The Heart of Sefirah – Lag BaOmer 5769
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Loading ...The joy and celebration of Lag BaOmer is well known and generously carried out. The question worth pondering is what exactly is this party for? What are we so happy about? The explanation I hope will shed much light on Lag BaOmer and the entire theme of Sefiras HaOmer as well.
Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai was the author of the holy Zohar. His words contain the keys to the Pnimiyus HaTorah, wellsprings of secrets and depth of the entire Torah. There is no true Torah scholar who has not studied and gleaned insight from his esoteric works. How was one man able to accomplish his great self-development and perfection which enabled him to merit to be the one to bring out all of this greatness?
In order to understand this we must discuss the Mabul, the Great Flood, from the time of Noach, which destroyed the entire world. This is very relevant for two reasons. Firstly, because Lag BaOmer is the eighteenth day of Iyar and it was the first day of the Mabul in which Noach and his family were saved by being inside the Taivah, Ark (see Beraishis 7:11). Also, Chazal tell us that when Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai ran away to escape death from the government, he hid inside a cave. This was equivalent to Noach inside of his Ark. What does it all mean?
Why did Hashem bring the Flood and why did he spare Noach from death? Chazal explain that the people in his generation were terrible sinners; they rebelled against Hashem. However, their final decree of annihilation came because of their sins to humanity, against each other. Their stealing and selfish outlook destroyed their society and Hashem, after warning them for one hundred and twenty years, had no choice but to destroy them. Hashem was willing to bear their sins against Him, however, people that mistreated others and were totally self-centered, had no merit to live any longer. Hashem provides life to us in order that we can serve Him and work towards breaking our egos. Our job is to develop our sensitivity and care for others. We strive to be the biggest performers of Chessed, kindness, for mankind. It was only in this merit that Noach was saved. The Torah calls him a “Tzaddik”, someone who gives generously and cares for others. In fact, even in the Ark itself Noach and his family had to dedicate themselves to tend to every animal’s individual need in order to continue their acts of Chessed and thereby merit to live. This was what kept them alive. The one time that Noach delayed in feeding a lion he was maimed by it and limped the rest of his life. It was clear to all of them that their purpose and directive was to perform limitless Chessed.
After surviving the flood, Cham castrated his father in hope of preventing him from having more children whom he feared would diminish his lot of the inheritance. Noach was in a compromised position and his grandson Canaan, son of Cham, took the opportunity to spread this fact to the others. Shem then went to cover his father and protected his dignity. Noach realized what had transpired and so he cursed Cham and his descendants with the terrible punishment of servitude. The reason for this harsh decree was that their selfish acts had showed that they had failed to learn anything regarding respecting and caring for others. Shem on the other hand was rewarded and commended for his sensitivity. He became the grandfather of Avraham and our nation. The formula is simple and clear, those who care for and help others are successful in life and develop a closeness with Hashem.
This brings us to Sefiras HaOmer. We are now counting from Pesach towards Shavuos. Hashem chose us to be His Nation and we want to accept His glorious Torah. The way that we succeed in doing this is by showing Him how much we love and care for our brothers. “VaYichan Sham Yisrael” as one person with one united heart (Shemos 19:2 and Rashi there). The experience of Har Sinai only happens when we join in unity with one another. This is why the students of Rebbe Akiva died in this time period. When Hashem was picking who would continue to spread His Torah, He needed to see mutual love in the candidates. Anyone who disrespected and mistreated his friends was deemed unworthy and unfit to perform the great job and thus perished.
Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai embodied the trait of Tzidkus, righteousness. He was from the five students of Rebbe Akiva who developed love and respect for others. He learned from his Rebbe how to love and care for his fellow people. Thus, just as Noach merited to be saved by entering his Ark and doing Chessed, so too Rashbi merited to be saved from his pursuers in his Ark/cave, where he perfected himself and authored the Zohar. He then emerged to dedicate his life to the full-time service and teaching of the beauty and secrets of Torah to his dear people.
On Lag BaOmer, the students of Rebbe Akiva stopped dying. Why then? Because there are forty-eight keys listed in Avos (6:6) for how to acquire Torah. Each day of the Sefirah we work on one of them and on the last day (forty-nine) we review them all. The thirty-second one is “love people” and the thirty-third (ל”ג) one is: “love tziddakos, righteousness”. The remaining students took these traits to heart and perfected their ability to be caring for others and to be a Tzaddik like Noach. They would think about others just as he did and thus they gained the privilege to live.
Rashbi himself died many years later, according to some, precisely on Lag BaOmer. This hints to the fact that he had perfected his trait of caring for others. The Sefirah, kabbalistic trait, of Lag BaOmer is “Hod SheB’Hod, splendor of splendor”. What does this mean? Aharon HaCohen was the embodiment of Hod, beauty, he opened up his heart and loved and cared for every Jew; he only desired that there be true peace between the people. Suffice it to say that this day is the epitome of that dream. And thus it is the exact day that the Ark began protecting Noach and the exact day that Rashbi merited to reveal the greatest secrets of the entire Torah. All of this was in the merit of their love for others. This is what grants Torah and life!
There are thirty-two days of Sefiras HaOmer before Lag BaOmer and seventeen days from Lag BaOmer until Shavuos. Thirty-two in Hebrew is Lamed Bais (לב); seventeen in Hebrew is Tov (טוב). Thus, Lag BaOmer is the day which joins and develops the virtue of having a good and positive heart (לב טוב). It represents the bringing together and focus of this entire time period. We are working to love and embrace our fellow man!
As we open our hearts to love and care for others, we are filled with the happiness and joy of fulfilling our purpose. Let us rejoice together as we work on accepting the Torah by taking in the beautiful lesson of Lag BaOmer. This is what the celebration is all about!
