What is the connection between Lag B'Omer and the revolt against the Romans by Bar Kochba and his army? And how does all of this relate to Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, author of the mystical books of the Zohar who lived in the same era, about whom we sing on Lag B'Omer.Īnd finally, why are all these questions never discussed in the open, as are for example the Four Questions of the Passover Seder? Why is Lag B'Omer a day of "celebration"? If all that happened on Lag B'Omer was but a temporary halt in the dying, wouldn't it be more fitting to set it aside as a memorial day for the twenty-four thousand scholars who died? What were Rabbi Akiva's students guilty of that they deserved to die? If Rabbi Akiva's students died as a result of God's punishment for their sins, why should we mourn them? Didn't they deserve their punishment? There also appear to be glaring inconsistencies in the story itself. Why does the Sefirah mourning coincide with the joyous holidays of Passover and Shavuot, which in turn coincide with the period of harvest festivities? Nature and events correspond and intermesh, certain days and periods are most suited to joy or sadness. Why is the death of Rabbi Akiva's students given so much more weight?Įvery event in the Jewish calendar was placed there by the Divine hand because it conforms to a pre-set notion of the significance of the seasons and of history. Yet, these tragic events are not commemorated by even one special day of mourning. In terms of numbers, the massacres of the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the Chemelnitsky pogroms, and the Holocaust which destroyed European Jewry and cost six million Jewish lives far overshadow the death of Rabbi Akiva's students. Why does this event, the death of Rabbi Akiva's students, tragic as it was, merit thirty-two days of mourning when greater tragedies in Jewish history, such as the destruction of both Temples or the breaking of the Stone Tablets of the Covenant by Moses, are marked by a single day of mourning. This explanation leaves us with a number of difficulties and still more unanswered questions. Why did they die? Because the Talmud teaches, "they did not show proper respect to one another." Lag B'Omer is celebrated on the thirty-third day because on that day the plague ended and Rabbi Akiva's students stopped dying. What is the reason for sadness during what should have been a period of joyful anticipation? The reason, the Babylonian Talmud tells us, is that during this period, Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students, who lived 1,850 years ago in the Roman dominated Land of Israel, died from a mysterious God sent plague. It is on the sad side of Sefirah that we come across the holiday of Lag B'Omer, the one day during this sad period when our mourning is halted, when sadness is forbidden. Weddings, music and haircuts are not permitted, some do not shave during this entire period. While the Exodus marks the physical birth of the Jewish nation ― the Giving of Torah completes the process through the spiritual birth of the Jewish nation.Įach year, as we celebrate the Seder on Passover, we are commanded to "see ourselves as though each of us actually experienced the Exodus." It therefore follows that we must prepare ourselves during the Sefirah period (counting of the Omer), to once again accept the Torah on Shavuot ― to make our freedom spiritually complete.Ĭlearly then, the Sefirah days should have been days of joy, but instead, they are observed as a period of semi-mourning. Sinai which took place on Shavuot, exactly fifty days after the Exodus. Having experienced the Exodus from Egypt on Pesach, every Jew literally "counts the days" from the first night of Passover until Mattan Torah ― the revelation of Torah at Mt. This fifty-day period should have been a time of joyful anticipation. The seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot are the days of the "Counting of the Omer," the harvest festivities which were observed in the Land of Israel when the Temple stood on Mt. Yet it contains historic lessons of such great severity ― that this generation must not only unravel the mystery of Lag B'Omer but will discover that its own fate is wrapped in the crevices of its secrets. It is an oasis of joy in the midst of the sad Sefirah period which is almost unnoticed by most contemporary Jews. Thirty-three days following the first day of Passover, Jews celebrate a "minor" holiday called Lag B'Omer, the thirty-third day of the Omer.
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