also conduct yourself in this manner, as is the practice of the Jews living there.

As of yet, I have not found anyone who discusses this issue with regard to the Counting of the Omer. Hence all of the following remarks should be considered no more than abstract study… Since there are rationales supporting both positions, one should count both ways and therefore should not recite a blessing.