In Israel on Lag B'Omer tens of thousands of Jews go to the burial place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, for whom the holiday is about, in the small town of Meron in northern Israel where they have great celebrations of his legacy. Very religious Jews sing and dance around campfires and totally whoop it up.
The Parsha of Lag BaOmer is extremely timely to current events related to the battles raging this very week over Alabama's new highly restrictive abortion laws. In my personal opinion, Alabama law makers have gone too far! But I want to zoom out to the more broad meaning of the holiday and then you can make your own associations.
For many years now, politics is becoming increasingly partisan. The debates are very often between parties on the two ends of the extreme on many issues, whether it is gun control or abortion or illegal immigration, or whatever. I believe the holiday of Lag B'Omer can teach us something very important and that we need to correct today.
I've posted the Hebrew and English translation of Lag B'Omer, below if you care to read the scripture. There are also some remarks inserted by a Rabbi that I study with throughout the week, Rabbi David Fohrman's. For brevity sake, I'm going to get right to the conclusion about the meaning of the holiday, which I agree with.
In the beginning Rabbi Shimon looked at the world with very harsh critical eyes - so harsh was his vision that it would set what he stared at on fire. After further study and consideration, Rabbi Shimon saw the world differently and he looked at the world with healing eyes.
At that point in the scripture, Rabbi Shimon told is his son: די לעולם אני ואתה. "You and I are enough for the world." According to Rabbi David Forhman, what Rabbi Shimon found is "a new way to look at other people. The rest of the world, sure, they're crazy, and they're wrong, and it's an unimaginable tragedy that they're wasting their lives the way they are. But it doesn't mean we need to confront the tragedy and stomp it out. די לעולם אני ואתה – the two of us can just live our lives the right way, and let that be enough."
According to Rabbi Forhman, this became Rabbi Shimon's basic approach: "I can bear other people's existence, as long as I just accept that they're woefully misguided, and learn to expect nothing from them. I'm very tolerant."
But the story doesn't end with just a message of tolerance, because Rabbi Shimon has one more encounter – Rabbi and his son meet an old man carrying myrtle branches just before Shabbat. This time, they don't just observe and judge or even tolerate. They are curious! They ask questions and listen in order to try to understand the old man's perspective. As a result, they come to appreciate the old man's different way of serving God.
The moral from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's life is that zealotry is not so good. We need to listen and respect different opinions. We need to see and try to understand other perspectives that are different than our own, rather than setting the world on fire with our eyes.
I believe our world today would be better off if politicians and many citizens took a lesson from Lag B'Omer. Instead of moving to the outer extremes of the issues today, and holding fast to our zealous positions, we need to ask questions, listen more and have a more open mind. The extreme partisanship in politics and the media today has gotten so viscous that is destroying everything in it's sight.
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The Story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai:
The story, found in Masechet Shabbat, is set at a point in history when the Romans were occupying Israel. The Romans hear that Rabbi Shimon was criticizing them, and they sentence him to death. So Rabbi Shimon and his son, Rabbi Elazar, go into hiding in a secluded cave, where they spend their days doing nothing but studying Torah and praying. They're in the cave for twelve years, miraculously sustained by a spring of water and a carob tree, until one day, Eliyahu haNavi, Elijah the prophet himself, informs them they are no longer being pursued.
Now let's see what happens when they leave the cave, and reenter the world:
נפקו
They emerged
חזו אינשי דקא כרבי וזרעי
And they saw people plowing and sowing seeds. But Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai doesn't like what he sees:
אמר מניחין חיי עולם ועוסקין בחיי שעה
He cried out, "These people are abandoning eternal life for life of this world! They're putting aside Torah study, to work their fields – worthless, earthly pursuits!"
He couldn't imagine why anyone would do that.
כל מקום שנותנין עיניהן מיד נשרף
And suddenly, any place Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son would turn their gaze, it immediately went up in flames.
יצתה בת קול
A voice from Heaven called out to them,
ואמרה להם
And it said,
"להחריב עולמי יצאתם?"
"Did you come out here to destroy My world?"
"חיזרו למערתכם!"
"Go back into your cave, before you cause any more damage!"
After this Heavenly rebuke, Rabbi Shimon and his son return to the cave for one more year, and then emerge once again. But this time, things go a little differently.
נפקו
They came out.
כל היכא דהוה מחי ר' אלעזר הוה מסי ר"ש
Whatever Rabbi Elazar damaged, Rabbi Shimon repaired.
In other words, Rabbi Elazar is still burning things left and right. But for Rabbi Shimon, something has changed. Not only is he not spitting fire from his eyes anymore; all the damage that his son causes, he's able to undo. Rabbi Shimon then turns to his son and says:
די לעולם אני ואתה
"My son; you and I, we're enough for the world."
One Friday afternoon, as the sun was setting and Shabbat was arriving,
חזו ההוא סבא
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son saw an old man
דהוה נקיט תרי מדאני אסא ורהיט בין השמשות
And he was holding two big bundles of hadassim, fragrant myrtle branches, and running at twilight.
אמרו ליה
They said to him
הני למה לך
Why do you have these branches in your hands?
אמר להו לכבוד שבת
He responded: They are in honor of Shabbat.
(Apparently, hadassim were the second-century version of a fragrant bouquet of flowers.)
ותיסגי לך בחד
They asked him: Wouldn't one bundle be enough?
חד כנגד זכור וחד כנגד שמור
The old man explained: One bundle corresponds to Zachor – the commandment to remember Shabbat; and the other, to Shamor – the commandment to guard Shabbat.
In other words, he seems to be saying that since the Bible uses two different words when it commands us to observe Shabbat, it deserves a double honor.
א"ל לבריה חזי כמה חביבין מצות על ישראל
After hearing this, Rabbi Shimon turned to his son and said: Look how beloved the commandments are to the children of Israel. Finally,
יתיב דעתייהו
Their minds were put to ease, and they lived happily ever after.