Lag BaOmer: Celebrating The Miracle of Jewish Eternity - Rabbi Shlomo Landau

I want you to picture for a moment this super disturbing scenario. It's 1939. There's a family living in a small shtetl in Poland. A father, a mother, and 10 children. The Nazis invade the town, ship the entire family off to Auschwitz. They arrive at Auschwitz and unfortunately, on the spot, the mother and five of the children are sent to the gas chamber and the crematoria. The father still has five of those children. At least he has something to hold on to, and he tries everything within his power to help them survive. But sadly, one dies. A few weeks later, the next. A few months later, the next. Until finally, his last and final child dies. He's got nothing left. But instead of mourning, he makes a celebration. And his friends tell him, "Are you out of your mind? Who celebrates in Auschwitz? And what are you celebrating?" He goes, "Thank God, no more dying in my family." We can't even understand such a thing. Yet, isn't that what we do on Lag B'Omer, when around the world everyone celebrates? What do they celebrate? Simply understood, Rabbi Akiva has 24,000 students that unfortunately begin to die one after the next. Over a 33-day period, they all died. And finally, on Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer, there was no more dying. So, there's a celebration. You know why there was no more dying? Cuz there was no one left to die. So, what's the celebration? Why are we lighting fires and doing outings and singing and music? What? Explain the commentary something so powerful and practical. We're not celebrating the fact that there was no one left to die. That's not a celebration. It's what Rabbi Akiva did next. Think about it for a moment. If you were Rabbi Akiva and you just lost every single one of your 24,000 disciples, what would you do? You'd retire. You'd change careers. But that's not what Rabbi Akiva did. On that very day, when he buried his last student, he traveled to a totally different part of the country and he started over with five new students. And the rest is history. Because from those five students, Torah was rebuilt and everything that we study today, and the Torah living and Torah learning that we have as part and parcel of our daily existence, is only because of that one move that Rabbi Akiva did. So, you know what we celebrate on Lag B'Omer? That a Jewish person never gives up. We pick ourselves up, we dust ourselves off, and we keep plotting on. And maybe, maybe, that's why we light fires. Ever look at a fire? You can pour water on it, you could try to extinguish it. As long as there's one tiny smoldering ember, the fire can once again grow to its full strength. This Lag B'Omer, let's look into the fire and realize the power of supernatural resilience that the eternal Jewish people always have had.