(A vort for Lag B’Omer and Parshas Behar)
There is a widespread minhag Yisroel [Jewish custom] to light bonfires on Lag B’Omer in honor of R’ Shimon bar Yochai, the question is, what exactly is behind this minhag? In previous years we have mentioned many different reasons, this year, however, I would like to share a novel idea which I saw the brought down by the Madanay Asher:
The Gemara in numerous places (Berachos 43b; Bava Metzia 59a; Kesubos 66b; and Sotah 10b) brings down a famous memra [saying] of R’ Shimon bar Yochai: נוח לו לאדם שיפיל עצמו לתוך כבשן האש ואל ילבין פני חבירו ברבים – “It’s better for a person to throw himself into a fiery furnace, than it is for him to embarrass a friend in public.”
In this memra, R’ Shimon is teaching us the severity and danger involved in the prohibition of embarrassing another person. It is so severe, that it’s better for one to jump into a fiery furnace, than it is for him to speak badly and embarrass a friend and violate the issur de’O’raisa of: לא תונו איש את עמיתו – “And a man may not afflict his fellow” (Vayikra 25:17), the prohibition against saying hurtful words to another person.
With this we can explain why we make bonfires on Lag B’Omer. We make bonfires to instill into us and show us what a fire is. Just like everyone knows that one must keep well away from fire, so too, one must be careful to distance himself and stay well away from embarrassing and speaking badly about others. When we say: תורתו מגן לנו – “his Torah protects us”, we are referring to such memra’s. If we want R’ Shimon to po’el yeshuous [bring about salvation] for us, when dancing around the Lag B’Omer fire, we have to take his messages to heart and do something to act upon his teachings.
The Madanay Asher relates: That after the terrible tragedy that happened in Meron in which 45 korbonos hakedoshim lost their lives, he remembers looking at Meron from the distance and being amazed at how many ambulances there were. He remembers thinking to himself, about when the last time such a holy place had so many ambulances. Then it came to mind, the Gemara in Yevamos (62b) which teaches, that 24,000 talmidim of R’ Akiva died, and he was thinking about how many ambulances must have been on the scene.
Chazal tell us, the reason the talmidim died, was because: שלא נהגו כבוד זה בזה – “They didn’t treat each other with respect”. The Chofetz Chaim (in this week’s parsha) asks why they deserved such a terrible punishment? He answers, because when bnei Torah don’t treat each other with respect it creates a tremendous chillul Hashem, and for the aveirah of chillul Hashem death is indeed a worthy punishment.
We don’t know the chesbonois [calculations] of the Ribbono Shel Olam, however, we have a clear Gemara which teaches that if we don’t treat people with respect, the punishment is very severe. Therefore, Lag B’Omer is a perfect time to strengthen in this area, and improve in the way we treat and respect others.
I recently came across a fascinating story which brings out the above lesson perfectly, and shows how far one must go to avoid causing any pain to his fellow:
Rabbi Moshe Chevroni, Rosh Yeshivah of Chevron and a nephew of the great Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, related this story in his hesped [eulogy] for his uncle. He described the period of the war of Independence, when there was a strict curfew in Yerusholayim. It was forbidden to leave one’s home from six o’clock in the evening until six o’clock in the morning. Anyone who went out was suspected of being a spy and was liable to be arrested or even shot. One night, Rabbi Chevroni relates, he heard knocking on the door, and it was none other than Rav Meltzer. Rabbi Chevroni was terrified at what horror made his uncle risk his life late at night.
However, his uncle had a big smile on his face and told him that there was nothing to worry about. He came because there was a Rambam that he could not understand, and he thought that Rabbi Chevroni could perhaps help explain it. The fact that Rav Meltzer was willing to put himself in danger showed Rabbi Chevroni how great Rav Meltzer’s love of Torah was. After some thought, Rabbi Chevroni suggested an answer which his uncle was satisfied with. He remained in the house, learning, until the curfew was lifted and then he went home. Rabbi Chevroni recounted this story to demonstrate Rabbi Meltzer’s tremendous love of Torah. While this was of course accurate, there was a whole different reason why Rabbi Meltzer made this perilous journey to ask his nephew a question in learning. Rav Meltzer wrote a seminal series of works on the Rambam, ‘Even HaEzel’. One night, after a long period of preparation he was ready to publish the last volume and was preparing to bring it to the publisher the next morning. Then he suddenly said to his wife that he could not print it tomorrow. In response to her understandable astonishment, he explained: “My sefer includes a question asked by my brother-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Cohen, the Rosh Yeshivah of Chevron. Elsewhere, in the sefer is the answer to the question, provided by my brother-in-law’s son-in-law, Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, another Chevron Rosh Yeshivah. Just now, I realized that my nephew, Rabbi Moshe Chevroni, is not mentioned in the sefer. I’m afraid that if I publish the sefer as it is now, his grandchildren will ask, ‘How come our grandfather is the only Chevron Rosh Yeshivah who’s not mentioned in your sefer? It might make him feel bad. If even one person feels bad because of my sefer, I don’t want to print it! Better for me to put it into genizah [hiding] than to cause someone to feel bad.”
Rabbi Isser Zalman suddenly had an idea. He had a question on the Rambam, and he had ten possible answers to the question. However, he decided to go in the middle of a curfew to his nephew to ask the question. “He’s a great talmid chocham – he’ll surely find an answer to the question. Then I can add his answer to my sefer!” And that’s what he did. He ran to Rabbi Chevroni’s house, explained the question and listened to his answer. The next morning, he ran home and wrote his nephew’s answer in his sefer!
A number of lessons can be derived from this incredible story. Firstly, it teaches that even the performance of a great mitzvah such as publishing a sefer is not worth potentially causing even a small amount of pain to one’s fellow Jew.
Secondly, while clearly, Rav Meltzer was on an extremely high level in his sensitivity to others, his concern for what could have happened many years later, can teach each person on his level to try to consider consequences of our own words and actions. For example, if one is talking to a person who has a weakness in a certain area, or is suffering in a certain way, then one should avoid bringing up the success of other people in that area, as doing so will likely cause the listener at least a degree of pain.
Reb Yonason Eibshitz in Ya’aras Devash (vol. 2, 11) writes, “It is proper for every G-d fearing Jew to do teshuvah on Lag B'Omer because Reb Shimon's merit will help him do teshuvah, so that he doesn't spend his life with foolishness, which is a tza’ar for this tzaddik.”
Let us make sure to follow in the ways of R’ Shimon, in the ways of R’ Isser Zalman, and let us make that this year Lag B’Omer doesn’t slip by, leaving us empty handed.
