Lag Ba'omer

Respect For Others

Seasons of the Moon

Nineteen hundred years ago, the twenty-five thousand pupils of Rebbe Akiva all died in the days of the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot. This was a punishment for not treating each other with enough respect. The majority of the days Omer are in the month of Iyar. Thus Iyar is a time for us to work on improving respect for others.

Lag BaOmer

The accepted way of marking the death of a righteous person is by fasting. How then is it that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's expiration has become occasion for joy and festivity?

Lag Ba'Omer

All traditions do agree though, that on the 33rd day of the count of the Omer these disciples of Rabbi Akiva did stop dying. It is interesting that we have a semi-holiday, nbecause somehow the evil decree allowed by heaven to end so many lives, such as it was, would not continue.

R' Yehuda the Head Speaker

Lag Ba'omer

R Yehuda said, “How pleasant are the doings of this nation (Rome). They have built marketplaces, bridges, and bathhouses.” R' Yose kept quiet. R' Shimon ben Yochai responded, saying, “Everything they have built, they have built for their own good.”

The Physical Spiritual

Lag Ba'omer

Lag Ba'omer

Rashbi - Basing Law on Thought

Many Jews visit the grave of Rashbi on Lag BaOmer, but the real point of this occasion is to attach oneself to this righteous sage through his teachings. The sages thus say, “We do not make gravestones for the righteous; their words are their memory.”

The Secret of Mount Meron

Translated by Hillel Fendel

Every year, more and more myriads of people stream to the gravesite of the author of the Kabbalah, Rav Shimon bar Yochai, in the Galilee hilltop village of Meron – signaling mounting anticipation of the Redemption itself!

Lag B’omer