Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Behukotai - Lag B’omer Leviticus: 26:3-27:34

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - "The mystery of Lag B’omer"

One of the most obscure of the Festivals of the Hebrew calendar, whose origins seem to have been buried in the sands of time, is Lag B’omer, (the 33rd day of the count of the Omer between Passover and Shavuot). Despite the fact that it comes as a welcome respite from the days of mourning which precede (and according to some customs also follow) it, and it is therefore an extremely busy day for catering halls and wedding participants, its origins are shrouded in mystery.

Yes, our legal codes (Shulhan Arukh Orah Haim 493,1) record that 24,000 students of the famed Rabbi Akiba died during the period between Passover and Shavuot (either in a plague or in the Bar Kochba rebellion and its aftermath), and they did not die on Lag B’omer. But does the absence of tragedy for one day justify such a national celebration, which is marked in Israel by massive visitations to the grave of Rav Shimon Bar Yohai in Safed and very large bonfires by the teen-agers which makes Efrat resemble a pyromaniac’s paradise?

The Hidah (OT 223) maintains that Lag B’omer is the date of Rav Shimon bar Yohai’s death, which would explain all of the celebrations around his grave; indeed, our mystical tradition records that his last day on earth was the day in which the Almighty revealed to him the Holy Zohar. And Shir Rappaport, the well-known historian of the 19th Century, suggests that Lag B’omer is the day in which Rav Shimon bar Yohai left the cave - which signaled the death of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, the end of the Hadrian persecutions, and therefore the cessation of the horrific persecution and execution of Rabbi Akiba’s disciples as the tragic conclusion to the abortive Bar Kochba rebellion!

Permit me to suggest an added significance to our celebrating Lag B’omer as the day in which Rav Shimon bar Yohai left the cave - which is especially important in the light of our present-day Hebrew calendar. The Talmud (B.T. Shabbnt 33b) records a conversation between three disciples of Rabbi Akiba: one praised Rome for her market-places, her bath-houses and her bridges; the second was silent; Rav Shimon denigrated the accomplishments, insisting that the market-places encouraged prostitution, the bath-houses were only for individual hedonistic satisfaction and the bridges levied exorbitant taxes on the average citizen. The Rabbi who praised Rome was rewarded with a ministerial position, the Rabbi who was silent was exiled, and Rav Shimon was given the death penalty.

Rav Shimon and his son escaped to a cave in Pekiin, where a fig tree and a well of water were miraculously created to provide their nourishment. They remained hidden away for twelve years, totally absorbed in the study of Torah. When Elijah the Prophet informed them that the Roman Emperor was dead and his evil decree rescinded, they left the cave - only to see a farmer tilling the ground. “How can you forsake the eternal world of Torah and occupy yourself in the temporal world of agriculture?,” criticized Rav Shimon - and a fire emanated from his eyes, about to consume the hopeless farmer. “You left the cave to destroy my world,” thundered a Divine voice. ‘Return to the cave from whence you came!” They returned to the cave for 12 months. They then exited for the second time; and it was Friday, close to dusk, and they saw an old man running with two myrtle twigs. “One is for, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’, and the other is for ‘Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy,’” he explained. They returned to the world in peace.

Apparently, the old man taught them that even agricultural activity could be sanctified since myrtle twigs could be used to enhance the Sabbath table and that every area of the material world must be uplifted during the six days of the week if we are eventually to be able to observe and experience the redemptive bliss of a world which is wholly Sabbath.

The Talmudic story doesn’t end there. Rav Shimon decided that since he had been miraculously saved from death - he had been granted the privilege of leaving the cave alive - he ought “repair something” in gratitude to the almighty. He noted that when grandfather Jacob had emerged whole from his encounter with Esau (the fore-runner of Rome), he also repaired his city: either by establishing market-places, or building bath-houses, or minting coins. Mark well that Rav Shimon now realizes that the most special of the Biblical Patriarchs had dedicated his creative energies to precisely those aspects of society for which he had denigrated Rome thirteen years before: market places, bath-houses, and moneys which could be used to pay taxes. Rav Shimon then goes on to purify a parcel of land which had been of a questionable status (Safek Tamei), and had therefore been previously considered to be defiled.

Rav Shimon learned a crucial lesson: true sanctity comes about not by escaping the material, incomplete world of the present, not by divorcing Torah from society, but rather by involving Torah in all of the regular daily, worldly pursuits and “Kedoshufying” them. True sanctity means going into a place of questionable purity and making it pure!

Let us now return to Lag B’omer. The days between Passover and Shavuot are days of repentance and return to Torah and Israel which define our march towards redemption. Tragically we have fallen short of our goal, and these days have become days of mourning, culminating in the worst tragedy of Jewish exile, the holocaust, with Yom Hashoah just a few days after Passover.

But this period has also seen Israeli Independence Day and Jerusalem Day, specifically as new festivals in our fortunate generation. Rav Shimon bar Yohai’s lesson of Lag B’omer when he left the cave for the second time is especially poignant and pregnant with meaning today. We dare not turn our eyes away from the miraculous gift of the Jewish State because it has not yet reached spiritual perfection, because it is still a work-in-progress brought about by G-d and special individuals who accomplish much but falter as well. We must learn from Rav Shimon bar Yohai that the highest sanctity lies in entering an area of questionable status and working towards purifying it, in turning the “beginning of the sprouting of the redemption” into the complete redemption of a world of peace and harmony.

Shabbat Shalom