We are currently in a period of mourning - the Yemey haOmer. 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva passed away during this period because “lo nahagu kavod zeh la’zeh - they did not ascribe honor to one another”. This was an enormous tragedy for they were great tzaddikim, lighting up the world with their Torah.
When a gadol, great Rav, or Rosh Yeshiva passes away, all of Klal Yisrael fall into mourning and feel like yesomim. This is compounded if two pass away in a short space of time. In this case the loss was massive; not only two or three tzaddikim died but the inconceivable number of 24000. This therefore became the subject of mourning for all generations.
Why Are We Celebrating?
In this light we may wonder at the great celebrations that take place on Lag baOmer. Ostensibly the joy is for the fact that Rabbi Akiva’s talmidim stopped dying but this seems an odd reason for hundreds of thousands to flock to Meron, singing and dancing with great simcha and emotion. After all, if a man has 12 children and over 100 grandchildren, and an epidemic breaks out and they all die one after another and the death only ends because none are left, this would be no reason to celebrate! On the contrary, he would sit in shiva and grieve terribly at the dreadful fact that he has no more people to lose! Rabbi Akiva would surely have felt similarly at this time.
This question is particularly pertinent this year. We have lost thousands of our brothers and sisters in a terrible attack and are suffering from a sustained bout of antisemitism across the world. Our pain is compounded by the fact that travelling to Meron will not be a possibility this year because of the ongoing war. How can we possibly celebrate Lag baOmer?
Let us delve into this week's parsha and simultaneously try to understand a little more about the Yemey haOmer and thus gain a better understanding of the general celebration of Lag baOmer and in particular this year.
Connecting to a Higher World
This week's parsha discusses the mitzvos of shemita, yovel, and Shabbos. What is the idea behind these mitzvos and is there a connection between them?
As we discussed last week, Shabbos plays a similar role to the Beis Hamikdash; it is a time in which we connect to a higher world, to Hashem. During the week we work to “support ourselves”. On Shabbos we do not work; we simply sit and spend time with Hashem, realizing that our work during the week is not what is supporting us - it is Hashem who runs the world.
This is also the idea of shemita, taken a step further. By nature a farmer feels very connected to his fields. He works hard and, once a year, brings in a huge crop from which he lives comfortably throughout the year. One year in seven this all changes. He leaves his fields for a full year, thus abandoning his entire source of sustenance. What will he live off? “vChi somru mah nochal... v’tzivisi es birchasi...” He receives an extraordinary blessing from Hashem - a bumper sixth year crop that will see him through. This teaches him that it is Hashem who is truly the one supporting him, not only during shemita, but throughout the seven years. Shemita is a time when, as the Sefer haChinuch puts it, a person detaches himself from this world, realising that the land is not his but Hashem’s.
Once every 50 years, following seven shemitos, we take this a step further. Beis din blow shofros, and, in addition to the regular shemita, everyone gives up all of their most valued possessions. Every piece of real estate that one purchased, every eved that one acquired, is returned to the original owners. The idea behind this is to bring us to an even higher level of detachment from this world and to connect us to a higher world in which Hashem is the only true reality.
Day by Day, Week by Week
The Yemey haOmer is also a time to dwell on these lessons. During these seven weeks, as we have discussed previously, we progress from the barley grains of the korban ha’omer - the fare of animals - to the wheat of the loaves of Shavuos - the fare of man. We build, day by day and week by week, seven sets of seven, connecting more and more closely to Hashem. When we reach 50 we have no need to count as we have achieved the ultimate connection, just as we do in the th year of the cycle.
This idea was perfectly characterized by Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva grew up as an absolute am ha’aretz, not just ignorant but militantly opposed to talmidey chachamim. He would say, “Give me a talmid chacham and I will bite him like a donkey”! However, at the age of 40, following his marriage to Rachel, (who saw his great potential), he took the terribly degrading step of going to learn alef beis in a class of young boys. Why did he do that? Why could he not simply sit with an adult to learn it?
A further question: Rabbi Akiva famously gained the inspiration that he could learn Torah when he saw that water could penetrate a stone after many years of dripping upon it. “If soft water can make a hole in hard rock”, he reasoned,” Torah can certainly penetrate my soft heart”. Why was water dripping on a stone - a common sight to us all - such a source of inspiration to Rabbi Akiva?
The Invisible Progress !
The answer is the following. When water drips on a stone it makes no noticeable impact on the first day and on many subsequent days. Yet, as the years go by, a hole begins to appear. This indicates that even on the first day a layer of rock is imperceptibly weakened and peeled back. Rabbi Akiva felt that this message was also apparent in a classroom of young children.
These youngsters, aspiring to become talmidey chachamim, begin with the alef-beis. This does not make them talmidey chachamim right away, nor after a week, month, or year. However, if they keep on working, progressing from alef-beis to Chumash and mishnayos etc. they can eventually become true Torah scholars.
Rabbi Akiva began with nothing at all; he seemingly had no chance of reaching lofty level of scholarship. But yet he took the lessons described above and began learning Torah, continuing for two dozen years. In this time he continued to peel back, layer by layer, until he reached the levels to which he aspired.
This is what gave him the capacity to react to the tragic deaths of his 24,000 talmidim.
One might have expected that a person who has given up his life to building Torah, who has built a massive yeshiva with a huge number of talmidim learning day and night, who all die from one day to the next, would retire and spend his remaining years learning with a chavrusa. But Rabbi Akiva did not do that.
He knew that you can build Torah from nothing - as long as you keep going and do not give up you can continue building, little by little, until an empire of Torah is complete.
And so, he searched and found five - just five - talmidim, with whom to rebuild. These five did not even comprise a minyan in the yeshiva, but they began learning with hasmada. They avoided the mistakes of the past and with great determination rebuilt that which was lost.
Lag baOmer
On Lag baOmer our celebrations are not just that the talmidey Rebbi Akiva stopped dying, but that, at that terribly low moment, Rabbi Akiva said: “As little as you have, as far away as you might be, one can always begin again - it is never impossible to rebuild.” We rejoice in the fact as bleak and dire as one’s situation is, one may always start again, and, step by step, reach tremendous heights.
Rabbi Akiva held fast to this trait throughout his life. He lived in one of the most difficult times in history yet he did not give up.
On the contrary, Chazal relate that he was so great that he would derive heaps of halachos from every “kotz” - crown, of the Torah’s letters. The word “kotz”, it is said, is employed by Chazal to allude to a “thorn”, for in Rabbi Akiva’s era there were many thorns, impeding the nation and causing it pain and suffering. And while others would simply give up, Rabbi Akiva would use this time to learn more and more.
On a similar note, when Rabbi Akiva was sitting at the makom haMikdash and saw a fox emerging from the ruins and all those around him were crying at the sight, he laughed. He knew that one can rebuild from even the lowest and hardest place of destruction. There is no limit to what one can achieve, step by step, from any point.
Current Times
Recent Lag baOmers have been a matter of great pain. In 2020, for the first time, the kever of Rashbi was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year the site was reopened but the festivities were cut short by the dreadful tragedy that took the lives of the 45 kedoshim. This year the site will be closed again due to the war and we continue to reel from the almost constant stream of tragic news.
We asked how we can celebrate in this climate. The answer is that, in fact, this is precisely the lesson of Lag baOmer, sefiras ha’omer, and Rabbi Akiva’s life. One can rebuild from any position. Even the most monumental tragedies can be the beginning of a new, magnificent legacy.
Let us celebrate this year, despite our pain and distress, recalling how Rabbi Akiva valiantly rebuilt after his personal tragedy. As we counting the days and weeks of the omer, let us continue building, block by block, layer by layer, and reach the 50th day of Shavuos with enormous, collective achievements - “u’Va’u chulam bi’vris yachad na’aseh v'nishma amru k’echad”.
