Themes of Lag Ba’Omer | Rabbi Yitzhak Breitowitz | May 5 2026

Omer sameach, if that's uh what you say. Uh today's sheer today's all days mornings learning is dedicated as a zechus for a successful surgery a refuah shleimah for Pelech Shapsoi ben Chaviva Oleyah. Again, may he have a refuah shleimah b'soch sh'ar cholei Yisrael. Uh again, with uh your permission and with my apologies, I'm going to uh once again digress from our assigned topic because it is Lag BaOmer. I wanted to talk a little bit about uh Lag BaOmer, the significance of Lag BaOmer and uh why it's an important day. Uh some of you might have participated in bonfires. Uh perhaps uh uh people are even going to Meron even though the government uh officially uh does not does not allow it. Uh so, the first thing that's very very interesting is that uh among the Kuntres of Yosef Caro, there is no such thing as Lag BaOmer. According to Yosef Caro, the aveilus of Sefiras HaOmer uh goes from the second day of Pesach through the 33rd day of the Omer and everything is mutar after that point. So, there's only Lag BaOmer b'eiluch. There is no concept of Lag BaOmer bichlal ubichlal, 33 days of aveilus. But okay. But all the other minhagim in various configurations acknowledge Lag BaOmer as a festive day and a happy day and a day where you're allowed to make weddings and listen to music and get haircuts. And then there are different minhagim. Are you allowed to do it after Lag BaOmer? Is Lag BaOmer only a break? But according to all the minhagim except the very first one, Lag BaOmer is a free festive day. What is it about Lag BaOmer that is festive? So, we have to go back to a story. I'm sure many of you are familiar with most of the story, but there's some details I want to go over about the story of Rabbi Akiva because it is a very, very inspiring story and there are many lessons. Akiva ben Yosef, as he was, was a descendant of Geirim. He was not a Geir himself, but he was a descendant of Geirim. And he was an Am Ha'aretz. He was an ignorant person. He didn't know how to read Hebrew. And not only was he an Am Ha'aretz, but in later years he described himself as having a hatred of Talmidei Chachamim. Uh he he said, "If I would meet a Talmid Chacham, I would like to bite him and my bite would not be the bite of a dog, it would be the bite of a donkey which can break bones. It's a much more powerful powerful bite." I've always thought, I don't have any proof of this, maybe I I sometimes have a tendency to psychoanalyze ancient personalities, but I often thought that perhaps Rabbi Akiva had this sense that people were looking down at him cuz he obviously was a very brilliant person who had no education and no chinuch. And a person might feel, rightly or wrongly, that all of these great scholars are looking down at him. And a person could feel a certain hatred and a certain anger. I mean, even today this can happen. You can have a plumber or an air conditioner uh guy and the lawyer or the doctor or the accountant, you know, might look down at the person even though it may it may very well be that the plumber might be acting very much smarter and more intelligent than the lawyer or the doctor. Right? But we create these stratifications, we create these hierarchies. So again, maybe this is my amateur psychoanalysis, but I think that might explain in part Akiva, I'll call him Akiva till he becomes Rabbi Akiva, Akiva's hatred for the Talmid Chacham. Be that as it may, he found himself as a shepherd in the employ of a very, very wealthy person who went by the nickname Kalba Savua. Now, Kalba Savua was not his real name. We actually don't know his real name, but Kalba Savua is Aramaic for a full or a stuffed or satiated dog. And the Gemara in Gittin describes him as one of the wealthiest people in the Jerusalem area, but he was so hospitable and he gave people so he was so generous with his resources that even a dog would be stuffed at his table. Again, the idea is that dogs are never full, right? Dogs will always keep on eating, but with his hospitality, even the dog would be full. And if you remember, the Gemara in Gittin mentions Kalba Savua in a non-Rabbi Akiva context that during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, when the Romans cut off food and water, there were three wealthy people in Yerushalayim who had enough food and and oil and wood to keep the city going for 21 years. And one of those three people was Kalba Savua. And then, if you remember, the Gemara uh gives the very sad story that the Zealots uh in Jerusalem who wanted war with the Romans burnt all of those supplies, creating mass starvation and many, many, many deaths, right? That's the Gemara in Gittin that many people learn on the 9th of Av, which is the story of the Churban Bayit Sheini. But be that as it may, Kalba Savua was a very, very wealthy person, and Rabbi Akiva was a shepherd. Maybe one of a thousand shepherds. How many shepherds did Kalba Savua have on his payroll? And somehow, the boss's daughter, whose name was Rachel, somehow saw in Rabbi Akiva some greatness that maybe Rabbi Akiva himself didn't know that he had. And she fell in love with him. There aren't that many romantic stories in the Gamara. This is maybe one of the few romantic stories. She loved him. She had faith in him. She believed in him. And she wanted to marry him. Her father who was not only wealthy but very very well regarded in Yerushalayim society was so outraged. And how could his daughter marry this ignorant person? That he made a neder, a neder, a vow. That he would not give her a cent. He disinherited her from all of his property. And she went ahead and married Rabbi Akiva and she lived with him in abject poverty. The Gamara describes them living in a barn, sleeping [snorts] in straw. Her father did not give her a cent. Whatever shekel, whatever the currency was. But she stayed with with Akiva ben Yosef. And then she had this idea. Hey Akiva, why don't you go to Yeshiva? Why don't you go to Yerushalayim? Apparently Kafr was outside of Yerushalayim. Why don't you go to Yerushalayim to learn Torah? And you can And by the way, they had children. Akiva had children. Akiva had at least one son and one daughter. Maybe more but we know from Chazal he had a son and a daughter. Uh and this is before he went to Yeshiva. So when she told him to go leave to go to Yeshiva she was also basically saying that not only would she live by herself in poverty but she would raise the children fundamentally. Uh and initially Rabbi Akiva was not convinced. He didn't think it was right. And he didn't even think it would be useful. He's more than 40 years old. But at one point, the Gemara says, one time when he was shepherding, he noticed water dripping on a rock. And the water had been dripping a long time, years and years and years and years. And he saw that the water made a hole in the rock after a while. So, he said, "Ah, the words of Torah are compared to life-giving water. And even if my brain is like a rock, you know, I haven't learned anything. But if water can penetrate the rock, the Torah can penetrate me." So, he went. And the story goes, he went for 12 years initially. Now, this pashtus of the Gemara implies that he did not see his wife for 12 years. I I don't I don't think you have to learn that way. It could very well be that maybe there were occasional visits, you know, it's not like they didn't see each other at all. I mean, after all, he wasn't that far away. But basically, 12 years he was essentially not at home, and and certainly on a regular basis. And after 12 years, he comes back. He's already He's Remember, he started with the cheder kids. He started with the first graders. A 40-year-old man sitting in first grade learning how to read. But 12 years of study obviously can advance a person. So, he comes home after 12 years. And he overhears his wife having a conversation with a neighbor. Where a neighbor tells her, "What type of husband do you have? You're living in poverty, you're raising the kids, you're all alone, and your husband just goes off for 12 years." So, she said to the neighbor, "I wouldn't mind if he'd go for another 12 years." This is not a negative comment. This is saying, you know, uh halavai that he would learn even more. So, the Gemara gives us the remarkable story, which is really hard to believe, that he overhears this conversation, so he turns around and he goes back without even saying hello. Now, there are two interpretations of this story. One is you might call the Litvisher interpretation, and one might be the Hasidic interpretation. I prefer the Hasidic one, but I'll tell you both. The Litvisher interpretation, because everyone asks the question, "Okay, he's going to go back for 12 more years, but he can't say hello? He can't have a cup of coffee? What's going on?" So, the Litvisher interpretation from a Rav Aaron Cutler is that in Talmud Torah, there's a great, great significance to the notion of critical mass. Meaning, there is a difference between learning, let's say, 2 hours straight and learning an hour, taking a break, and learning another hour. Even though 1 + 1 = 2, but 1 + 1 that's broken up is not the same as 2 straight hours. So, Rabbi Akiva didn't really want to have an official break from his learning, because that would have made it a 12 and a 12, as opposed to the cumulative effect of 24. Although he did make a trip, but but by not having a coffee break, etc., there was the mile of continuity. The Chazon Ish used to give a mashal about this. Uh let's say you have a big pot of water, and it would take 30 minutes to bring the pot of water to a boil. And every 29 and a half minutes, you shut off the flame, you wait till the water cools down, and then you start it up again. You could do 29 and a half, 29 and a half, 29 and a half, 29 and a half. You can do it a hundred times. It's not going to boil. You have to have 30 minutes. Now, this is an important cloud. Uh people think that, you know, learning times just add up. So, I learned 2 hours, I did 2 hours, but 2 hours straight is different than 1 + 1. So, that's the Litvish interpretation in which Rabbi Akiva made a calculation that if I have reshus not to uh interrupt, I'll go back. There's a Hasidic interpretation that I think is very moving. And that [clears throat] is, you know, people This whole story is very hard to understand. I mean, you leave your wife. What what what type of I mean, what what is this is what you do? I mean, let's imagine a guy would go to his rosh yeshiva today and say, "This is my plan. I'm going to, you know, leave my wife for 12 years or 24 years. I 24 years." And, you know, number one, it would be crazy. Number two, it would be assur. You can't abandon your family. You can't just leave. You have an achrayus. The story is very difficult, and it has to be that this is because this is what she truly wanted, because after all, this was her idea in the first place. Meaning to say, she is saying this is her greatest dream, this is her greatest desire. So, Rabbi Akiva is accommodating his wife rather than ignoring his wife. But, one can imagine, and again, I'm doing a little amateur psychoanalysis, that Rabbi Akiva himself was tortured. Rabbi Akiva himself agonized over this. >> [snorts] >> This is not a simple decision. Yes, she wants me to do it, and yes, it may produce great things in the future. But, how can I let her suffer this way? So, some say, he didn't allow himself to have a cup of coffee with her because if he would have let his guard down, he wouldn't have been able to go back. This is a very difficult decision in life. Sometimes people have to make themselves cruel. I mean, I'll give you another example in a totally different context. Totally different context, but it'll give you a sense of maybe the dynamics here. Let's say, God forbid, there's a 9-year-old child that has to have his leg amputated. Because if his leg is not going to be amputated, the child will die. And the parents tell their child, you know, you're going to have to lose your leg cuz that's the only way you'll stay alive. And the child who doesn't fully understand the implications is sobbing and begging his parents, "Please, please, please don't cut off my leg. Please let me keep my leg." And there is no doubt that the parents will be sobbing and crying. But they'll do what they have to do. They'll do what they have to do. Now, I understand you're going to say, "Well, going to learn in Yeshiva is not quite the same." I I I mean, I understand. I'm not fully explaining it. But this was kind of an analogous situation where Rabbi Akiva had to be cruel. And if he let his guard down even for a minute, he wouldn't have been able to go back. So, he didn't allow himself. So, I think that's a a powerful interpretation of the dynamics here. Meaning, I don't think you should read the story as just a casual decision to leave his wife for 24 years. This was a decision of great agony and suffering, but it's only because his wife wanted it. And she saw something. Be it as it may, after the 24 years, he comes back. And at this point, he is no longer a student. He is the greatest rabbi in Klal Yisrael. He is Rabbi Akiva. And he comes back. The number 24 is very pronounced here, 24 years. 24,000 students. 24,000 students. Can you imagine? Uh the largest Yeshiva in the world, some machlokes, is it Lakewood in New Jersey, or is it Mir here in Eretz Yisrael? Machlokes, how you count, who do you count, but it's between 7,000 and 8,500. It is certainly below 10,000. There is no Yeshiva in the world that has 10,000 talmidim. Rabbi Akiva, 24,000 talmidim. How did he even teach them? There were no microphones. Exactly, how do you how do you teach 24,000 talmidim? I have no idea. But he comes back with 24,000 talmidim. Now, let's put ourselves, and again, please forgive my my my amateur amateur psychoanalysis yet again. But let's put ourselves into Rachel's mind. 24 years of loneliness, of poverty, of deprivation. And now she sees the fruit of her sacrifices. Now she sees the wonderful thing that was produced. And now, as as Dovid Hamelech says in Shir Hamalos, Hazore'im bedima berina yiktzoru. Those who plant in tears harvest in joyous song. She sees the wonderful harvest of all those years of sacrifice. Can you imagine how much this meant to her? To see the beautiful beautiful outcome, which unfortunately is not going to last, but at least at that moment. So, then there's an interesting side part of the story. Precisely at this point, Kalba Savua, after 24 years, finally feels sorry that his daughter has been in poverty, and he wants to get an annulment for the vow. He doesn't recognize Rabbi Akiva. He doesn't know this is his son-in-law. So, he's told, "A great rabbi has come to town, and he can annul your vow." Again, let me explain this. This is Satres Nedarim. Now, a Satres Nedarim, the annulment of vows, can either be done by a Bet Din of three, or it can be done by one rabbi who's exceptionally learned. Bizman hazeh, we don't rely on the one. We only do three. In other words, even the Gadol Hador does not matir Nedarim beyachid. But, under the law of the Gemara, a yachid mumcheh can be matir Nedarim, and in the time of the Mishna and the Gemara, that was still practiced. So, he goes to Rabbi Akiva, who recognizes him, but he doesn't recognize Rabbi Akiva. And he says, "Rabbi, I made a vow. I I didn't allow my daughter to have any any benefit from my property, and now I she's been suffering so much. Can you annul my vow?" So, you know, in a Satres Nedarim, the way it works is you have I don't mean the pro forma one, which is a little different, but if you had an individual nether, you have to have what is called a petach or petach. >> [snorts] >> Petach means an opening. In other words, we identify a circumstance, had you known a certain thing, would you have made the vow? And if the answer is no, the vow could be released based on the opening. In fact, this could even be a trivial thing. Let me give you a trivial example. Let's say a person wants to be on a diet, but he lacks willpower not to eat chocolate. So, he makes a neder, "I will not eat chocolate." "I will not eat chocolate." It's a neder. Then, he comes home and happens to be his birthday, and he sees that his wife baked a beautiful, beautiful chocolate cake. And if he wouldn't eat the chocolate cake, she'd be very hurt. So, he hastily convenes a beit din and says, "I made a neder not to eat chocolate, but had I known that my wife was making a chocolate cake, I never would have made the neder. That's a pesach." It may be trivial, but that is a pesach. And the neder could be released. So, Rabbi Akiva asked Kalba Savua, "Was there if you would have known that your son-in-law would become a talmid chacham, would you have made the vow?" So, he said, "A talmid chacham? Had I known he would learn how to read, I wouldn't have made the vow." So, Rabbi Akiva said, "You're released. The vow has been has been released." Now, in truth, by the way, I don't want to get too technical. Uh this type of pesach is actually halachically very problematical because this is called a nola. Let me explain this. The normal idea of pesach is it has to be a preexisting condition. It has to be something that existed at the time of the vow. So, if, for example, Rabbi Akiva was a talmid chacham and Kalba Savua didn't know it, that would be a pesach. Had you known that he was a talmid chacham. But, you can't really say had you known he would become because at the time of the vow, he was ignorant. In other words, a pesach has to be a preexisting ignorance that existed at time of the vow. So, Tosfos asked the question, how could Rebbe Akiva not hear uh annul the vow of Kol Nidre via the Pesach that he became a talmid chacham? That is what is called nolad. Nolad is a later event that's born. And ain poschin benolad, the Mishna says, we cannot use nolad as a petach. So, Tosfos says a wonderful, wonderful answer. Tosfos says, since at the time of the vow Rebbe Akiva had begun to learn, even before he went to yeshiva, he had begun to learn, if you commit yourself to learning, it is so guaranteed that you will have success that it's treated as if it's a present reality and not a future reality. That's a very important mussar that we can use even today. So, this part of the Rebbe Akiva story is so inspirational. Number one, he was 40 years old, he knew nothing. And he still became the great person that he became. This is something again in in Ohr Sameach, where where where I teach, you know, most of our students are baalei teshuva who came to Torah relatively later. Of course, not as late as Rebbe Akiva, but they come at 25, whatever it is. And they sometimes feel there's no way they'll ever really achieve success. And of course, we can't promise they'll become Rebbe Akivas, that's a little bit false advertising. But the story of Rebbe Akiva is there's always potential. Don't don't give up. Uh and uh again, it's a beautiful and then we have Tosfos that uh if you commit yourself, Hashem can act guarantees that you will have that success. Okay. So, so far, so good? Wonderful. If the story would have ended there. It would have been joyous, inspiring, happy. But the story doesn't end there. We don't know exactly when because we don't have a year-by-year diary, but at some point those 24,000 students died in the period of time between Pesach and Shavuos. A lot of things are not clear. Uh number one, how did they die? The Talmud says they died through a plague. Some historians, and actually Rav Henkin endorsed this as well, suggest that the reference to plague is a bit of a euphemism and a partial cover-up that the 24,000 students may have died because they were participants in the Bar Kochba revolt against Rome. We know that Rabbi Akiva himself was very old, but he was a Bar Kochba supporter. He thought Bar Kochba was Mashiach, and one could imagine that his talmidim perhaps took up arms uh in support of Bar Kochba, and when Bar Kochba was mercilessly crushed in the Beitar, so the students of Rabbi Akiva who were participating uh were killed as well. So again, it's a machlokes. The Gemara itself does not say that at all. The Gemara itself says it was a plague, but again, some do learn that the Gemara is notoriously obscure uh when it comes to the details of the Bar Kochba revolt. I mean, this is a well-known idea that for various reasons uh at least the Talmud Bavli does not choose to discuss this revolt in any great detail. So Rav Henkin himself endorse- the reason I mention Rav Henkin because I know if I would just say it over in the name of historians, a lot of type people say, "Oh, the happy courses, it's connected to Gomorrah." Okay, some people get For some I don't know why I don't I don't know why this is an emotional issue. For some reason, some people get angry. It shows that she was doing that she goes to the army. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you you you may have a point. >> [laughter] >> You may have a point. Uh but some people get very upset over it. But but Reb Penkin himself, uh the great Reb Penkin, uh this is the grandfather of the Reb Penkin as Hasham Yinkam Damav uh he's a great old Reb Penkin. Uh who died his son was Hasham Yinkam Damav Reb Penkin himself was just nifter. Uh okay. But be it as it may, they died between the period of Pesach and Shavuos. Now, again, forgive the amateur psychoanalysis. This was a great tragedy, of course. But let's put ourselves in the mind of Rachel for a moment. The 24 years of suffering. And she finally sees that everything was worth it. And then it's all taken away and collapses into dust. How does she view her life? How does she view her struggle? How does she view the worth of everything that she did? I [snorts] know that I'm moving in from the tragedy of the 24,000 to the tragedy of the one. But there's a certain poignancy in the tragedy of the one. But there's another part of the story that people often don't pay attention to. And that is Rebbe Akiva started again. Rebbe Akiva started with five talmidim. One of whom was Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai. Let's think about this. There's a pretty big difference between 24,000 and just five. And Rabbi Akiva is no longer so young. And in fact, very shortly afterwards, he himself is going to be tortured to death. Dying al Kiddush Hashem. But we're not there yet. And Rabbi Akiva teaches Torah to the five talmidim. Now, one would have understood if he just would have been depressed, he would have been in seclusion, he could have said, "I did my part. And Hashem determined I wouldn't be matzliach, so that's it." So, you learn something from that second part of the story. And that is even if you lose everything, even if your world is destroyed, you go on. You rebuild. You don't give up. You never know from where your ultimate contribution is going to come from. And you know, from those five talmidim, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, all of the Torah that we have, the Mishnah, and the discussions of the Talmud, of the Gemara, and all of the halachas that come from them, are from those five talmidim. So, Rabbi Akiva was not teaching five people. He was teaching the thousands and hundred thousands, millions of all of the Jews that would be learning Torah in all of the generations. Rabbi Akiva is considered is considered to be the main transmitter of the Torah Sheba'al Peh. And it's not via the 24,000. It's via the five. Via the five. It reminds me very much also of a story involving five, a much later story. Reb Heiman was a great Rosh Yeshiva in Vilna. He was the Talmud Muvek. He was the greatest disciple of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz, great Rosh Yeshiva. And Reb Heiman came to the United States uh before the Holocaust in the 1930s. And he became for a short while, he died shortly thereafter, but he was Yeshiva of Torah Vodaas. And in those days, 1930s, very few people were learning in Yeshivas. There were very few Yeshivas and there were very few people learning in Yeshivas. Who would even think of it? And he was giving a shiur, an advanced shiur to five talmidim, like Rabbi Akiva. Five talmidim. And he was gesticulating, he was very lebedik, very lively, very enthused. And one of his chaveirim from Vilna walked by and noticed the enthusiasm with which he was giving the shiur. And said to him afterwards, "Reb I don't understand. When you were in Vilna teaching 500 talmidim, so I get I get the enthusiasm. You're teaching five guys. What is there Why are you so What are you so excited about exactly?" It's not such a nice thing to say, but he said, "What are you so excited about?" So Reb Heiman says, said, "I'm not teaching five people. These five talmidim are going to have families. And many of them are going to become teachers. And they're going to have talmidim, talmidei talmidei talmidim. I am teaching the thousands of people that are going to be coming out of these five. So when I look in this room, I'm not seeing five people. I am seeing the generations of Am Yisrael that will come from this. The fact that I don't they're not physically in the room is not that important to me. Again, it seems to me that that was in the mind of Rabbi Akiva in the same way. Okay. So, this is the story of Rabbi Akiva. The story of Rabbi Akiva. Of course, the end story is he himself was tortured to death. And remember his talmidim surrounded him. And they said, "Is this the reward you get for your devotion to Torah?" And Rabbi Akiva said, "All of my life I wanted to fulfill the pasuk vi'ahavta et Hashem Elohecha, to love Hashem with all of your heart and all of your soul, all of your soul, your life. And now I have the chance to give my nefesh to Hashem. Should I not rejoice?" That's the story of Rabbi Akiva. And I should mention to you going back I I I forgot to mention one detail out of order that when his wife approached him when he came back with the 24,000 talmidim, you know, earlier, the talmidim didn't know who she was and they didn't let her approach. They thought she was a crazy woman. And Rabbi Akiva said the famous words, "Sheli v'shelachem, my Torah and your Torah, everything we are shelo is hers." And Rabbi Akiva, as you know, is uh you never know for sure, but the official kever is in Tiberias. >> [snorts] >> And uh some of the story is there on the matzeva and uh the line "Sheli v'shelachem, shelo is uh on the on the cover itself. Rachel by the way died um soon after the 24,000 students died, perhaps out of heartbreak. Rabbi Akiva had a second marriage. So in many many ways Rachel didn't see the rejuvenation that Rabbi Akiva was able to perpetrate. Yeah. Maybe I'm a little bit tracked. Somebody got left out of his children. And he's away for 24 years. >> Yeah. >> They lost the opportunity of learning from their father. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting that there's one of the Tanaim in the Mishna is Yehoshua ben Korcha. And some say Yehoshua ben Korcha was a Tana was the son of Rabbi Akiva. Ah, you'll ask me the obvious question. Why is he called Yehoshua ben Korcha? Should be Yehoshua ben Akiva. So Korcha means bald and apparently Rabbi Akiva was called bald Baldi. So they used the nick they used the nickname. Uh so it's it's hard it's hard again it's very very hard to understand. I mean all I can tell you is we admire Rabbi Akiva well you know it's similar to Moshe you know Moshe Rabbeinu was celibate. Now are you is a man allowed to be celibate? No. I mean if he you know so there are things that the greatest greatest greatest Sadiqim do that are not necessarily complete role models for our lesser mortals. And I think Rabbi Akiva is a very similar thing. I mean basically what Rabbi Akiva did was extreme and if anybody else would want to do it not in fact I'll I'll give you another little thing. Um the one of there's a great Tana who is called ben Azai Shimon ben Azai. And the Gamarra in Yevamot it is said when the Gamora discusses the mitzvah to get married and have children, it actually says that Ben Azai says, "I can't get married. Nafshi chashka baTorah, my soul is so desirous of learning Torah that it's not shayach for me to get married and take on a family." We used to call them Yeshiva when we had older bachelors. We would call them members of the Ben Azai club. Now, Tosfos brings the following. Ben Azai was married. But he got divorced. And who did he marry? He married Rabbi Akiva's daughter. So again, please forgive the amateur psychoanalysis, but I I want to focus on why I think that might have happened. And I I I have a feeling it might be correct, although I I don't know. Here you got Ben Azai. Ben Azai is so attached to learning that he feels he cannot take on domestic responsibilities. But there's a mitzvah to get married. So what does a guy like Ben Azai figure? I got to find a wife who will let me kind of not be involved in the family and just learn Torah. So who better than Rabbi Akiva's daughter? She had a mother who did exactly that. And that's why he married Rabbi Akiva's daughter. Why didn't it work? Because she saw what her mother went through, and that was not a life she was able to accept. Right? So it was a little bit of an experiment that that backfired. Yeah. Yes, yes. That's a story that the day that she was going to get married, a snake she stuck a hatpin or a pin into the wall and it went through the eye of the snake. Okay. Now, here is the thing that I I want to connect to to Lag B'Omer uh briefly. That is this story is the source of the aveilus, the mourning, not getting married, not listening to music, uh not getting haircuts. It's not in the Gemara. In other words, the Gemara itself does not indicate any mourning rituals during Sefiras HaOmer. The hepech, intrinsically, this should have been a happy period. This should have been a happy period. We're looking forward to Matan Torah. But in the teshuvos of the Gaonim, we find and it wasn't even universal, but they said, "Yesh makomos. There are places where Klal Yisrael has a minhag not to make weddings and not to cut hair between Pesach and Shavuos to commemorate the tragedy of the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva. And eventually that became universal, although the exact dates uh the exact minhagim differ. So again, be sure you understand this. The story of the deaths of Rabbi Akiva's students is in the Gemara. But using that story as the source of aveilus restrictions is post-Talmudic. Post-Talmudic. Now, you can ask a very simple question. Okay, 24,000 students, very tragic, very sad. But unfortunately, we've had worse. I still have to mourn the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva over and over and over and over again every single year for several weeks, no weddings, no music. Although the music itself is a shaila, but the minhag is no music. Why? Why am I choosing that tragedy out of the many many many tragedies of Klal Yisrael? Why am I commemorating that tragedy Over and over and over again. And the answer is it's not the tragedy per se. It is the reason that is given for that tragedy. You see, even for the Holocaust, if somebody were to ask you, you know, why did I shame bring a Holocaust? You could theorize and you can write people have written books and you know, both religiously secularly, but the but the but the bottom line is we don't fully we don't fully know. We don't have prophets. We're not for sale. But for the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva for sale gave us >> [snorts] >> a reason. They did not show proper cover to each other. Honor, dignity, respect. They were taken for the from the world because they did not show proper cover. What does that mean? They did not show proper cover. We can assume that if these were the students of the great Rabbi Akiva they were not pushing each other out of line. They were not calling each other names. They were not saying, you're an idiot. If we would have had a video, presumably their behavior would have been totally kosher. But Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch says the following idea. The etymology, the origin of the word cover is connected to cover. Cover means heavy, weighty. And heavy weighty is not only about corpulence, but it refers to significance. When you talk about someone is a heavyweight or someone is weighty that means their opinion carries significance. The first says, showing kavod to another person is not about being polite. It's not about etiquette. It's not about, you know, Emily Post behavior. Kavod is I see the other person as significant, as valuable, as worthy. You could be very nice to a person even. But you might be condescending. You might be patronizing. You might regard them as really an insignificant person, but noblesse oblige, whatever it would be, you treat them nicely. Now, we still don't fully understand why was there a failure of that on the part of the media ready Akiva, perhaps because they were so connected to their great rebbe that they didn't feel they had anything to learn from each other. Perhaps. But be it as it may, the first says, laynagu kavod ze la zeh is the idea of not seeing the inner significance of the other person. Not seeing their hashivus. Now, you may ask me, so for that you die? I mean, okay, it's not the highest level of musar, but is that a type of aveira that a person is taken from the world? And the answer [snorts] is, normally not. But these 24,000 students were supposed to be the transmitters of Torah to the next generation. They were supposed to be the gedolim, they were supposed to be the leaders, they were supposed to be the foundation of Am Yisrael. And yet, when your so-called leaders do not see the inner worth the inner beauty of Klal Yisrael every single person in Klal Yisrael then yes they are not worthy of being leaders. God takes them from the world not so much to punish them but it's simply a question of replacing the leaders with those who are better suited. Okay? So I know he know me. Uh it's not that it was the biggest of areas in the world but it was an attitude that was fatal to be a manhig Yisrael. A manhig Yisrael must look at every Jew see the beauty see the radiance, see the goodness see the tzelem Elokim. And that is what it means that he didn't show kavod. So therefore the reason why we mourn during the period of the Omer to commemorate the students of Rabbi Akiva is not simply mourning a tragedy but to remember the reason they died and thereby try in our own lives in our own lives to rectify that reason and transcend it. So what is special about Lag BaOmer? So according to some traditions on the 33rd day of the Omer there was a cessation of the plague. The students of Rabbi Akiva did not die on the 33rd day of the Omer. Now why not? What would be special about that day that poof they didn't die on that day? So it depends how you understand it. You see no, no, it depends how you understand it. If you assume the plague continued afterwards, then indeed there were told me them who were left to die, but they didn't die of that. So, it really would depend. You you you are correct in that. So, here I have to be a little cabalistic. We know that the seven weeks of the Omer are linked to the seven lower divine emanations that are called Sefirot. There are actually 10 Sefirot, sources of divine energy, but the first three are said to be God's brains, Kav Yasha, Chochmah, Binah, Da'at, etc. But the lower seven are behavioral attributes. Chesed, [snorts] loving kindness, Gevurah, inner strength, Tiferet, beauty, Netzach, eternity, Hod, uh glory, Yesod, foundation, Malchut, kingship. Again, we don't have time now, obviously, to go over each of them, but each week represents one of those dominant sources of spiritual energy. That's also the case of the Ushpizin. That's also the case of the seven Hakafot of Hoshana Rabbah and Simchat Torah. They're all connected to these Sefirot. Now, because there are seven days in a week, each day is also linked in microcosm to a Sefirah. So, for example, the first day of the Omer, which is of course the second day of Pesach, is the day of loving kindness, situated in the week of loving kindness. So, it's called Chesed sheb'Chesed. The second day of the first week is Gevurah, inner strength, sheb'Chesed, >> [snorts] >> not to be confused with the first day of the second week, which is Hesed Shebe Gevurah. So, the combinations are complex. And in fact, there are books in Hebrew and in English that use these combinations of day and week to give you a specific spiritual exercise for every day of the Omer, how you combine them and practical things that you can do. It's a very interesting type of thing. Now, these Sefirot are also linked to personalities. Hesed is like the used piece. Hesed is Avraham. Gevurah is Yitzchak. Tiferet is Yaakov. Netzach is Moshe. Hod is Aharon. Yesod is Yosef. Who's after that? And Malchut is David. So now, let's look at Lag BaOmer. Lag BaOmer is the fifth day of the fifth week. Right? We said it's 4 weeks and 5 days. That means, a little confusing, 4 weeks and 5 days actually means you're in the fifth day of the fifth week. In Sefirah terminology, Kabbalistic terminology, Hod Shebe Hod, the day of glory within the week of glory. Who is the personality associated with Hod? It is Aharon. Today is Aharon's day in Aharon's week. What was the spiritual power of Aharon? Ohev Shalom V'rodef Shalom. And Hod in particular, glory is said to mean the capacity to see the goodness of the other. So, based on this idea you can understand why Lag B'Omer where the spiritual emanation of Aaron HaKohen was extra powerful. The Talmidei Rabbi Akiva could at least momentarily be freed from the thing that had dragged them down. Cuz they had failed because they didn't see the kavod of the other. But on the day of Hod Sheba Hod you can become liberated. You can achieve a greater capacity to see that goodness. And that applies to us as well. We live, obviously in a very polarized world. You know, people worry about anti-Semitism, they worry about Iran, they worry about uh many, many, many things. And yeah, okay, there are things to be worried about. But the thing that we really should be worried about is the division within Am Yisrael. The hatred, the polarizations, the indifference the coldness the rejection the, you know it's, you know, I versus you, whatever whatever when whatever form that takes. Because that is kind of the root cause of all the other problems we face. In fact, Sefarim tell us that at least one of the reasons for anti-Semitism is to make Jews turn inward and realize we have to connect to each other. Because so many people hate us, we can't find our salvation in looking to the favors, the goodwill of others. Right? Trump is not Messiah, but again, we were grateful for a lot of what he did, etc. So, this is a real problem, and may maybe maybe it's a bigger problem in Eretz Yisrael even than it is in Chutz La'aretz because people feel more strongly here about issues, and that can create a lot of divisiveness. But at least Lag Ba'omer is a smart where we can tap into the spiritual energy of Hochma and Binah and try to understand other Jews, other people. Try to see the goodness in them. And as HaMelech promises us in the book of Mishlei, K'mayim panim el panim, kein lev adam l'adam. As water reflects the face that you show it, you show the water a smiling face, you get a smile back. You show the water a frowning face, you get a frown back. So, the heart of a human being reflects back that which it is shown. And the more we see the and show the kavod that we have in the other, whoever the other is, the more the other will see the kavod that is in us, and in reality, it'll no longer be the other. Because there is no the other. There is only us. Right? I use the vocabulary the other, but there is no other. All of us are one. And hopefully Lag Ba'omer can help us try to achieve that much greatness.