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The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
Welcome back, my dear friends, to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. We are going to do a short and sweet segment on the holy day of Lag B'Omer. Today is Lag B'Omer. It's the 33rd day of the Omer. It's the 18th of Iyar, the month of Iyar, but the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer. The word Lag is from the Hebrew letters Lamed and Gimel.
Lamed is 30 and Gimel is 3 and that is the numerical value. What is special about this day? This is the day of the passing of the great holy Tanaic sage, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who was a Mishnaic sage. He was one of the sages in the Mishnah, and we'll see some very, very incredible things about his life and his story about this day and some of the important lessons that we can apply today. Now, you may have heard
someone refer to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai as Rashbi, and that's the acronym of his name, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rashbi, and many, many, many call him that. We may use that some times throughout this presentation. He was one of the most eminent disciples of Rabbi Akiva. Remember the great Rabbi Akiva, and we'll see soon some of the story about it. And Rashbi, as we mentioned, was a holy Tanaic, one of the Tanaic sages.
So his early life, this is the story of his life in his early life when Shimon was a young boy. He studied in the great academy of the scholars of Yavneh, founded by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. Rabbi Shimon's teacher was the famous Rabbi Akiva, whose academy was in Bnei Brak. After the plague that took the lives of the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, five students would re-establish the entire Torah
for the Jewish people, and this is in Tractate Yivamot 62b, the story tells of how Rabbi Akiva started all over again, taught each one of them one of the books of the Torah, and then each one taught the others, and then all of the Torah that we have today comes from Rabbi Akiva and those five students. Who was one of those five students? Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon became so attached to his master, Rabbi Akiva, that Rabbi Akiva called him my son. He was like a son.
During the cruel persecution by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, when the Talmudic academies were shut down and the study of Talmud was forbidden on penalty of death, Rabbi Akiva continued to teach the Talmud publicly, and his devoted pupil Shimon, Rabbi Shimon, stayed at his side until Rabbi Akiva was arrested, and even then, Rabbi Shimon continued to visit his master in prison to learn Torah from him. Only death finally separated them. Rabbi Akiva died as a martyr for a kiddush Hashem, sanctification of God's name, and
one of the things that we know is that his students were there, that the Romans made them watch, the students watch him being brutally murdered, and his skin was being combed by steel combs, and they said, Rabbi, why are you smiling? Why are you smiling? He said, my whole life I've been reciting the Shema, and in the Shema it says, Ve'ahavt et Hashem al'kecheh, you should love Hashem to the point where you're ready to, Bechol l'vavcha, Bechol nav'shcha, Bechol ma'odecha,
you should give Hashem, you should serve Hashem with all of your heart, which I did, you should serve Hashem with all of your means, I did, but with the all of your soul, to give your life up for God, that I haven't done, I'm finally able to fulfill that mitzvah, how can I not smile? So, that was Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon Baruch Hai's rabbi. And then was the era of the rise of his greatness and his leadership.
Re'ashbi received his rabbinic ordination from a Yehuda ben Babba, the Talmud in Sanhedrin tells us that, after Hadrian died, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yossi Aglila and Rabbi Shimon Baruch Hai held a secret meeting in a vineyard in Yavneh. Discussing what attitude to take towards the Roman government, Rabbi Yehuda suggested a friendly one, Rabbi Yossi expressed no opinion at all, and Rabbi Shimon spoke very bitterly about the Roman tyrants and advocated every possible defiance.
The sages were not aware that their conversation was being overheard by a certain young man named Yehuda ben Gerim, Judah ben Gerim, who was a spy for the Roman authorities. Their conversation was relayed to the Roman authorities and they decreed honor and rank for Rabbi Yehuda for speaking favorably of them, exile for Rabbi Yossi Aglila for failing to do so, and death to Rabbi Shimon who dared to challenge them. Rabbi Shimon fled for his life together with his son Rabbi Lazar.
For some time they stayed in hiding in the basement of an academy where Shimon's wife would bring them bread and water every single day. But when the search was intensified to find Rabbi Shimon Baruch Hai and his son, they decided to seek a better hiding place without telling anyone about their whereabouts they hid in a cave. HaShem caused the carob tree to spring up at the entrance of the cave as well as a fresh spring of water.
For 12 years Rabbi Shimon Baruch Hai and his son, Elazar, stayed in the cave and I was actually in that cave in Pekin. It's a Druze village in northern Galilee and they sustained themselves only on carobs and water. During the time they were visited daily by Elijah the prophet, and they studied Torah and prayed until they became the holiest sages of their time. In order not to wear out their clothes, they would undress and bury themselves till their neck in sand and study all day,
and then they would only emerge and get dressed for prayer. Under such lofty surreal conditions, the Rashbi and his son mastered the deepest secrets of the Torah, the mystical teachings of Kabbalah. After 12 years, Elijah the prophet informs them the good news of the death of the Roman emperor and the consequent annulment of the death sentence to Rabbi Shimon. Rabbi Shimon and Elazar left the cave and then as they were leaving they saw fields and they saw Jewish farmers toiling the land and they said,
imagine people are giving up the sacred study of Torah for worldly matters. Instantly, all the produce in the field went up in smoke from the eyes of Rabbi Shimon. A heavenly voice cried out and said, Rabbi Shimon, have you come out to destroy my world? Go back into your cave. And they returned to the cave for another 12 months and left it again, only they left the cave only after they heard the same heavenly voice calling them to leave.
This time they came out with a totally different outlook on life. Seeing a Jew carrying two bunches of myrtle rushing home on Friday afternoon, they asked him, where are you going with these myrtle flowers? He said, it's to adorn my house in honor of Shabbos, the man said. Isn't one bunch enough? What do you need two? He says, well, the Torah tells us, Shamar and Zohar, you should remember your Shabbos and you shall keep your Shabbos.
So I have one bundle of flowers for Shamar and one for Zohar. Rabbi Shimon said, wow, Hashem, look how precious the precepts are to our brethren. Look, look at your children. Look how incredible, look how they honor the Torah. And they were satisfied that despite all the decrees and persecutions of the cruel Roman rulers, the Jews still clung to the commandments, and especially the Shabbos observance. Rabbi Shimon and his son felt greatly encouraged. Proceeding on their way, Rashbi met his father-in-law, Rabbi Pinchas Ben-Yair.
If you remember, we studied the book of the Messiah HaSisharim. The introduction of the Messiah HaSisharim, Ramchal writes, he brings the statement in the Talmud from Rabbi Pinchas Ben-Yair. And he says the entire book is dedicated to this one paragraph from Rabbi Pinchas Ben-Yair, where he says that one virtue leads to another virtue, which leads to another virtue. It's a ladder of growth that Rabbi Pinchas Ben-Yair taught us. Who was that? The father-in-law of Rashbi. Very, very holy man.
Seeing the terrible effects of the prolonged hiding upon his health, the health of his son-in-law, he burst into tears. But Rashbi consoled him, saying that he could never have attained such high degrees of scholarship and divine wisdom had he not spent so many years in the cave in solitude. Rabbi Shimon settled down in the town of Tekoa, where he founded a great academy, a great yeshiva. One of the greatest students was, one of his greatest students was, Rabbi Yehudah Nasi, Rabbi Judah the Prince,
who was the author of the Mishnah, who was the compiler of the Mishnah. One day, Rabbi Shimon met Yehudah Ben-Garim, the treacherous spy who had caused him so much trouble. Rabbi Shimon exclaimed, Is this man still alive? And soon afterward, Yehudah Ben-Garim died. Once again, religious persecution increased. The Romans prohibited Shabbos observance and other important Jewish laws. The sages decided to send a delegation to Rome and chose Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai as the head of the delegation.
When he came to Rome, when the delegation arrived in Rome, they heard that the daughter of the Roman emperor had lost her mind and that no one could cure her. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai proceeded to the palace and asked for permission to treat the patient. After a few days of treatment, the princess became well. And in gratitude, the emperor told Rabbi Shimon that he could choose the most precious thing in his treasury. Rabbi Shimon found there the original decrees of persecution against the Jews.
And he said, I want those to be taken. And he took those and he succeeded in bringing great salvation to the Jewish people. So some of the teachings from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. So first, as you have to know, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the fourth most mentioned sage in the Mishnah and the Talmud. And he's referred to many times as just Rabbi Shimon. So when you see Rabbi Shimon in the Talmud or in the Mishnah, it's referring to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
He says that man should rather jump into a fiery furnace than offend another person in public. That's something we learned last week in our Moser Masterclass about the laws of good midos. The Shulchan Aruch brings this quote from Rabbi Shimon. It says, to deceive anyone by words is worse than cheating them out of money. Cheat them in words. And he who lets arrogance get the better of him is like the heathen worshiping idols. And of course, the very famous that there are three crowns,
the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of royalty. The crown of good name excels above them all. And that's also from Rabbi Shimon. So what are some of the writings of Rashbi? The Zohar. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the author of the sacred Zohar. Zohar means brilliance. And it contains all of the mystical interpretations of the Torah and the chief source of all Kabbalah. Everything that we have of Kabbalah writings is from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
He brought it down to the world. For many generations, the teachings of the Holy Zohar were studied by a few select scholars until the great scholar, Rabbi Moshe ben Shemtov de Leon, published the Zohar only about 700 years ago. That's the first actual compilation of all the teachings of the Zohar from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was actually compiled into a book about 700 years ago. And then also Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai wrote the Sefri and the Mechilta, which are the midrash that we have on Exodus,
on numbers and Deuteronomy from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. And where was he buried? He was buried in Miron, a very interesting story, which is Miron is in the Northern Galilee, near the village of Tzfat, which is today a big city of Tzfat, Safed. And on the 33rd day, which is today, was the day that he passed and was buried. And his son, Elazer, was buried in the same tomb with him. Okay, so Lag B'Omer. Very interestingly, the story that I just told you of his life
is mentioned in Tractate Shabbat on page 33. And that is the 33rd time in the Talmud that Rabbi Shimon is mentioned. Not a coincidence. There's no coincidence. Oh, it's just a bunch of rabbis. All right. On the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon instructed his disciples to mark this day as a day of joy, not a day of mourning. Usually it's a day of yahrzeit, a day of sadness. Someone left the world and then he says it's a day of joy.
So each year on Lag B'Omer, we celebrate Rabbi Shimon's life and the revelation of esoteric soul of Torah. He revealed the esoteric soul of Torah. Lag B'Omer also commemorates another joyous event. The Talmud relates that in the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, a plague was visited on Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students because they did not behave with proper respect to one another. Rabbi Akiva, as we mentioned previously, was the rabbi of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. These weeks are therefore observed as a period of mourning.
We've studied, we've talked about this previously with various joyous activities prohibited by law and custom. But on Lag B'Omer, those deaths seized. And thus Lag B'Omer also carries the theme of loving and respecting one's fellow because that was the reason for the plague. And therefore we try to extend the greatest level of love for our fellow Jew on this day. You do something special, go hang out with your friends, be kind to them, do something special on this day.
So some of the customs that we do on this day. Number one, the pilgrimage. Since this is the day of joy of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, there are major, major festivities that go on in Meiron at his gravesite, the mountainous village in northern Israel where he and his son are buried with tens of thousands of visitors from all corners of the world that come to rejoice together in unity. And one of the things they do is they light special candles by his gravesite and they pray.
It's very, very powerful. Time of prayer in the schus, in the merit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, but also an incredible power to this day to bring light to the world. I think it's just important to clarify that we never pray to people. We never pray to Rashbi. We pray in the merit of Rashbi, the Almighty, who listens to all of our prayers, should grant us our wishes. But, you know, and, you know, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai,
it's like imagine if someone has a credit at the supermarket and he tells the, tells someone who he knows who needs help with their buying food for Shabbos. He says, go to the store and put it on my account. Put it on my account. Put it on my account. They say, those people, you know what? You need some help. Go put it on my account. I have a credit there. And that's the idea is that Rabbi Shimon has so many merits
for the Torah that he taught and for the pious ways of his living that he says to the Almighty, Hashem, give them, grant them what they're asking. Put it on my credit. Put it on my account. But God forbid we should never, ever pray to a person. When we go to someone's tomb, what we're saying is, Hashem, grant us our wishes in the merit of this person and their good deeds. But we don't pray to them. That would be idolatry and make them into a deity.
That's one of the reasons that we don't know where Moses is buried. We don't know Moshe's burial place so that we don't make him into a deity. We don't pray to Moshe. Instead, what we do is we pray in the merit of our righteous sages, in merit of those who have passed on from this world. Hashem should grant our wishes and Hashem should always bless us with the most incredible blessings in everything that we do. All over the world, it is customary to spend the day outside.
People go for outings outside, enjoying the natural beauty of Hashem's world. And many have picnics to celebrate this special day. I remember when I was a child, we used to go on a school trip. We'd go to a park and go out, go out and see Hashem's nature. What Rabbi Shimon Bar Yichai revealed to the world was a whole new lens of seeing God in everything, a deeper sense of God. And that's what we want to connect to.
Many children have a custom to shoot bows and arrows like these. We got from school, we got these like, you know, the dollar store, you can find these little plastic bows and arrows. What's the custom? It is customary to play bows and arrows because during the life of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yichai, there was never a rainbow in the sky. We know that a rainbow is a sign of a diminished level of spirituality in the world, where God says, when I want to destroy the world,
I'll remember by putting a sign, by putting the rainbow in the sky. The world was so righteous because of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yichai that there was never a rainbow in the sky. That arch of the rainbow is symbolized in the bows and arrows that the children shoot, signifying that there was no need for rainbows during the time of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yichai. Music, the morning practices of the Omer period are lifted for this day.
And as a result, music is played and people sing and dance and weddings are held. It's probably the most common day for Jewish wedding anniversaries because so many people make weddings on Lag B'Omer. It's a very special time. Also, haircuts. Little boys who turn three during the Omer period, but you're not allowed to have a haircut during the Omer. So this is their first opportunity to have their first haircut. So when you go to Mehron, you'll see hundreds of little boys
getting their first haircut at the grave of Rashbi. And then bonfires. Many have grand bonfires. If you go to many of the Hasidic courts, they have massive, massive bonfires. Why? A number of reasons for it. Number one is recognizing the fiery spirit of the mystical teachings of Rashbi. It was unbelievable. It says that if a bird flew over his head, the bird would die from the holiness, the fiery holiness that he held. It was unbelievable.
But another thing, it says that when his funeral procession was going on, people came out from the city of Tzipori with sticks. And they wanted to hit the people. They wanted to hit the people so that he'd be buried in Tzipori, not in Mehron. They wanted him to be buried. They wanted the merit in their city. So a heavenly fire came. It says that his coffin rose in the air and flew to his burial place in Mehron. I don't know. It's a legend.
We don't know the full testimony of that. But the rule is that whenever you have a legend like that, it tells you about the personality. It tells you about the person and how great he was, that there was this fiery protection of his coffin. Regardless of whether or not he flew there or not, there was this fiery protection. And commemorating that fire is what we do with these bonfires. Rashbi brought tremendous light to the world.
And that's what we're doing with this light that we're trying to show is an amazing thing. You know, there's something called gravity. Everything falls. Everything goes down, except for fire. Fire defies gravity. Fire is the only thing that's always going up. Sages tell us that the fire of Torah is something which is elevating us. We need to transcend above the physical. To connect to Hashem. And this is probably the most important teaching of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai,
is that the commitment, the dedication to Torah was so intense, it transcended everything. That even the carob tree. I say to say, why carob tree? Why, of all things, a carob tree? Why is that? So probably because it has the nutrients that was necessary. But there's another very important thing. When a tree grows, you can't eat from its fruit for the first three years. And then the fourth year you have not to revive. There's all of these laws. You're not allowed to do things.
So how can Rabbi Shimon, when he runs away into this cave in the middle of a mountain, by the way, it's in the middle of a mountain, like a cave. How is he going to be able to eat? Sages tell us the carob is the only tree that starts growing its fruit after 70 years. After 70 years, it starts bringing back. I actually, when I was in Israel last, I went there again. The past two times I was in Israel, I went there to the cave of Rashbi.
I also have water here from the Rashbi. Anybody who wants, you can put it into a water bottle and you have water from his little stream that he used to drink from. Very holy water. Very, very powerful. I have it right here in the room. So I'll give it to you after class. Those of you who are on podcast, I'll give it to you after class. Those of you who are on podcast, I'm sorry. So extra friendship.
Extra friendship is shown on this day to bring love and closeness among our fellow Jews. And then it's customary to eat on this day carobs, which miraculously sustained Rabbi Shimon and his son when they were hiding from the Romans. Special blessings on this day. Many barren couples have been given the blessing of having children on this day. This unbelievable power that goes with prayer on this day. Rabbi Shimon is a whole different league. I'm going to tell you a personal story that happened to me in a minute.
Many sick people were healed and all in the merit of the prayers at his grave site. Charities given on this day to upkeep the grave site has tremendous powers as well. I'll just share with you one quick story. I'm going to share with you a couple of stories. Very powerful stories. Firstly, you have to be invited. You have to be welcomed by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to be at his grave site. It's such a special, powerful place. You have to merit to get there.
There was a story that's told about an individual that went with his family for Shabbos to Mehron. And the father sort of sighed. He said, you know, for the money I spent being here, we could have been in a five-star hotel someplace, in a resort. We came here to Mehron, you know, a little bit disparaging, a little bit belittling of the holiness of Mehron. And for the next three years, this man, for various reasons that came up, was not able to make it to Mehron.
He was supposed to do a halakha, which is a haircut for his grandson, and the kid wasn't feeling well, so they didn't end up going. So always something came up and he wasn't able to go. His wife tells him, you remember what you said that Shabbos, that you gave that disparaging remark? Perhaps you sort of like insulted Rashbi, and he's not inviting you. You have to be invited. You realize what happened. You realize what happened. He goes into his room and starts crying.
Forgiveness, forgive me for not having the proper awe and respect for this great place, for your gravesite, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. He's finished wiping away his tears from his prayer, and he gets a knock on the door from his neighbor. His neighbor says, you know, I just bought a new car. And the first thing I do with my car, I want to do a mitzvah. I want to go to Mehron, to the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Would you come along with me? Very powerful.
It's very, very powerful. You're talking about very mystical, very powerful, secret world. So I want to share with you a personal story. This happened to me. It's not third person. Very dear friend of mine was in prison. And after he got out of prison the first time, the judge told him when he was being sentenced the first time, he says, if I ever see you back in my courtroom, I'm going to throw away the book of mercy. I don't want to ever see you here again.
And it was some government contract that he didn't fulfill properly, and he was put in prison for that. Then he had a parole violation. He didn't report something properly, and they look at you like a hawk. And he was going to be sentenced in front of the same judge. Now, I didn't know anything of that. I just knew that he was going through some challenges. And I told him, I'm going to Israel. And I told him, I'm going to pray for you wherever I go.
I'm going to go to the Kotel. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to take a picture, and I'm going to send it to you. I'm going to go to, and I went wherever I went, and I got a blessing for him. I went to many holy rabbis and got blessings for him. Wherever I went, I prayed for him, and I sent him a picture so that he knows that he's thinking of him, and I'm praying for him.
And I also went to Mehron, and I went to the tomb, to the grave of Raj B, and I sent him a picture. And I'll show you the picture that I sent him, and I'll read to you what it says on top of the tomb. It says, just on top of the tombstone, I can free the entire world from judgment. I can free the entire world. Here's the tombstone. See that gold plaque there? That's what it says there.
And it's a quote from the Talmud, where it was known that Shimon was so powerful, he can free the entire world from judgment. Such a great place to pray for my friend who's about to sit in front of a judge, stand in front of a judge, and get sentenced the second time after he told him he was going to throw out the book of mercy. I prayed for my dear friend. He calls me back a few hours later. He says, are you sitting?
I said, yeah, I'm sitting. He says, you'll never believe it. I just got a phone call from my lawyer. The judge died from a heart attack. That judge, who was going to be the harsh, throw away the book of mercy judge, died from a heart attack. He ended up getting a much lighter sentence from a kinder judge. And here I am. I killed the federal judge. Thank you very much. So no, I'm sorry about that.
But either way, it's an unbelievable power that Rabbi Shimon has. You'd think like, what? Thousands of stories that are told of incredible, incredible revelations that people had. I'll share with you one more. There is a story that's told. It's written in a book. It's called Sefer Hilula de Rashbi, the day, the book about the day of the passing of Rashbi. And the author writes a story from 1923. 1923, Lagba Omer fell out on Friday.
So people came for the day of Lagba Omer, and then they couldn't go home because it's Shabbos. So everyone stayed in, in Meiron. During the Musaf prayer on Shabbos morning, this woman starts crying, wailing that her three-year-old child died. And this individual, his name is Rabbi Shaya Usher Zev Margolis, the author of the book. He says, I saw the lifeless child lying there on the floor. I saw him with my own eyes, he says. And the mother was in a panic.
And what she did was she ran into the, into the, into the Ohel, to the area of where the, where the grave of Rashbi was. And she laid the child down on the tomb of Rashbi. And she says, Rashbi, we're here in your merit. I'm not leaving like this. I'm not leaving like this. And she, everyone left the room. A few minutes later, the kid starts walking out of the room, knocks on the door to come out of the room.
And the kid was brought back to life. Spooky stuff. I don't know what to tell you, my dear friends. It's a very, very powerful day. L'agba Omer is an awesome day for prayer. It's an awesome day for the secrets of Torah to be revealed to us, where we can ask Hashem, Hashem, we need guidance. We need, in the merit of Rashbi, in the merit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, in his holy, holy neshama, Hashem should bless us all, that we should understand the secrets of Hashem's
world, of Hashem's world. We should be able to merit to absorb the Torah into our own lives. We should absorb the love for every single Jew, for all of humanity. And we should have the light, the fire that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had for Torah, for living a godly life in everything that we do. And we should have an uplifting L'agba Omer. We should have a day that is so holy and so special. Amen.
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