Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Mystical Insights into Lag B'Omer and Pesach Sheini

Okay. I can hear everyone. Hope everyone is well. Good to see you. And I share tonight is dedicated number one for a full shlema to Binyamin Yisrael ben Chanita who we have been davening for a long time for Chaya Shifra bat Galila Yocheved and Galila Yocheved bat Devorah. We pray that they should have a refuah shlema betoch shaar cholei Yisrael and all of the learning that we're doing should be for their benefit. In addition, the the the learning should be for an aliyas neshama for Malka bat Avraham Yitzchak on her yahrzeit dedicated by her grandson Rabbi Avrahamy um Fine. Again, he's a personal friend of mine in the New York area and he himself gives a very fine Chumash shiur, although I don't know if it's on YouTube yet. And again, the learning should be for an aliyas neshama. What I want to talk about today again is a little bit of a break on the parsha and I want to talk about two special days that occur during the Omer. Uh Yom Ha'atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim we're not going to talk about tonight, Yom Ha'Zikaron, although those are important days and I've mentioned a little bit about them. But I wanted the two days I want to talk about is one is past and one is coming. Uh Pesach Sheni uh the 14th of Iyar uh was yesterday and upcoming this week is Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day of the Omer. Uh that's going to be Thursday night and Friday. And I kind of want to talk about both of those, although they're not necessarily uh connected. Pesach Sheni uh of course is simply the law in the Torah that if a person is tamei, a person is ritually impure by contact with a dead body uh or derech rechoka or is distant from the place of the Mikdash uh when it was time to bring the korban Pesach on the 14th of Nisan, which would be eaten the night of the 15th of Nisan, the leil seder. So, the Torah says they are given a makeup opportunity to bring the korban Pesach exactly one month later on the 14th of Iyar uh which would be eaten the night of the 15th of Iyar. And this is called Pesach Sheni. And we don't really make a big deal about Pesach Sheni other than the fact that many people get pleasure from that on Pesach Sheni you don't recite a tachanun. And this year because it was a a Monday uh indeed there was a big tachanun that got eliminated. They say a joke. Again, it's a it's a very sad joke. I mean, the truth of the matter is I identify with the joke, but I don't feel good about it. And that is somebody said, "If the if the non-Jews would know the joy that a Yid gets when you skip a long tachanun, they would all become Jewish because there's no parallel joy uh in any other in any other religion." Again, it's a very it is a sad commentary, but l'maaseh it's unfortunately a a true commentary. Uh so, Pesach Sheni we don't make a big deal other than we don't say tachanun and for those kehillos that say slichos on the Monday, Thursday, Monday after Pesach uh once Iyar starts, which is called Behab slichos most shuls don't say it, but in in Eretz Yisrael it's uh it's often said. So, the minhag of Yerushalayim is you don't say slichos uh if the Monday or the Thursday is Pesach Sheni and you defer it uh to the next Monday or Thursday. So, not only did you get out of a long tachanun, but you got out of Behab uh yesterday. Uh but although we other than that we don't make a big deal, some have a custom to eat matzah I think there's a very very profound and moving spiritual lesson in Pesach Sheni that we can apply to our lives every single day. And it's a very very significant one. And that is the Chidushei HaRim, the first Ger Rebbe, points out that people came to Moshe that were tamei and they said, "Lama nigara? Why should we be deprived of the chance of bringing the korban Pesach?" And Moshe said, "You got a point." And he asks Hashem, "What should we do?" And Hashem says, "Oh, if you're tamei or you're far away," he added that one, "you can bring it a month later." Now, if Hakadosh Baruchu had in mind that if you're tamei and you bring it a month later, then why didn't he give the halacha? Why did the halacha have to come through people asking and then Moshe not knowing and then asking God? It's almost as if God is changing his mind. It's almost as if, "Oh, God didn't think of this. Oh, you brought up a good point. Let's talk about it." I mean, why why would that be so? So, the Chidushei HaRim writes there are actually two lessons in Pesach Sheni. First, in life a person often feels spiritually impure. A person feels "I'm unworthy to come close to God. And what's even the point of trying because whatever I do is doomed to failure." Or a person feels kind of the same thing in another way, derech rechoka. "I'm so far from Hashem. There's no way I can get back on track." Pesach Sheni can be described as the gift of a second chance. No matter how tamei you think you are no matter how distant you think you are there's always going to be that chance to come back to Hakadosh Baruchu. Pesach Sheni is the great encouragement for a person never to despair never to give up hope. You know, I I remember um driving in the New Jersey area, you know, there are two big roads uh kind of which are kind of parallel for a long time and then they diverge. One is the New Jersey Turnpike and the other is the Garden State Parkway. And it's interesting that uh it's relatively easy to kind of get lost and wind up on the wrong road. So, I remember on the Garden State Parkway like every like like every 20 feet or something there was a sign that said, "Turn off for the Jersey Turnpike. Turn off for the Jersey Turnpike. Turn off for the Jersey Turnpike." And I thought to myself, "That's kind of a metaphor for life. You know, you're on the wrong road and you're getting lost. But there are going to be signposts that kind of redirect you. You know, you can always get back on the Jersey Turnpike." It's interesting. The Garden State Parkway is a much prettier road. It's a much more scenic road. But you know, that's sometimes the way life is. Sometimes the road going against Hashem may seem to be more pleasant may seem to be an easier road. But it's not going to necessarily get you to your destination. So, lesson number one of Pesach Sheni is the gift of the second chance of the missed opportunity. That God will give you a chance. But there's a second lesson. God gives you a chance only if you care enough to ask for it to really want it. Because let's imagine the scenario here. Here we have these people who are who are tamei. Now, why are they tamei? So, there's a machlokes in the Gemara why are they tamei. According to some opinions, they're tamei because they carried out the bodies of Nadav and Avihu that died in the Mishkan. We talked about that last week. And others say they're tamei because it was their turn in the rotation to carry the bones of Yosef which different people rotated. So, they're tamei for legitimate reasons. They did a mitzvah. They buried Nadav and Avihu. They're carrying the bones of Yosef. So, legitimately they're patur. Now, imagine if we would get a letter from heaven and assuming we could authenticate it from God saying, "You don't have to keep Pesach this year. You can eat bread the whole week." If we knew if we knew it was from God, that would of course be very important. Would we complain with, "Oh God, no. I wanted to clean up my house for chametz." We would kind of say, you know, baruch Hashem for some whatever reason God chose me to give me a free pass. But if you truly love mitzvahs, you love Hashem then you don't want to take advantage of loopholes. You want to do as much as you can. These people that ahava Hashem they said "Yeah, we have a good excuse. We don't have to do this." But lama nigara? "Why should we be deprived?" And they asked and they yearned. And only then Hashem says "If you really want it I will give it to you. If you didn't really want it, I wouldn't give it to you." In other words, Pesach Sheni is an amazing mitzvah had it not been requested it wouldn't have been given. So what you see from here are the two important lessons. There is the gift of the second chance. But you have to want it. If you want it then Hashem will give you Hashem will The truth is Hashem will always give you what you truly want in life in the spiritual realm. I'm not referring to the physical realm. If you want your relationship with God you will get it. If you don't care about a relationship with God then you won't get it. It all starts with what it is we truly want and we truly care about. You know, I don't know if you ever did this when you were a kid, um did you ever try going up a down escalator? An escalator is going down and you want to go faster. Yeah, okay, I was going to say I haven't done it recently but I would I do remember remember doing it even even successfully at different times and you understand the concept here that if you only stand still, you will not stand in place. Standing still, you will go down inevitably. It's only when you try to go up that you can even remain where you are and the Vilna Gaon says that's what life is like. He doesn't use this this muscle, there were no escalators in his time but he basically says there is no such thing as standing in place. If a person is not committed to growing then definitionally they're going to deteriorate. And therefore, just to remain where you are takes a lot of energy and a lot of work and a lot of thought and a lot of introspection. But when the will is there Hashem creates the opportunities. Hashem responds to what it is that we really and truly want. So, that's what Pesach Sheni teaches us and again it's a very very beautiful teaching. It gives hope to people who might be despondent and might feel lost and it reminds a person to focus their priorities on what is truly important in life. Now, we come to the second special event which is coming up Thursday night and Friday and that is the 33rd day of the Omer and uh the truth of the matter is the actual origins of the 33rd day of the Omer is being anything special other than a day in the Omer are a bit shrouded in mystery and and I will actually discuss that some of the historical foundations are less certain uh than one would have hoped. So, uh what I'm going to say is uh number one, how how Lag BaOmer is commonly understood and then I'll talk briefly uh is that understanding necessarily correct? But in truth, there are two different things that we celebrate on Lag BaOmer and they run in contradictory ways. We know that uh the counting of the Omer in the Torah was originally a happy time. That's what it was. You're counting towards the giving of the Torah. That's supposed to be a happy event. There is nothing in the counting of the Omer that is intrinsically sad. But we also know that Chazal teach us that the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died during this period of time and that was a great great tragedy and the Gemara says we even have the reason for their deaths. Their deaths were uh I mean they died by a plague. Their deaths were that they did not show proper respect and honor to each other and because of that uh they died. I had mentioned a few weeks ago that some historians posit uh that they actually died by the hands of the Romans because of their participation in the Bar Kokhba revolt and the Chachamim didn't like to refer to the Bar Kokhba revolt that much because they were still living under Roman domination. So, euphemistically they referred to it as a plague. Again, a number of historians have said this and uh in terms of Gedolei Torah, a great Godol Rav Henkin endorsed that idea as well. But for our purposes, it's really not important. The reason I'm making this point is that sometimes people um you know, if I mention anything about uh their deaths was because of a uh because of their participation in the Bar Kokhba revolt, I will get a lot of emails calling me a heretic and a not be chorus because I'm contradicting the Gemara. Okay, I'm I'm aware that the Gemara does say they died of a plague but some say that that is a euphemistic reference to the Bar Kokhba revolt and there are many many indicators that Chazal always downplay references to that revolt because they're living under Roman rule and they don't want to bring up that uh revolution that had catastrophic effects for Am Yisrael. But for our purposes, it's really not important. Let it be a plague, let it be Bar Kokhba but the iker point that the Gemara makes was that they were taken from the world because they did not show proper kavod for each other and uh the idea of respecting each other which includes loving each other, caring for each other is so fundamental that one who does not exhibit that quality in its highest way is not worthy of being the transmitter of the Torah for the next generation. And again, it's a very very interesting. We know that Rabbi Akiva himself taught Vi'ahavta l'reachacha kamocha loving your friend as you love yourself. That's a pasuk but Rabbi Akiva taught that's a klal gadol baTorah. That is a fundamental principle, maybe the most fundamental principle in the Torah. That was Rabbi Akiva's teaching. How could it be that the students of Rabbi Akiva didn't absorb the teaching that was the most fundamental to their Rebbe, Rabbi Akiva? It's a question to ponder. Uh but nevertheless, the commentaries all tell us that the point of mourning the deaths of Rabbi Akiva is not just to mourn a tragedy. I mean after all, numerically we've had tragedies worse than that. Consider the Holocaust. It's not so much to mourn but to try to rectify in our own lives what that trait was and to resolve by meditating and reflection and reflecting to resolve to show kavod to each other. And as Rav Hirsch points out kavod, honor, dignity is etymologically related to kaved which is heaviness. In other words I look at somebody and I see their weight. I see their significance. I see their gravitas, right? In English, at least in kind of a slang way, when someone is a significance intellect we might say he's a real heavyweight. Uh that's not referring to his weight or his boxing uh class but you might say this Nobel Prize winner is a heavyweight, right? So, kaved kavod is not polite. It could very well be. I could be very polite to a person. I could be nice to a person but I'm nice to a person in a way that I regard him as my inferior, a noblesse oblige. Kavod is when you see the significance of a person. And the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva were considered to be defective in that and we are mesaken that hopefully by our behaviors during Sefirah. Now, it is recorded that on the 33rd day of the Omer the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying. Now, of course, this is a little this itself is a little incoherent. If Rabbi Akiva only had 24,000 students and 24,000 students died by Lag BaOmer well, yeah, they stopped dying in Lag BaOmer cuz there wasn't anybody left. That That would hardly that would hardly be a simcha. That that makes no sense at all. Uh so, obviously you have you have to understand that you can understand it two ways. Either he had 24,000 students and a lot of them died but they stopped on Lag BaOmer and there was a significant remnant that was left or the other way, he had more than 24,000 students and 24,000 students died. In other words, you have to you have to posit there were a lot of survivors. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a simcha. Okay, but point number one is that Lag BaOmer is a celebration of the fact that the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying. That's right. Now, did they resume dying afterwards? That's a machlokes. As you know, in the minhagim of mourning during the Omer some stop at Lag BaOmer and from now on it's permitted to have weddings. Others continue looking at Lag BaOmer as a hiatus. So, that's totally under the machlokes. Was Lag BaOmer an interruption in the mageifa or was Lag BaOmer a cessation of the mageifa? But be it as it may the first thing that we celebrate on Lag BaOmer is said to be the cessation of the deaths of the talmidei Rabbi Akiva. That's we'll call that simcha number one. But then there's a simcha number two which again is historically very questionable but I'll mention it. And that is it is said in the Gemara that after Rabbi Akiva's students died, Rabbi Akiva had five new students that he took on and one of them was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Lag BaOmer is said to be the hilula, the yahrtzeit, the day of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Uh Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, as you know, is buried in Meron right across the the valley in Tzfat right across from Tzfat and as you know, if you've ever been there or aware of it, uh Meron is the site of Lag BaOmer. Uh I'm not sure last year it was Corona, it was downplayed. I'm not sure what's going to be this year. This year, in addition to the aftermath of Corona, it also happens to be on a Friday. That makes it very very difficult uh to have a a a full Meron celebration but on a standard year, uh there might be half a million people in Meron. It's absolutely amazing. Uh some say it is so crowded uh, that even Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai leaves Meron on Lag BaOmer. Uh, and there's a lot of truth to that. If you really want to kind of be able to approach the cave there and be able to dive into Hashem and be able to learn, so go on some other day. Some other day, you know, there are almost nobody's there. Meron is like uh, an empty place. It's like a ghost town. And uh, you can have Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai all for yourself. But not but not on Meron and not on Lag BaOmer. Quite an amazing time. Now, you may say, "Well, wait a second. So, we're celebrating the day that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai died?" That would seem to be, you know, uh, not a happy occasion. Well, we are told that on the day that he died, he revealed a great light to the world. The light that was incorporated in the book of the Zohar, the fundamental work of Kabbalah. And therefore, as he left the world, he imparted great secrets, great understandings of the Torah. And therefore, there is a simcha that that light was revealed to the world. So, that's the second simcha of Lag BaOmer, the yahrzeit hillula uh, of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Uh, that's why there are so many Lag BaOmer songs that talk about the greatness of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Now, I do want to point out right at the outset that historically the claim that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai died on Lag BaOmer is a bit uh, questionable. Uh, it is found in the writings of the Ari in the printed writings of the Ari Z'al. Actually, they're not the writings of the Ari Z'al. Everything we have from the Ari Z'al, not everything, but 95% of what we have is Rabbi Chaim Vital writing uh, over the teaching of the Ari. But but in the Sefarim that we call the Kitvei Ari, it is recorded Yom she meit bo, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Right? If you take a Shaar HaKavanot, you'll find Yom she meit bo, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. However, in the very first editions of those Sefarim, it does not say the words Yom she meit bo, it says Yom simchas Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's simcha, a very vague term. Now, if you if you look if you look at the word simcha, right? Sin, mem, ches, samech. It could be confused with Yom she meit, because the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's simcha is a very obscure term. What what is the day of his simcha? Is that the day of his death? Uh, is that the day of his marriage? You know, what exactly is the simcha? And Rabbi Yaakov Hillel, uh, himself a very eminent uh, Mekubal, uh, Rosh Yeshiva and a Mekubal, actually says Yom simchas Rashbi, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, is the day he got smicha from Rabbi Akiva. So, according to that, the whole idea that Lag BaOmer celebrates the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's death might be based on a printing mistake in the later editions of Shaar HaKavanot. I I don't want to get into this because uh, Kabbalistically, there's a certain significance in what Klal Yisrael celebrates, even if their history was incorrect. So, all I can say is that at least over the past um, few hundred years. Now, that's not that old. The Lag BaOmer celebrations at Meron are not that ancient. But you know, over the past 200 years or so, Meron has been the site of the great great celebrations uh, about the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the fact that that was the day that the secrets of the Zohar uh, were revealed. Of course, I'm not dealing with another controversy. Again, I have to say this now because anything I don't say, I'm going to get emails on. Uh, I have to uh, uh, that uh, everything I'm saying is of course assuming that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the author of the Zohar. As you know, that itself is is is debatable in different circles uh, because the Zohar was not was not uh, publicized till the 1200s by a by a Spanish Mekubal, Moshe de Leon. Uh, and uh, there was there's been a lot of controversy whether he is the author of the Zohar or the Zohar is an authentic work of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Uh, but suffice it to say that the Ramchal and the Vilna Gaon and the Ari Z'al and Rabbi Chaim Vital all considered the Zohar to be the work of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. On the other hand, Rabbi Yaakov Emden was skeptical. And you know, aca- academics will also say it's acceptable, although you know, they don't necessarily carry that much uh, that much weight. Uh, some some have a compromise position, which I think is very very plausible, that the Zohar has a core of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's teachings and then there may have been various editions. So, that probably is the most plausible. In fact, it's almost muchrach to say that because in the Zohar, we have statements of Amora'im who lived after Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. So, so obviously, there were things that were added. And that's not an apikorsus thing to say, because Chazal say that even by books of the of the Bible of Tanakh, that David HaMelech is the primary author of Tehillim, but there are various songs that were written by other authors. So, that that is a permissible uh, thing to say. Okay. So, be kitzer, be kitzer therefore, there are two things that we celebrate on Lag BaOmer. One is the cessation of the deaths of the talmidei Rabbi Akiva. And the other is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's petira, where he revealed the great great secrets of Kabbalah to the world and there was a great light in the world. And that's why there are bonfires as well, because the fires represent a spiritual passion and an elevation towards God, towards godliness, which Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai exemplified. So, now, what I want to show you uh, in the time that we have is the interesting idea that these two points of celebration are actually in tension with each other. And in some ways, they contradict each other. And they pull us in two different directions. And it's precisely as is so much true so true in so much of Judaism, it is the di- it is the dialectical tension between opposite forces that kind of gets us in the right place where we're supposed to be. There's a pull here and a pull here that kind of gets us in the middle where we have to be. Let's first talk about the deaths of Rabbi Akiva. Why would it be that Lag BaOmer precisely would be bediyuk the day that Rabbi Akiva died? So, interestingly enough, a Kabbalistic explanation is offered, which actually draws on Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to explain the first thing. And that is we know that each week of Sefirah, we know there are 10 Sefirot. Now, God interacts with the world through 10 different levels of emanation. But we know that the 10 Sefirot are divided into three into two groups, a group of three and a group of seven. The group of three are called God's brains, God's mental operations. Moachin means brains. And that refers to Chochmah, Binah, Daat, wisdom, understanding. Daat or some count it differently. Some don't count Daat. They have Keter, a crown, Chochmah, Binah. In other words, however we define, we don't have time to go over the exact meaning of all of these things, but they refer to the internal cogitations, so to speak, of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which have not yet been revealed in an actual creation. Keter, Chochmah, Binah or Chochmah, Binah, Daat, Keter might be too elevated even talk about, so we start only with Chochmah, so to speak. Uh, and the Chochmah, Binah, Daat is interesting. Chochmah is the masculine element of creation and Binah is the feminine aspect and Daat is the union, biblical knowledge, carnal knowledge, so to speak, that when God unites the masculine aspect of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the femi- and the feminine aspect, there is Daat and that produce produces the little kids that are known as the lower seven Sefirot. So, the first three Sefirot are called Moachin, the brains of the operation. And the second group of seven are called the Middot, the actual behavioral manifestations of divinity. And again, I I apologize for for having to do this fairly quickly. Uh, the lower seven uh, are names that I think are familiar to to many people. We have Chesed, loving kindness. Gevurah, strength. Tiferet, beauty. Netzach, eternity. Hod, glory. Yesod, foundation. And this culminates in Malchut, God's kingship, which is a result of all of these different forces interacting. Uh, the Mekubalim say, actually the Zohar says, that Malchut does not have any distinct characteristic. Malchut is the mix of everything. And that is the world that we have, right? That it is mediated through four worlds, but at least in our world, we have these these seven Sefirot. Now, it is brought down that each of these Middot of God were represented in a human form to the level of perfection. Chesed is said to be the characteristic of Abraham who is the man of ultimate kindness. Inner strength and fortitude was Yitzchak Avinu. Tiferes, which is beauty, is said to be the synthesis of the giving and the discipline aspect. And that was Yaakov Avinu, who was able to synthesize and combine. And that is why too much chesed and you get an Ishmael, that's a certain distortion. Too much strictness and you get an Esau. Yaakov, who was able to harmonize and synthesize chesed and gevurah into beauty, mitzvah social lema, all of Yaakov's children are part of Klal Yisrael. Yeah, we had our problems, whether it be mechiras Yosef or the Egel or the meraglim, but with all of our problems, we have the holiness of Am Yisrael. And that's because of the synthesis of chesed and gevurah. Netzach, the idea of victory, of fighting for Hashem against all odds, is the quality of Moshe Rabbenu. Hod, glory, which I'll get to, is the quality of Aaron. Yesod, Yesod anatomically is connected to the male organ and that refers to the ability to restrain sexual temptation, is exemplified in Yosef. And Malchus is David. By the way, this is you'll notice in this order, in the order of these seven sefiros, you're not going chronological. Moshe is number four, Aaron is number five, Yosef is six, and David is seven. And that's why with the Ushpizin of Sukkos, right, the honored guests that we have on Sukkos, uh the the it seems to me that although some do it chronologically, uh that they go with Abraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yosef, Moshe, Aaron, David, but the whole institution of Ushpizin is based on Kabbalah and Kabbalistically, you would go with the idea of these sefiros. So now, with this understanding that we have these seven lower sefiros and each of them are matched up to a person. The seven weeks of the Omer, each week is devoted to one of these sefiros. Meaning to say, the first week of Sefirah, which of course is Pesach, is the week of chesed, the week of Abraham. The second week is the week of Yitzchak, the week of gevurah. And and that brings down a particular divine energy. Now, where things get complicated is that just as every week is mechuban keneged one of the seven sefiros, every day within the week is also mechuban against one of those sefiros. So for example, the first day of the counting of the Omer, which is the second day of Pesach, is called chesed shebechesed. It is the day of chesed situated within the week of chesed. Double dose of chesed. Kindness, benevolence. The second day of the Omer, which is the third day of Pesach, is called gevurah shebechesed. It is the idea of the inner strength within a week of chesed. Now, it gets very difficult to decipher. What is the difference between day two of the first week versus day one of the second week? Right, day two of the first week is called gevurah shebechesed. Day one of the second week is called chesed shebegevurah. Okay, there are books written on this, both in Hebrew and in English that are worthwhile to look at because ultimately, when you're describing divine energies, the synthesis of different divine energies, we're also talking about what behaviors do I emulate and mimic in order to elicit that divine energy. So, we're not just describing God, but by linking those godly attributes to human beings, the message is we elicit those divine energies by the way that we behave. So there are books that describe chesed is kindness and gevurah is strength and tiferes is synthesis and netzach is perseverance, etc. Now, let's, based on this scheme scheme schematization, what is the combination for Lag BaOmer? Amazing, amazing thing. Lag BaOmer is the fifth week of the Omer. Again, it's a little confusing because when when you're counting the fifth week, you say it is four weeks and two days or three days, right? But that means you're in the fifth week. Okay, it's a little confusing even though you're saying four weeks. So, the fifth week is the week of Aaron, the week of Aaron. And Lag BaOmer is the fifth day of the fifth week. So it is the week of hod and it's the day of hod. Lag BaOmer is Aaron squared. Aaron, right, uh multiplied by Aaron. Hod shebehod. Now, what is so important about that? So here's the thing. Just as chesed, right, let's take the first three sefiros, which are actually the more dominant of of the of the seven. Besides the three that are mochin within the seven that are midos, chagas, chesed, gevurah, tiferes, are are the dominant that guide the lower four. There's like a three and a four within the seven. Chesed is the giving impulse, gevurah is the need for discipline and restraint. The synthesis of that is tiferes. Well, just like the first triad represents a synthesis of opposites and an integration, the second triad of netzach, hod, yesod is also a synthesis of sorts. And Malchus just receives everything afterwards. Netzach is perseverance and that is the quality that says not to be discouraged or broken by the resistance you encounter in Avodas Hashem. Sometimes, I want to be righteous, I want to keep the Torah, I want to do mitzvahs, but I find myself overwhelmed by the environment that I'm in. I'm overwhelmed by family pressures, by economic pressures, by friends who are not on the same page. And they kind of take away my sense that I can move. Netzach is the quality of overcoming those obstacles. And that is associated with Moshe Rabbenu. Moshe Rabbenu had a job to do and Moshe Rabbenu met resistance constantly. Right, 600,000 complainers. Uh and he did what he had to do. I mean, it's hard to imagine. Can you believe that according to the Medrash, Moshe Rabbenu was accused of being a thief? They said he was embezzling. I mean I mean people were accusing him of all sorts of things. Netzach, go ahead and do what you have to do. And that's a wonderful quality. The quality of not not letting anybody stop you. But netzach has a downside and that's why netzach has to be balanced with hod. If netzach is the is the idea, I go ahead no matter what, it could engender within a person kind of a steamroller mentality in which my agenda, my dreams are going to be realized no matter what anybody does. And as a result, you don't become sensitive to the needs of the other. So hod, which is Aaron's quality, just like chesed and gevurah are opposites, chesed is giving, gevurah is containment, netzach is forging ahead no matter what anybody says, hod is receptivity to the other. That was of course the mida of Aaron. Lover of peace, pursuer of peace. He loved all of Hashem's creations and he brought them to Torah through that love. Now, netzach has a downside because you become a steamroller. Hod can have a downside. Everything goes. After all, Aaron made the Egel. They want to make an Egel, who am I to stop them? That's why Yesod, Yosef, is said to be the synthesizer between Moshe and Aaron. Yosef was able to maintain his strength of character no matter what and yet he was open to let other people shine and other people be successful. But his success as an administrator was, again, there are different duke in the pesukim, is he made other people look successful. That's a kind of the key to a managing a business. But we're not talking about Yosef now, we're talking about Aaron. So, what So bikitzur, what is the middah of Hod? Hod is receptivity to the uniqueness of the other person. As opposed to Netzach, which is designed to kind of push that away to accomplish your goal. Lag BaOmer, the spiritual koach that's in the air, is the overwhelming koach of Aaron HaKohen. Because it is both the week of Aaron and it is the day of Aaron. Now, if the aveira that caused the students of Rebbi Akiva to die was they didn't see the kavod in each other, that actually means, to put it in the Kabbalistic sense, the koach of Netzach became dominant. I have my way, I have my approach, I have my goals, I have my dreams, I'm not really interested in what you have to say about it. Which is sometimes very good. Sometimes a very important quality. But it can wind up negating the other. And the talmidim died because they didn't see the worth and the gravitas of each other. But Lag BaOmer, they became temp- they became temporarily liberated from that because Lag BaOmer is Hod Sheba Hod. And that's why they didn't die on that day. Because the hashpa'ah of Aaron HaKohen lifted them out of the Netzach mentality and enabled them to see the good in each other. And when the reason for the plague went away, the plague went away. Machlokes was it temporary or permanent, but it went away. So, Lag BaOmer was the day that the students of Rebbi Akiva died because it's Hod Sheba Hod. The middah of Aaron. Ayef Shalom BaBayis Ayef Shalom. Hod is receptivity to see the other person, to let the other person shine. I don't have to have my way all the time. So, seen in that way, the celebration of Lag BaOmer is a celebration of Ahavas Yisrael, seeing the good in others, seeing kavod in others, seeing their gravitas, their weight, their significance, stepping back and letting other people shine. That's reason number one for Lag BaOmer. Now, let's look at reason number two, and I want to show you there's a certain tension in reason between reason number one and reason number two. Reason number two, the death of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai. Again, historically, there's a bit of a question, but we celebrate that, and essentially we're celebrating the greatness of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai. Who was Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai? Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai was, of course, a student of Rebbi Akiva, perhaps the greatest student of Rebbi Akiva, the author of at least the core of the Zohar. Uh we are told there's an interesting machlokes in Maseches Brachos between Rebbi Yishmael and Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai on the pasuk in Krias Shema that says, "If you keep the mitzvos, you will gather your grain." So, Rebbi Yishmael says the quite sensible proposition, "Oh, if the Torah says 'You will gather your grain,' that means there's a heter to make a living, a heter to make a parnassah. Even though you're supposed to learn, but go out and make a living. That's fine." Well, that sounds reasonable. Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai was aghast. Make a living? A person is going to plant when it's time to plant and harvest when it's time to harvest? How can he possibly forsake the eternal life that you get with learning Torah with the trivialities of olam hazeh? So, he's makes the astounding proposition that if Klal Yisrael would be truly righteous, they wouldn't have to work. Hashem would give them their parnassah. And it's only because we're not righteous that we find ourselves having to do this. Now, he's speaking autobiographically because for 12 years he was in a cave with his son, hiding from the Romans. And for those 12 years, the ravens brought him meat. I assume it had a hashgacha. Uh there were fruit trees, there were springs of water. He said, "It works for me. Why it'll work for you. And if it doesn't work for you, there's something wrong with you." And it mentions that when he left the cave after 12 years, and he couldn't believe what he sees, he sees people working, farmers in the field, and he looks at them and they burn up. Again, not that he intended to kill them, but just the the spiritual holiness of his gaze. How could they do this? And Hashem told him, "Go back into the cave. You're not ready for this world." And he goes back, and after a year, he comes out Erev Shabbos, and he sees a farmer carrying two myrtles two bundles of myrtle, hadassim. And he's about to use his x-ray vision or heat vision on that farmer, too. But the farmer says, "I have two bundles, one to remember the day of Shabbos and one to observe." And then Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai realized that even the physical parts of this world can be used to serve God. Now, the Gemara says lahalacha, many people tried to follow the route of Rebbi Yishmael, combining Torah and parnassah, and God blessed them. And many people tried to be like Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai, and they simply said, "God will take care of me." And unfortunately, uh they starved. So, the Gemara seems to indicate that generally speaking, one should follow the middah of Rebbi Yishmael. How that plays out with kollel and everything else, I'll I'll leave for another time. Obviously, it seems to have some implications. Uh but again, I want to point out, Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai is much more radical than kollel. Kollel is at least you have a plan. My plan is that the kollel is going to pay me. That's a That's a That's an economic plan. Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai is going way beyond that. He's basically saying, "I'm not going to do a thing. I'm not going to go to kollel. I'm going to stay at home and learn, and God's going to bring the money to me one way or the other." It's much more radical. That's why, indeed, uh many have pointed out that rejecting Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai's extreme position doesn't mean rejecting kollel. In other words, it's not it's not automatically connected. There are other reasons to question kollel. The Rambam says one should not get money for learning Torah. That's a separate That's a separate issue. Uh but the Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai issue is not directly at point. Because kollel is a form of hishtadlus. Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai's policy is no hishtadlus whatsoever. So, I look at the extremism of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai, and I see his greatness, his unparalleled greatness. He was a person whose love of Torah was so all-consuming, he could not take a minute off, not a second off. He could not see any value at all in economic activity and in in doing anything away from the Torah. He was a person who was single-minded to an extreme in his devotion to Torah. And although that is a madreiga that is totally beyond us, and indeed, it's a madreiga that the Gemara says we shouldn't even try to emulate because it's not going to work for us in our madreiga. But at least on Lag BaOmer, we try to connect ourselves to that type of potential. And maybe on some level, it'll trickle down a little bit, and we'll get elevated in some way. So, again, simcha number one, the cessation of the death of the students of Rebbi Akiva. Simcha number two, we honor and revere the memory of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai. Why is there a tension in these simchos? Because simcha number one calls upon us to be tolerant, to be accepting, to be understanding, not to push our agenda and our shifos onto other people in kind of a steamrolling fashion. It is Hod Sheba Hod. That is the tikkun, that is the rectification for the deaths of the students of Rebbi Akiva, and that is why they were liberated from that death. But on the other hand, Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai could be described, using Sefirah language, as Netzach Sheba Netzach. He was so single-minded in his commitment to Torah that he could not tolerate any deviation from that. And he looked at farmers, they would burn up. He couldn't imagine a world in which some other idea would be functioning. So here we have a problem. We find Jews who are very passionate, very fiery, very committed, very stark. So what a beautiful thing. Very zealous. But side by side will often be an intolerance towards people who are not functioning on their level. They will look down at other Jews, they will disparage other Jews. They will look at soldiers in the IDF or policemen or whatever it is as inferior lowlifes who are not worthy of any type of respect. And then you have another type of Jew. We'll call them a big tent Jew. They love everybody. I'm okay, you're okay. You know, everybody's wonderful, everybody, you know, and that's a good thing, too. That's of us Israel. Who's against of us Israel? It's like being against motherhood, apple pie, and baseball in the United States. Who's against of us Israel? But often the soft touch of of us Israel can lead to not standing for anything. Not standing for truth. Not standing for righteousness. Supporting if they want an example of random gay marriage or whatever it is because who are we to stop someone from having a loving relationship? And I again, you know, from just speaking from the heart, I understand that. But a Jew also has to stand for truth. The Rabbi says a Jew must love MS and a Jew must love shalom. The Jew must love truth. And the Jew must love peace. It's a very difficult balance. It's easy to be peaceful if you don't stand for truth. And it's relatively easy to be a man of truth if you don't care about peace. But the problem is Hashem is saying, you can't go with one without the other. You have to love truth. You have to love peace. So here is where we have a tension. The cessation of the deaths of Rabbi Akiva's students is having us focus on peace, hold. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai above all is the man of truth. And the the challenge for all of us as we come to Lag BaOmer is how do I become a person of truth, a person of commitment, a person of passion, a person who doesn't compromise fundamental values? A person who is an eved Hashem, and if Hashem gives the orders, I carry them out. And at the same time be able to relate to all people. And all people, Jews and even non-Jews as well. To see their goodness, see their dignity. To understand where people are coming from. That even if a person is pursuing ideas that I might think are wrong, and are wrong objectively, I could still have a respect for the legitimacy of their searching even if they're going in the wrong direction. That's a challenge because you're going to find people veering to one category or the other, but not really being able to synthesize these two attributes. And that's what Lag BaOmer is actually doing. Lag BaOmer uh is taking these opposite forces and saying, you got to do both. You have to do both. The truth of the matter is, um Eretz Yisrael is uh for various reasons, Eretz Yisrael is a polarizing religious world. Uh now, part of it is not because of religion, part of it is the Middle East Middle East temperament, meaning part of why there was such extreme polarization is that's the way Israel is. That's the way the Middle East is, and unfortunately it has also infiltrated the religious world that that that we live in. But the truth of the matter is even in the polarization of Eretz Yisrael where if I'm good, you're bad, you know, that type of thing, there's kind of there's no way of acknowledging the legitimacy of other Jews. We do know that there were Jews and there are some even today that do have a different approach. For example, for example, was a man who had great great love for all types of Jews, religious, non-religious, certainly Zionists and and non-Zionists. Many of his students were soldiers in the Israeli army, and you see pictures of him learning with these students. Uh Rabbi Zalman Meltzer, I'm going back a little bit more. I mean, maybe it's a little sad that I have to go back so long ago. Uh he was a Rabbi Cutler's father-in-law. And they really a going a going awesome in in all of Shas. Rabbi Cook, of course, to go back uh even even a little further. And for various reasons, one could contemplate this. Why there is more of an extremism and more of a rejectionism in quality Israel today than perhaps there was. Although I don't want to make I don't want to make it talk about the good old days because the truth is there's always been a problem in quality Israel. And in Rabbi Cook's own lifetime, he was vilified plenty uh with the religious zealots and the like. So perhaps there are reasons. When you have secularism and the like, maybe you have to fight in a strong way. So I'm not here to to judge or to condemn or to criticize in a way that would be a self-defeating proposition. That would be the opposite of what I'm trying to say. But I think in our own individual lives, we have to look at people with kindness and with compassion and with understanding and with respect. I think I told you the story a few weeks ago. Uh Rabbi Zalman Auerbach reputedly said that when he felt like davening at the grave of a tzaddik, he didn't have to go to Tzfat. He would go to the military cemetery in Mount Herzl. And he would pray by the grave of a soldier. Because a person who gave his life for the Jewish people is righteous in God's eyes. Now, there's an argument, did he even say a non-religious soldiers? I I don't want to take sides in that. There are two sides in in what he said. Uh but certainly he did say at least a religious soldier, but that person is a tzaddik in God's eyes and the like. So these are things that we should think about in Lag BaOmer and uh like everything else, Judaism embraces contradictions. God is infinite. And because God is infinite, he embraces propositions that from our limited perspective may be contradictory, but in fact have a unity at a much higher at a much higher level. That's what we say in Kaddish. Oseh shalom bimromav. Hashem, we're saying shalom too. Hashem makes shalom in his high heavens. Because shamayim itself is said to be a combination of fire, aish u mayim. Shamayim is fire and water. Hashem combines them in harmony. So we ask Hashem, give us a little of that shamayim stuff. Give us shalom as well. To be able to combine the fire and the water, the hold and the netzach. The deaths of the the cessation of the deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva and the glorification of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. And only then can we achieve the harmony that will bring quality Israel to the shleima that all of us yearn. So I wish everyone to have a very happy and inspiring Lag BaOmer. And may we be kind of learn from these two ideas and incorporate them in our lives. Thank you. Yeah.