START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY EREV LAG B’OMER 5772

From the time that Moshe Rabbenu is first mentioned in Torah at the beginning of Shemos, there is only one sedra, I believe, Tetzaveh, where he is not mentioned by name. In fact, in most sedras he is mentioned 10 or even 20 times. He personifies the Torah. So much so, that the Novi tells us zichru Toras Moshe avdi, remember the Torah of Moshe, My servant.

Let us try to understand the special stature of Moshe Rabbenu.

Right near the beginning of שמות, the Torah tells us (second chapter verse 1, and verse 2)

וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי ותהר האשה ותלד בן ותרא אתו כי טוב הוא ותצפנהו שלשה ירחים

A man from the house of Levi went and took the daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son, she saw that he was good and hid him for three months.

We all know that, in fact, it was Amram a grandson of Levi who got married to his aunt Yocheved and the child being referred to here was our famous Moishe Rabbenu.

It is extraordinary that no names are mentioned, a man, a woman and a child but no trace of any actual name.

There is a Gemora, סוטה יב. which states that Yocheved was 130 when she bore Moishe. She had passed the menopause and similar to the story of Soroh returned to her youthful state by miracle and then bore Moishe.

What is extraordinary in this particular case is that Aharon was only three years older and Miriam possibly five years older than Moishe and yet they, apparently, were born in a normal fashion. It is only after that, that Yocheved ceased to be able to have a child in the normal way.

Indeed, a very strange chain of circumstances all round, I think!!

What can be gleaned from the whole story is that Moishe Rabbenu was born on a different plane than normal human beings. The Hebrew expression is למעלה מן הטבע, super natural.

What follows from that will explain, in my opinion, numerous facts that we are told in Torah about Moishe Rabbenu.

At the end of Parshas בהעלתך, there is the story of Miriam and Aharon speaking what amounted to loshen hora about Moishe and the Torah tells us (in Bamidbar chapter 12, verse 6, 7, & 8)

ויאמר שמעו נא דברי אם יהיה נביאכם ה' במראה אליו אתודע בחלום אדבר בו לא כן עבדי משה בכל ביתי נאמן הוא

And Hashem said to Aharon and Miriam, “Please listen to what I say, if you are prophets, Hashem shows himself to you in a vision, in a dream that speaks to you. Not so, My servant Moishe he is faithful in all My house.”

פה אל פה אדבר בד ומראה ולא בחידת ותמנת ה' יביט

Mouth to mouth I speak to him, and he sees clearly, not in riddles and can look at the image of Hashem.

Indeed staggering statements. The Gemora says that Moishe Rabbenu saw with such a clear vision that it is called אספקלריה המאירה, whereas all other prophets did not have that clarity of vision.

With what I mentioned earlier on, one can understand that as Moishe Rabbenu was born on this much higher plane, his relationship with Hashem was also on a different level and plane to other human beings. The statements of Moishe’s greatness are, therefore, not staggering.

In the same vein, the Chazal tell us that Moishe Rabbenu and all other prophets used the expression כה אמר ה', so Hashem said, but Moishe Rabbenu himself used the expression זה הדבר אשר צוה ה'. This is the command that Hashem gave. He could see precisely and enunciated precisely what Hashem had said.

If we go back to the first vision that we are told about, that Moishe Rabbenu had, at the burning bush, also in Parshas שמות. Hashem saw that he had noticed the bush which was not burning out. It says that Hashem called him from that bush and He said  משה משהMoishe Moishe, The Zohar Hakodesh comments that two other people were called twice by their name. The first was Avrohom, where is says אברהם|אברהם (this was when he was told not to sacrifice Yitzchok at the Akeidah). The other one was יעקב|יעקב. The Zohar states that whereas in the case of Avrohom and Yaakov, they started at a lower level and worked themselves up to an extremely high level, Moishe was born at the same level as he continued for his whole life. This is inferred by the use of משה משה without a line between the two words.

We find at the beginning of the last Sedra in Torah that Moishe is called איש האלקים and our Chazal tell us “part man” part “higher being”. According to the previous comment of Chazal, quoted just above, I would suggest that he was born like that.

In fact, regarding the words I started off with ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא and Yocheved saw that this child was good, Rashi quotes a medrash נתמלא הבית אורה, the house became filled with light, and we are told that that means that the Shechina, Hashem’s presence, came down with the birth of Moishe.

There are numerous other examples of how great Moishe was and how different to other human beings. Let us just quote one further example. After the Torah was given Moishe Rabbenu went up to Heaven, obtained all the details from Hashem and stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights. He, himself, stated לחם לא אכלתי ומים לא שתיתי, I did not eat or drink at all.

With my opening thoughts, one can now understand that because he was on a different plane, it follows that he was not bound by normal human needs and could go 40 days and nights without eating or drinking, and I assume, also without sleeping.

With all this, one can understand another midrash that tells us that when he found the Egyptian beating a Jewish person, he killed him and the midrash tells us that it was by uttering a special name of Hashem שם המפורש. Where did he learn this name? Surely not in Pharaoh’s palace where he was brought up. However, according to what I have suggested, he knew it because he was born on such a high level that automatically this was part of what he had been born with and imbibed.

Turning to the request by Hashem that he should undertake the task of leading the Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, and his refusing, as we told for seven days. We find that Moishe Rabbenu’s reason was כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, because I am a stammerer and heavy of speech.

What I think Moishe Rabbenu was saying is that he knew himself that he was on a different level to other human beings and that the only way in which he was like them was that he had a body which was human. If his speech was impaired and impeded, he felt that he was the wrong person to try to take the Yidden out of Egypt in the circumstances. The main thing that he was supposed to do was to speak to Pharaoh as well as the Yidden and he could not relate to either properly. To which Hashem retorted מי שם פה לאדם, who gave man a mouth. I would ask you carefully note that it says לאדם I think this refers to Odom Harishon and Hashem was saying to Moishe, in the same way that I created Odom Harishon and gave him all his faculties and senses, I can repair your defect of speech.

There is a midrash which says that this was caused by Moishe Rabbenu having burnt his mouth on glowing coals. The midrash comments that at some time as he was growing up, Moishe decided to try on Pharaoh’s crown and Pharaoh got very agitated and wanted to have him killed, but one of his advisers, Yisro, who later became Moishe’s father-in-law, suggested that the child should be tested with a golden dish on one hand and glowing coals on the other to see which one he took. As he was only a child, by taking the coals it would show that he was too young to understand what a crown represented. Nevertheless, Moishe made for the golden dish and the angel Gabriel came and pushed him until he picked up the coals and burnt his tongue.

There is a מאמר חז''ל that the original inhabitants of the world understood why they gave particular names to their children. This was either to do with their characteristics or events that took place during the children’s lives. What I suggest is that Moishe did not have a name at birth because he was above such things, super natural and even his father and mother were not mentioned as the whole episode was above and beyond the norm. He was born to a father and mother, Amram and Yocheved, but had this special supernatural aspect.

We do, however, find one other incident where a child was born in similar circumstances, I am, of course, talking about Yitzchok who was born to his mother when she was already old as the Torah tells us clearly.

However, I think the case there was different because Hashem told Avrohom immediately after informing him that Soroh was going to have a child, that he should name him יצחק. Rashi comments that each letter signifies a particular important point. The י is in commemoration of the ten tests that Avrohom was put through, the צ was the 90 years that Soroh was old when she bore Yitzchok, the ח was the eighth day of the bris mila and the ק was the 100 years that Avrohom was old when Yitzchok was born.

In each case, this is what is known as צימצום and so Yitzchok was born with a specific name tailored to the circumstances and, therefore, not above the normal human way of life in contrast to Moishe Rabbenu, the supernatural child איש האלקים.

לעילוי נשמת אמי מורתי גיטל בת אברהם אבא ע''ה נפטרה ד' אדר תשס''ו לפ''ק

In memory of my mother, yarzheit 4th Adar

  

As we are all aware, we are, at the moment, in the middle of the Sefira days, just coming up to Lag B’Omer. The reason why the sefira is a time of mourning is because the 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva died during that period. There is a Gemora in Menochos כ''ט which says that Moshe Rabbenu went up to receive the rest of the Torah after hearing the Aseres Hadibbros with all the other Yidden, he noticed that on top of the letters there were kessarim, crowns. Moshe Rabbenu was curious and asked Hashem what are these for, is there not enough written in the Torah itself. Hashem retorted, after many generations there is going to be somebody called Akiva Ben Yosef and he will darshan, explain every single one with numerous halachos. Moshe Rabbenu was extremely curious and said, “Can I please see this gentleman?” Hashem told him to sit down in the eighth row and listen to a shuir Rabbi Akiva was giving, Moshe Rabbenu could not understand what was going on, which, of course, upset him. Until at one point, Rabbi Akiva’s pupils asked him, Rebbe, where do you know this from, and he said ”It was halacho L’Moshe M’Sinai.” At that point Moshe Rabbenu was relieved to hear that it was all coming back to what he had learned from Hashem.

He then said to Hashem, “In that case, if You have a person of such great stature as Rabbi Akiva, why did you give the Torah through me?” and Hashem said “That is My business, it is not yours.” Indeed a remarkable Gemora.

However, we can see from this that Rabbi Akiva must have been an extremely great person and I thought it would be instructive to compare the lives of Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva. Please remember that Rabbi Akiva was the son of Gerim, we also know about Rabbi Akiva that for the first 40 years of life he was an Am Ha’Aretz. For the next 40 years he studied Torah under great Tannoim. For the final 40 years of his life, he was the head of the Rabbonim and the greatest Rabbi in Israel.

At some time during this latter period he lost 24,000 talmidim but he did not give up. He then taught 5 new talmidim who became stars of the Tannoim including R’ Shimon Bar Yochai who, tradition tells us, Yahrzeit is on Lag B’Omer. Remarkably, Moshe Rabbenu had a similar background in certain respects.

True he was born to Amram and Yocheved but as a little baby of three months he was brought up in Paroh’s palace and only later on fled from Egypt. He ended up, eventually with Yisro (although I do not know at what age this took place) that initial period of his life would be comparable with the first 40 years of Rabbi Akiva.

Yisro, however, was a different kettle of fish, he had known all the avoda zoras in the world, rejected them and accepted that Hashem was the creator of the world. Moshe Rabbenu was with him for many years and eventually had the vision on Har Sinai of the burning bush. That was at the end of the next forty years. This we know because the Torah tells us that when Moshe Rabbenu finally appeared before Paroh he was 80 years of age. For the next 40 years he was the leader of Klal Yisroel who brought down the Torah and taught it to the Yidden with mesiras nefesh. This was very similar to Rabbi Akiva who in his last 40 years had a similar profile.

Furthermore, in the same way as Rabbi Akiva lost 24,000 talmidim, Moshe Rabbenu, at the time of the story of Zimri, lost 24,000 Yidden. However, Pinchas saved the situation at that time and no doubt he was one of the leading talmidim of Moshe Rabbenu. Pinchas was given a special gift of Kahuna, he was not supposed to be a Kohen and in fact he became Kohen Godol. This is very similar to R’ Shimon Bar Yochai who had revealed to him the secrets of Torah and has become a beacon for all generations.

One the other hand, there are striking differences between Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva, as I said earlier on Moshe Rabbenu was born to Amram and Yocheved, children and grandchildren of the Ovos. Rabbi Akiva was born to parents who became Geirim. Although both Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva knew that they were going to die at a particular time, there was a great difference, Moshe Rabbenu was in full command of all his faculties and just went into a cave and disappeared. Rabbi Akiva, because he taught Torah, was tortured by the Romans as the Gemora describes vividly, he said Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echod and as he said the word Echod, yotzoh nishmosoi b’teharah.

I think that one of the lessons that one can draw from this is that whether one is born into a family that has a great Yichus or into a family which has no Yichus, whether one learnt Torah early on or not, whether one heard Torah from the Rabbonu Shel Olam or not, one can achieve great heights, no very great heights, extraordinarily great heights, by perseverance.

I will only just end with the famous story of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai quoted in the Gemora Shabbos ל''ג who was sitting one date with his colleagues, R’ Yehudah and R’ Yose and discussing the Roman conquest and rule in Eretz Yisroel. As we know R’ Yehudah was complimentary of the fact that the Romans had started rebuilding the land after having caused all the destruction and had created new road and new bridges etc. R’ Yose kept quiet R’ Shimon said they did it all for their good and not for ours. The net result, as we know was that R’ Shimon’s words got back to the Roman authorities and they issued an death edict against him. He ran away, ended up for 12 years in a cave with his son and great miracles took place there, in that a spring of water came out and a carob tree grew. Eventually he came out alive not only physically but spiritually immensely greater because at that time was revealed to him the great secrets of Torah, many of which are embodied in the Zohar Hakodosh.

All the four people I have mentioned, Moshe Rabbenu, Pinchas, Rabbi Akiva and R’ Shimon Bar Yochai showed mesiras nefesh in keeping to Torah and the commands of Hashem. Let us try to emulate them.

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LAG B’OMER 5768

Good morning gentlemen and I hope that you have been enjoying Lag B’Omer, bonfires and all.

What is so important about Lag B’Omer? We know that we are allowed to make a Chasanah on Lag B’Omer, that it is a time of simcha, we don’t say Tachanun, etc.

We have all heard of the Gomorra that tells us that 12,000 (or possibly 24,000) pupils of Rabbi Akiva died for 33 days between Pesach and Shavuous but Lag B’Omer, was either the day that they ceased passing away or it was the day in the period on which nobody died.

Recently, we have seen another phenomenon, namely that thousands, no tens of thousands, of people stream to Meron on Lag B’Omer to the Tziyon of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai. What has this got to do with Lag B’Omer? Now I know that people say that his Yahrzeit was on Lag B’Omer but I am going to stick my neck out and ask where do they have the proof for this. I have researched the matter and the earliest reference that I can find is a letter written by R’ Ovadia Bartenura, the famous commentator on Mishnayos who when he emigrated to our Holy Land from Italy wrote to his son and in passing mentioned that he was in Meron on Lag B’Omer and “as everybody knows this is the yahrzeit of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai”. There is no mention of the date in the Zohar, as far as I am aware, although, the actual happenings during the day when R’ Shimon passed away are detailed over many pages.

I must tell you that I have just returned from Eretz Yisroel and I was in Meron this Sunday, the preparations for Lag B’Omer are unbelievable. The organisers say that over ¼ million people come to visit over the two or three days of the Lag B’Omer period.

In any event, I am curious as to why R’ Shimon was zoche to such a tremendous influx of people coming just to his Tziyon.

On last Sunday I did a round tour of Teveria, Tzfas and then Meron. I started off at the cave where Rabbi Akiva is buried. Rabbi Akiva, for your information, was the Rebbe of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai. The Gemora tells us that after the untimely death of all the other disciples Rabbi Akiva went to the five learned Rabbis including R’ Shimon, and there was R’ Meir, R’ Yehuda, R’ Yose and R’ Elozor and taught them and from them we have a tremendous amount of the tradition and lots of mishnyas are in the names of these great tanoim. People don’t go to visit Rabbi Akiva the way the mass movement to visit R’ Shimon takes place!!!

You may recall that Rabbi Akiva was for 40 years an Am Ha’aretz, the next 40 years he was a pupil of the leading Rabbis and the last 40 years in his life, he was acknowledged as the great Torah leader. Finally, at the age of 120 he was hunted down because he was teaching Torah in public and he was killed in the most horrible way, with the words of Shema Yisroel on his lips as the Gemora tells us at the end of Brochos.

The Gemora in Menochos mentions that he quoted many many halochos on every tag, תג that is the little crowns on top of the letters of the Sefer Torah, to the extent that Moshe Rabbenu was shown this happening and couldn’t quite understand everything. Moshe was very upset until he heard somebody asking Rabbi Akiva a particular question and Rabbi Akiva answered that is halocho l’Moshe m’Sinai. We, therefore, do not have any understanding of how great Rabbi Akiva was and although many people go to visit Rabbi Akiva’s kever, there is nowhere near the ¼ million that R’ Shimon receives.

I then went further down the hill in to the city of Teveria where R’ Yochanan Ben Zakai and a number of his leading talmidim, including R’ Eliezer Ben Horkenus are buried right near the Rambam and Shloh Hakodesh.

You may recall that Rabbi Akiva was a leading talmid of R’ Eliezer ben Horkenus, the famous tanna who made the Pirkei to R’ Eliezer.

We are now at the time of year when Pirkei Avos is learned and read. You will, therefore, recall that R’ Yochanon ben Zakai was the Rebbe of R’ Eliezer ben Horkenus, R’ Yochanon ben Zakai was the leading rabbi at the time of the chorban Bais Hamikdosh who managed to get out alive because R’ Eliezer and R’ Yehoshua carried out his body from Yerushalyim, ostensibly because he had died. He then appeared before the Roman Emperor Vespasian and persuaded him to allow the Rabbonim to continue with their work., תן לי יבנה וחכםיהHe, as you can see, was the Rebbe of R’ Eliezer who in turn was the Rebbe of Rabbi Akiva who in turn was the Rebbe of R’ Shimon. People do visit the graves of R’ Yochanon Ben Zakai and R’ Eliezer Ben Horkenus but there is nowhere near the crowds that there are for R’ Shimon.

Let us turn to the Rambam, that very, very great person was the first to codify the whole of halocho, the whole of Jewish Law comprehensively and lucidly in perfect Loshen Hakodesh for all generations. We all know the expression m’Moshe ad Moshe lo com c’Moshe that was used about him. There was nobody as great from the time of Moshe Rabbenu as the Rambam. Nevertheless, once again, I make the same point, people do go in great numbers to the tombstone of the Rambam but I don’t think that it comes anywhere near the ¼ million for R’ Shimon and remember that R’ Shimon ben Yochai is visited at other times of the year as well by many hundreds of thousands of people.

So I repeat my question of the moment, why is it that on Lag B’Omer, especially over the last 50 years or so there has developed a mass movement for people not only in Eretz Yisroel but the whole world over who fly to Eretz Yisroel and join the throngs, the hundreds of thousands, who stream to the kever in Meron of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai.


I think that in order to find an answer, we need to examine the well known Gomorra in Shabbos Daf ל''ג(note that its ל''ג like Lag B’Omer) where three great Rabbis of the time where sitting discussing what had happened practically in Eretz Yisroel, they were R’ Shimon, R’ Yehuda and R’ Yose. Now I think a little bit of historic perspective is called for here. When the chorban Bais Hamikdosh took place, the Emperor allowed the Rabbis to regroup in Yavneh quite far away from Yerushalyim but about 50 years after that, there was a revolt lead by Bar Kochba and in fact encouraged by Rabbi Akiva, that was brought to a bloody end by the Roman soldiers and the city Beitar was destroyed and millions of Jews with it. The Romans who had conquered the country ruled with an even harsher iron fist.

The Romans felt that the Rabbis had let them down, they thought that they were only teachers but once Rabbi Akiva had been involved in the Bar Kochba revolt. The Romans decided otherwise. They decided to crack down on any study of Torah in public. That is why Rabbi Akiva finally was killed and many of the עשרה הרוגי מלכות were killed around the same time.

When the three Rabbis I mentioned earlier on, R’ Shimon, R’ Yehuda and R’ Yose were discussing the current political situation, R’ Yehuda observed that the Romans had done good. “Look at the market places, the bridges and bathhouses they have constructed.”.

R’ Yose was silent.

R’ Shimon Bar Yochai said “All that they built was for their needs and good”, not to help us. Somebody called Yehuda Ben Gerim heard this conversation and it got back to the Roman authorities. When they heard what had been said, they issued a decree, R’ Yehuda should be ראש המדברים בכל מקום, the official leading speaker for the Jewish people. R’ Yose who was silent, should be exiled. R’ Shimon Bar Yochai who denigrated them, should be killed.

When R’ Shimon heard about this he took his son R’ Elozor Ben Shimon and they went to learn in a private Bais Hamedrash, not in public. His wife used to bring them food, but after a short while R’ Shimon said to his son that he was worried that one day the Romans would turn up, torture his wife, and she would reveal where they were. Therefore, with no further ado, he and his son went off, found an inaccessible cave and decided to stay there, and then a miracle took place. In the cave a spring of water started running and a carob tree started growing with fruit and R’ Shimon and his son stayed there for 12 years. The Gemora tells us that in order that they should not completely wear out their clothes they dug into the sand and learned with the sand covering them and when they wanted to daven or eat etc. they came out of the sand, put on their clothes and this carried on, as I said for 12 years.

By that time, the decree that had been issued had already been annulled and Eliyahu Hanovi came to the door of cave and stated this fact. R’ Shimon and his son then went out into the wide world but they were by then so spiritual, so uplifted that whenever they looked around and saw people doing mundane things, not learning, not davening not particularly doing a mitzvah that they could see, they could not bear it and wherever they looked fixedly, it burnt down. A voice came from heaven and said “Are you trying to destroy my world, go back into the cave,” and they did so for a whole year.

After that time R’ Shimon said, even judgement of real rishoim, even people in Gehenom is only for 12 months so I think that we can go out again. They heard a voice from heaven telling them that they may go out. They did, and when R’ Elozor Ben Shimon, his son, could not stand what he was seeing, R’ Shimon said to him, hold on, don’t get too hasty; let us go and see what people are doing and why. They found an elderly person running along just before Shabbos with two haddassim, myrtles, in his hands. R’ Shimon and R’ Elozor asked why he was doing it and where he was going. The old man replied that it was לכבוד שבת and I am taking them home so that there should be beautiful smell in the house. We all know the smell of myrtles is very, very nice. But why two? They asked. One, because we are told זכור and the second one because of שמור את יום השבת . R’ Shimon turned to his son and said “You see how marvellous our Jewish brethren are”.

It was during that period in the cave that the secrets, the pnemius the innermost parts of Torah were revealed to R’ Shimon on which is based the Zohar Hakodesh.

Prior to that R’ Shimon had been one of the great Rabbis in what we call nigleh the revealed parts of Torah but now he was the greatest authority in the hidden part of Torah, the kabboloh.

Let us go back a few hundred years before that. In the middle of the first Bais Hamikdosh period there was a king called Iziyahu and he decided that he wanted to bring the ketores that the Kohen had to bring each day in the Heichel, although he was warned not to do it, he insisted and because of that, he became a Metzorah. Immediately after that Yeshiya who was then the greatest novi had the vision of Hashem sitting on a great throne with angels surrounding it and this is from where we get the famous posek which is the central part of the kedushah, קדוש קדוש קדוש ה' צבאות

The prophet Isaiah, Yeshiya, was given this special vision but why? What I am suggesting is that all of the Bnei Yisroel stood in awe of the Bais Hamikdosh, they knew that it was holy. The fact that this king decided that he would go in and bring the incense, the ketores, even though he was punished immediately by becoming a Metzorah, nevertheless, took away from the awe, the reverence, the holiness. In order to counteract that, Hashem gave this special vision took Yeshiya that people should realise to some extent what means the holiness of Hashem, Kodesh, Kodesh, Kodesh, Hashem of all the hosts and he was therefore shown hosts of angels all singing.. This was the antidote to what the King Iziyahu had done.

If we go forward a couple of hundred years, we find that Yechezkiel Hanovi, who lived during the time of the chorban of the first Bais Hamikdosh but then went to live in Bovel, also had a vision, even though he was in Chutz L’Eretz. He saw what we call מעשי מרכבה. It looked like a chariot, and the story ends with the famous posek which is also part of the Kedushah, ברוך כבוד ה' ממקומו Blessed is the glory of Hashem from his place. Why was he shown this, especially as he was in Golus already, he was not even in Eretz Yisroel and normally the nevios was given only in Eretz Yisroel. I believe that the reason was that the Bnei Yisroel had become so broken and depressed, they had lost the Bais Hamikdosh, they had been killed in hundreds of thousands and even millions and so many were taken into captivity to Babylon that they needed a special uplift, an injection. That is why Yechezkiel had this special vision, to tell us that even though the Bnei Yisroel are in Golus, nevertheless, Hashem is there watching and looking after us. That is the meaning of the words ברוך ה' כבוד ממקומו, from his place, we can’t see him it is not where we are supposed to be, in Eretz Yisroel, its Mimkomo. The Glory of Hashem is really everywhere we only have to look for it.

We then go forward to the time of the second Bais Hamikdosh and that was finally destroyed. As I mentioned above, there was then a revolt by Bar Kochba and that was brutally put down. What I am suggesting is that R’ Shimon Bar Yochai was given a special present, the great secrets of Torah were revealed to him in detail, I am sure that other great Rabbis before him knew them in principle but his greatness was that he knew them in detail and then taught them to his select band of disciples so that the Bnei Yisroel should always know that even when things look terrible surrounded by enemies trampled on by the Romans, Hashem is with us and looking after us, even revealing the secrets of the Torah.

Why did R’ Shimon have this special gift bestowed on him? I believe it is because he did not deviate in any way from the מדת האמת from telling the whole truth. Going back to the Gemora in Shabbos, it was true that which R’ Yehuda said, namely, that the Romans had built the roads bridges and bathhouses etc. and of course, in some small measure the Jewish populace left there had some benefit, but R’ Shimon was right, they weren’t doing it in order to help the Jews, they were doing it for their own agenda and reasons as the Gemora states in detail.

If we go forward many hundreds of years, you will recall that there were the Crusades which started off in England, went towards France, Germany and were supposed to be going to recapture the Holy Land. On the way, unfortunately, the mob decided to kill and pillage the Jewish populace. You can imagine how depressed and low our brethren at that time were. Immediately after that, there was the golden flowering of the baalei Tosefas.

If we switch over to Spain a few hundred years later, when the expulsion took place, once again many thousands were killed others were forcibly baptised and others eventually wandered to other countries.

From those who managed to escape there became a great flowering of Torah, the Bais Yosef, R’ Yosef Caro, who ended up in Tzfas and at the same time the Arizal, R’ Yitzchok Luria together with other great people, the Alshich Hakodesh, R’ Shlomo Alkabetz, who made Lechla Dodi, the Baal Hacharedim, all led to a great flowering of Torah and in particular kabbalistic interpretations based on the Zohar which once again uplifted the whole of the Bnei Yisroel.

Coming nearer to our period, there was the Chelminicki riots in Russia, the Ukraine, Poland and that part of the world and about the time, the Shabsai Tzvi, false messiah story, the gloom that descended on the Bnei Yisroel was considerable. Almost immediately afterwards there was the Vilna Gaon and the Baal Shem Tov who once again brought up the whole populace from their despair. It is worthwhile to note that they were both great in Kabbolah and Zohar.

If I may add, we have just had in our lifetime, the Second World War with the Holocaust of well over 6 million Yidden being killed and look what happened afterwards, there was a sudden great reflowering, flourishing Yeshivas, Bais Yaakov seminaries, an uplift of Torah learning and dedicated sincerity almost without precedent. It is just at this time that R’ Shimon Bar Yochai’s tziyon has become such a focal point, hundreds of thousands of people flocking just there. I think that the key as to why this is so and why Lag B’Omer has become almost a major Yom Tov is in what I have said. He lived shortly after Churban Bais Sheni followed by the Bar Kochba revolt, during which period millions of Yidden were killed. We are living at a similar juncture of history.

R’ Shimon showed that one can reach great, great heights if one sticks to the emes without making any פשרה.

So to sum up, we are in an historic period and all we now have to look forward to is ביאת משיח צדקינו במהרה וימינו אמן.

Start the Day the Torah Way
ל''ג בעומר תשס''ח

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