16. Rebbe Akiva & The Hidden Heart of Lag Ba’Omer | 7 minutes of Halacha and Pnimiyut

Why does Rebbe Akiva, the great teacher of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai, seem to vanish from Lag Ba’Omer? In this powerful reflection, Rav Shlomo Katz uncovers the silent, burning presence of Rebbe Akiva—the tzaddik who rebuilt from unimaginable loss. Beyond the bonfires and dancing lies a deeper flame: the strength to start again when all feels lost. Rebbe Akiva’s legacy is not in the tragedy, but in the hope he passed on through five talmidim—and one in particular, whose fire still lights our way.

What is Lag Ba'Omer: Shining the Light of Rashbi with Rav Shlomo Katz?

Rav Shlomo Katz brings Lag Ba'Omer to life with a soulful compilation of Torah teachings on Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi). Through niggunim and Chassidic wisdom, he explores Rashbi’s divine light, the joy of Torah revelation, and Am Yisrael’s unity. This series offers a transformative journey, celebrating Lag Ba'Omer’s bonfires and the eternal flame of Rashbi’s legacy.

Good morning. בוקר טוב לכולם. ישר כח. נקודה אחרונה before לג בעומר.

So we're a few hours away from this, from this fiery, fiery day. There's a character, there's a person, there's a צדיק that really he is the heart of לג בעומר just as much as רבי שמעון. And yet, it seems like he takes a back seat in לג בעומר. Obviously, that's רבי עקיבא.

The רב touched upon this last night a little bit about the significance of רבי עקיבא's ענין with לג בעומר. But I want to discuss this for just a minute to understand where did רבי עקיבא go today? And why isn't today the הילולא of רבי עקיבא? Why isn't it the שמחה of רבי עקיבא? Well, a הילולא, as we said, means a wedding. It means the פטירה of the צדיק when they pass away, they go up to שמיים, there's a הילולא in שמיים. But when a צדיק is נשחט like רבי עקיבא is, we don't, the חז"ל say, we don't treat that that experience the same as it is with a normal, with a what seems to be, based on what we know, a normal פטירה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי.

But who was רבי שמעון בר יוחאי if it wasn't, if he wasn't רבי עקיבא's student? As Rav Weiss said so beautifully last night, explaining that the whole מהות, the whole essence, and I guess what רבי שמעון said that that awesome thing, אנן בחביבותא תליא מילתא. Our whole ענין of being together is only dependent on how much we like each other. אנן בחביבותא תליא מילתא. Our תורה is dependent on how much we like each other.

Where did he get from? Well, he got it from someone whose whole תורה was, אמר רבי עקיבא, ואהבת לרעך כמוך זה כלל גדול בתורה.רבי עקיבא. And I want us to take this, take this with us into לג בעומר because I think it's a, it would be a tremendous חזק for all of us. I know definitely, definitely for me. בסדר, we know that רבי עקיבא marries the daughter of כלבא שבוע, one of the עשירי ירושלים.

She has eyes, she could see in him, he's made of something else. And רבי עקיבא starts learning אלף בית, starts learning תורה at the age of 40. But he goes for it, and he goes for it with all his heart and soul. He goes for it so much that 24 years later at the age of 64, he's the ראש ישיבה of 24,000 students.

It's interesting. I was just thinking about this, is that 24 years took place between the time that he started learning תורה and between the time that we know he had 24,000 students. Imagine what he must have felt about himself. I mean, even in a non-גאוותדיק way, just like, okay, השם must believe in me.

השם must believe in me because he gave me the כח at the age of 40 to say, forget whatever was, I'm going for it, and להעמיד תלמידים הרבה. And perhaps maybe he was listening to what the other תנאים were saying about them. There's one ציטוט I saw by רבי טרפון. There's a famous מחלוקת in the גמרא in קידושין ס"ו, ס"ו, yeah, ס"ו.

Where it's a מחלוקת between רבי טרפון and רבי עקיבא. They go back and forth to each other about טומאה וטהרה, regarding a, regarding a מום on the מזבח. I can't get into it right now. But at the end of this מחלוקת, רבי טרפון says, אמר ליה רבי טרפון, עקיבא, כל הפורש ממך כפורש מן החיים.

Whoever takes, whoever says, whoever leaves you, it's as if they're choosing death. Whoever decides not to follow you, it's as if they're choosing death.He saw, he heard these statements, and he saw what was happening, he saw the הצלחה that was happening in front of him. And then in this מחלוקת, seven week or three and a half week period, boom, boom, boom. We once did a חשבון, how many לויות did רבי עקיבא go to every day of the עומר? We did a חשבון once, 24,000 divided by 49.

I remember it was a crazy number. רבי עקיבא, we have to go to a לוויה, נבח, later today of Jonah's אבא, עליו השלום. How many לויות did רבי עקיבא go to? And רבי עקיבא could have looked at the מציאות that he met right then in his life and said, whatever impression I was under in terms of my הצלחה and the things that I was doing, apparently I was off. Why? Because these kind of things don't happen to people that are doing the right, the right thing in the world.

Very easy to look at our own lives when we see what seems to be such a חורבן and say like, I'm probably not all I thought I was. And רבי עקיבא had every legitimate reason to look at his מציאות and say, this was a nice try, פספסתי את המטרה, I must have missed it because this is, this is גיהנום. I'm going to, I remember one time I was at a, one of my ראשי ישיבות had to go to a לוויה when we were in ישיבה. I remember it was a guy, נבח, that took his life.

I think you were there then. Rav Bravender having to give a הספד to this boy. I mean, one, that's one לוויה. רבי עקיבא's going to thousands, he's going to hundreds of לויות every day.And yet what? The גדולה of רבי עקיבא really, in my humble opinion, starts at the age of 64.

Not 40, and not between 40 and 64. Because as great as it was to decide to start learning תורה at a later age, and as great as it must have been to become one of the greatest ראשי ישיבה that ever was, it's probably even much greater to look that, look at that in the eye and say ובכל זאת שמך לא שכחנו. And I'm still gonna find, I'm gonna find new תלמידים because it's about the תורה, it's not about me. And him going עד שבאו רבותינו בדרום, until he, and then choosing to then go to the south and in יבנה meet his five תלמידים that carry on the torch in the most incredible way.

It seems to me that that ענין of רבי עקיבא is even greater than anything he experienced at that time. And we already, we know רבי עקיבא's ending as well. But it just shows us that someone that's מדבק to what the point of life is really all about, that it's about השם, it's about השם's כבוד. No failure, no אסון, no חורבן, no פנימי that we experience is a strong enough reason to tell us to stop trying, no matter what.

And if anyone teaches us that, that's רבי עקיבא, whose light is shining so bright because you could imagine how much pain he was through all the לויות, how much נחת he must have had from רבי שמעון בר יוחאי as well. So he's really inside the פנימיות of this amazing day of לג בעומר. We should be מדבק ourselves, we should cling ourselves to the מידות of רבי עקיבא, רבי שמעון, the other four. Well, last night Rav Asher basically said the other, wasn't, he added in there רבי נחמיה, so you know, a little bit more than that.

We should be זוכה to take from each of their מידות that no matter what, no matter what is in front of us, not just to keep on going, but דוקא when it seems that there's no reason to keep on going, just remember there was a רבי עקיבא in the world. And he paved the way for us to have the כח, no matter what, to keep on going stronger than ever. It should be a beautiful יום טוב בעזרת השם for all of us. And we'll be doing...