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.”
Why do we continue to praise and commemorate the activities of Rabbi Akiva and Bar Kokhba generation after generation? Was not their war on the Romans a reckless step, a lost cause that brought nothing but tragedy and hardship upon the Jewish people?
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 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?
