Lag Ba'Omer: What's it All About? - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi everyone so tomorrow night is the holiday of lagba Omer if you're in Israel you're going to notice children festively lighting bonfires and making you know marshmallows and s'mores and maybe singing songs about the Marco Rebellion you're gonna notice droves of people going to Monroe and the gravesite of the famous China it exchange you're going to notice lots of grumpy people including myself closing the windows and taking their laundry to avoid all that smoke and you're also going to notice that from this day on people are going to stop observing the morning rituals that we have observed you know during this Omar time from Passover until now such as not getting haircuts not shaving not hearing live music not getting married and things like that now if you're new to Torah uh observance or even if you aren't it might kind of take the cake as one of the stranger Jewish practices log Wilmer doesn't appear anywhere in the Torah if you look for a hint for it in the profits you're gonna walk away disappointed and even in the writing of the sage it's like mentioned but not in any way that really resembles the modern practice of blogger and you really only see this developing later on so what is this day all about when we look at the sources we might find ourselves with more questions and answers if we go back to the ancient text there seem to be main three three main like uh main three contexts for uh this holiday so first and like probably the most famous reference is in the Babylonian talmud and attracted and bfmote we learned that about the death of the students of Rabbi Akiva Rabbi Akiva was probably the greatest stage surely in his generation maybe ever um and although he only began to study at the age of 40 he was arguably uh you know really like the greatest scholar now we're taught in the tract awe mode that the students of Arabic the Rabbi Akiva had 24 000 students and they died between Passover and Shavuot and it says let's tell him that they died uh in some kind of plague because they were not respectful to one another now there's a question if they actually what they actually died from because the Tomlin says there was a play like an illness um some argued that maybe it's hinting uh to the fact that they actually died in the barkova Rebellion which we'll get to in a moment sometimes the talmud had to censor itself so it's to not create suspicion to the Jews you know there was a fear that uh you know of anti-Semitism so maybe Jews wanted to kind of like quiet down there you know the stories of the courage and Rebellion against the Romans but either way we have this idea that the students of Rabbi Akiva died on these days so that's the conventional explanation for why we don't shave or get haircuts or get married or listen to music during the counting of the Omer uh but we also know that all of that morning and sadness stops uh according to most on lagba Omer so there's an oral tradition written down by the sages in the Middle Ages after the talmud but this is because Omar the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying so that's you know reason kind of Direction number one the second sort of Direction given for why we celebrate lagba Omer is maybe a little bit connected to that source and that it's this idea that this is a day that symbolizes Jewish rebellions against the Romans there's not a whole lot of historical evidence like exactly why it's log by Omer this was something that was very much like emphasized though by early Zionism um perhaps it's because as I said before maybe Rabbi akiva's students died in the Rebellion there's also some evidence from Josephus that the previous Rebellion the Great Rebellion that led to the destruction of the temple um happened around this time of year some people have said that you know the idea of lighting bonfires was how people used to Signal the beginning of the Rebellion for one another uh there was also an ancient tradition of children uh like doing archery games online so some people believe that this is because the rebellion was like have you know either a successful battle or maybe began on lagba Omer the third Direction has to do with Rabbi Shimon baryokai the Great Sage ravish who was a student of Rabbi Akiva was considered the greatest Jewish Mystic who brought who passed down the mystical tradition and there's a tradition in the Czar the greatest mystical writing that Rabbi Shimon died on lagaba Omer so here's the thing all of these could be an explanation for why it's like a meaningful time but none of those explanations seem to tell us why it's a happy timer at the very least a time that we stop mourning like if you look at all those reasons they don't seem very happy what does it even mean that the students of Rabbi Akiva stop dying like a plague of deaths ended because they dead like we know from other sources that Rabbi akiva's students total 24 000 and what Rapha Akiva put into getting those students we're told that he left his wife for 24 years to teach all those students just think about like your average ivy league college in America is you know 20 something thousand students in in Hebrew University in Israel that has six campuses there are 23 500 students I looked I Googled that today right like imagine if all of the doctors you know all the medical students and all the law students and all the social work students all the psychologists everybody was just studying Torah and that's like what the loss was and then think about the Rebellion both the Great Rebellion uh before the destruction of the temple and the Barbacoa Rebellion after that ended in tremendous tragedy the destruction of the temple and the Exile of the Jewish Community why would we ask what and if it's the third reason Rabbi Shimon baryokai died on that day is a bad reason to celebrate we lost the greatest Jewish Mystic like you could literally take all of these explanations and use them as a perfectly reasonable description of why we would have traditions of mourning not as reasons for stopping mourning it doesn't seem happy and all this seems absolutely nuts but when you look a little closer I think you can learn something really deep from the kind of you know like meeting of all of these different uh reasons that have been brought for this special day let's start with Rabbi Akiva where we learned in the talmud is that there was a serious chance that all of Torah would be forgotten but then after all the students died right back even started a new Yeshiva and what we're taught in the town was that he only had five students five students that essentially carried on the Torah as like the leaders of the oral tradition for the next 2000 years the students were Robbie Mayer Rabbi yossi Rabbi Shimon hi Rabbi Yehuda Rabbi elazar and it says that they alone continue the Torah we learn that if you read like a random mishnah that's not attributed to anyone which is most of the mishnahs you should attribute to Robbie Mayer Who was a student of rabi Akiva we're taught that the midrash is to be attributed to those students of Rabbi Akiva if you read a mystical work it's attributed to rabi Shimon baryokaya student of so to understand the magnitude of who Rabbi Akiva was and what he did and what his students did was that basically through the funnel of Rabbi Akiva and his five students all of the world of Torah essentially was reborn and then let's look at the Rebellion it's true that the rebellions ended in disaster physically but imagine a world where we hadn't rebelled let's say we hadn't rebelled against the Romans it's not so hard to imagine what Our Fate would have been because we can look at all the other places that were conquered by Romans and didn't Rebel the Jews never gave in with the last bit of strength that we had we rebelled and the temple was destroyed and we were rebelled again and we lost again but the spirit was that the whole world can be Roman everyone can say that the world is one way that this is truth but a Jew wouldn't bow it's the Maccabee Spirit it never died it was that spirit that although we were physically crushed we were sustained for two thousand years of Exile it's that spirit that will allowed us to survive and then look at Ravi Shimon yes Rabbi Shimon died that day died that day but the mystical tradition teaches that at his bed while he was dying he he shared the secrets of the mystical Torah and it says that his bed was actually consumed with fire there's like a thread going through all these stories if you put together all the reasons for log Balmer they all concentrated in one period of time that time at the end of the temple but the beginning of like a new type of Torah new type of Judaism like everything was destroyed and everything's starting over the world of Torah was destroyed like when you think about the sheer amount of Torah that could have been learned from 24 000 Scholars just going around Israel and teaching Torah it was all destroyed but what did we get we got a whole new way of learning because before that the oral Torah had been an oral tradition being passed down but because of the death of all of these students there was an actual fear that the oral tradition would be lost and then for the first time the oral tradition was written down we got that mission that we got the talmud it became accessible ironically to more people than ever we're still studying these texts so while our look and then look at the look at the rebellions our physical destruction you know our physical nation and and Temple were destroyed right but the fighting Spirit was like immortalized that would you know that spirit that would allow us to rebirth with the re-establishment of the state of Israel after 2000 years and it's the day we lost but we gained the revelation of mystical you know secrets that would sustain us for two thousand years of Exile spiritually so maybe that's the secret of lagba Omer like and and of the Jewish people as a whole maybe that ability to see lockba Omer as what although it looks like a sad day to see it as a day at the end of mourning it's like we don't deny the sadness we don't say these are happy days we say these are the end of mourning we say like we recognize the sadness we mourn but we also stop mourning the Jewish people are special because we stop mourning like Rabbi Akiva he saw his entire work crumble it would have been so easy for him to Despair and say like okay this whole thing isn't working and how easy would it have been for the Jews to after the first rebellion was crushed to just say whatever enough let's just get along with our Roman occupiers but they didn't had to hide in a cave for years and years because he spoke out against the Romans like he could have just said enough why do we have to keep fighting but he didn't and it's like all of those things unite the reasons that we have for long but Omar you know my son Akiva I love his school and they're studying now the subject of how to keep your faith in Hashem in the face of tragedy and so the kids were asked to go interview somebody who kept their faith in the face of a horrible thing and so my son our son Akiva decided to interview Rina Ariel whose daughter Halal was killed by a terrorist in her bed and he said he asked her um you know like how did you you must have had a crisis of Faith how did you overcome that and she goes why do you think I had a crisis of Faith she's out of Crisis and I have had faith I didn't have a crisis of faith I had a crisis with faith and then she went on to tell our son how you know all of what you know everything that that she did that she does and everything her husband does to commemorate Halal you know uh creating love you know fostering love of the land and love of the Temple Mount and you know that's that is you that she was like encapsulating that spirit um and you know that that's the spirit that sustained us throughout 2000 years of Exile and I think there's another thing here you know the Rabbi Akiva dusted off the world of Torah dusted off that tragedy and created the world of Torah from 5 000 from five students you know he didn't try to make a huge Yeshiva again he had 24 000 students but look carefully at what the talmud says so they didn't treat each other properly that's why they died now that's so strange of all reasons because we know that Rabbi Akiva always emphasized teaching love your neighbor as yourself love your neighbors they'll be taught so many students but they didn't really get the main idea the message and then he taught five students but what students in a whole world of Darkness five people really got it and they taught the entire world you know Rabbi Shimon one person taught the entire mystical tradition that eventually you know sustained us for for two thousand years and we live in a world where quantity is so often you know taken as proof of something being right like follow the experts we're told look how many countries condemn Israel we're told in the time of the you know before the Holocaust zionists like jabatinski warned that a disaster was coming but they were a minority the majority wanted to stay in Europe and and didn't believe him didn't believe the zionists that this is you know disaster was coming a lot of people here even in our own Fellowship probably have an opinion or a way of you know seeing things different from people in their Community or even their own family people say look at everybody else you're the one who's figured it out and it's like Rabbi Akiva tells us that Torah is not always discovered by following the majority but sometimes it's by a few that are willing to be loyal to that which they know to be true and from them Springs forth a transformation a greater understanding and so maybe this holiday is also a tribute to those few who don't follow the crowd but are willing to be a Small Voice of Truth that reverberate you know great courage in Divine 7 7 it says that Hashem chose us not because he says not because you are more numerous than any people did the Lord Delight in you and choose you for you are the least of all the people like it says Hashem tells us Hashem did not choose us because we are the majority and we have the majority opinion that everybody listens to and that's really popular no he says you're the least you're the fewest you're the quiet small voice but because you forefathers followed me that is why Hashem loves us right follow that's why I love you Hashem tells us I so perhaps you know this holiday is a tribute to that spirit that Spirit that's willing to be a small voice that speaks the truth no matter what everybody else thinks that that voice is you know that that small group that's willing to say no matter what happens we dust ourselves off we get back up and we keep on fighting we keep on going that is the spirit and and you know it's an interesting thing most holidays we kind of look at them as having a diminishing value like if you look at pesoff you know Passover how we celebrate it today is nice but it's so diminished compared to how our forefathers celebrated it with you know the temple and the and the you know pesach offering and there was so much more you know think about our our forefathers celebrating Shavuot they didn't just have you know prayer in the synagogue or in their homes but they were able to bring the big Korean bring the first fruits to the temple like everything seems so much richer and today it's like just a shadow of what used to be but lagba Omar is a really interesting holiday because it seems like a holiday that every year is getting stronger and stronger like when I was growing up a lot about Omar was like hardly a big deal hardly a thing and like with every year goes by you hear more and more log but one more celebrations more people are like looking into this and studying it and talking about it it's a holiday that you know really developed so much more recently and it's become so much richer than it ever was in the past and maybe that's a sign that that Spirit of Vlog of Omar and everything Omar represents is getting stronger and stronger with the return from the Exile and the re-establishment of Israel like that Spirit of of of rising up from the dust that Spirit of coming from the destruction of the Holocaust to creating the state of Israel that spirit is Awakening and getting stronger and stronger every day so with that I wish you guys a happy and meaningful Omer bye everyone