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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 ישר כח. Yesterday we touched upon a little bit of the הלכות of ל״ג בעומר, and I want to speak today a little bit more about the פנימיות of what happens on this day. This day, מזל טוב. This day of ל״ג בעומר is a סוד.
It's a tremendous secret. It's a מתאים that it's a secret. Halachically it's a secret. פנימיות wise, it's a secret, it's a secret as well.
What's going on over here with this day that we see that here in the middle of the עומר, suddenly there's שמחה, ריקודים, you don't say תחנון. Although חז״ל wasn't קובע this to be a מועד. There was no institution, nothing was instituted on the level of a קביעה of a יום of this day. And you see ראשונים and אחרונים are asking this שאלה.
The חתם סופר has a famous קשיא on this, saying like, איך זה קרה? How could this be? מאיפה כל זה התחיל? How did it begin? Usually, if anything, we know, on the day of the פטירה of a צדיק is a day that a lot of people fast on the day of a פטירה of a צדיק. So the day, or it's a more of an intense תשובה kind of day.So we see, we see a יסוד from ל״ג בעומר for the way that we relate to most things today in modern times, especially with the more חסידישע flavor of things. And that is the phrase that the זוהר הקדוש uses to describe the day of the פטירה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. And you all know that this day is called a הילולא.
That's the לשון of the זוהר הקדוש. What's a הילולא? What's a הילולא? חתונה. It's a wedding. So the זוהר explains, while a person is in this world, in עולם הזה, and they're מזדווג to the שכינה to the best of their ability, as much as they possibly can, the זוהר likens that תקופה in life as אירוסין, as engagement.
And the think about the passion between a חתן and a כלה before they're married. There's so much רצון, but it's all, there's still מחיצות there because... No, that means you're not feeling good. רפואה שלמה.
אמן. רפואה שלמה. That means that that that means that there's, as much as I want to get closer, there's still an עניין until the wedding, I can only get this close. So we see that the whole, the whole תקופה of a איד in this world, especially by צדיקים, it's אירוסין.
The זוהר says, ah, comes the day of the פטירה, all הסתרות are all, all the concealment is all removed. הזדווגות רוחא ברוחא, there's a complete דביקות that takes place. It's not a day of of עצב at all, it's a day of שמחה עילאה. But why דוקא by רבי שמעון בר יוחאי is this emphasized more than anything? So we know that on the day of the פטירה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, he was able to give over תורות that were not allowed, he was not allowed to give them over throughout the whole day any day of his life.
There's an amazing description of the day of his פטירה, we once learned this inside, this piece of the זוהר. The whole description of exactly what took place, the fire that took place in his home, what was happening on his חצר outside of his home. There were, and his שמחה פנימית of the fact that now he could just go fully into it.So, it's the day that secrets can be revealed, that what was what was what he wasn't allowed to share throughout his life, that last day of the הילולא, of the חתונה, he was able to give over much more than than before. על פי פנימיות, what does this mean? There's something in the air on ל״ג בעומר.
And anyone that's been to מירון on ל״ג בעומר has experienced this, קירבה, closeness that you feel to someone else that generally you feel a little bit distant, it's it changes on ל״ג בעומר. It's hard to explain this unless you're there or wherever you are with a קיבוץ of people, בעזרת השם we'll be here with with Carduner in the beginning of the night and you experience that as well. But it's the day of basically of a wedding. A wedding you dance with people that maybe during the year you wouldn't choose to dance with either.
And as much as you say you love the חתן, you love the כלה, you love them a little bit more on the day that it's their, it's their day, נכון? So ל״ג בעומר and its פנימיות is a day where closeness and and secrets are much more available, they're much more in the air for us to take advantage of it, בזכות התנא... I want to say a דיוק of רב אשר וייס who was going to be here. It's very dangerous to say, what's the how does the ניגון go? לכבוד התנא... Yeah? They say, התנא אלקי, right? People say...
לכבוד התנא אלקאי, you gotta be careful. He's not Godly versus Godliness. לכבוד התנא אלקי, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, in his זכות, all of us can get closer to each other, which obviously brings מרבים שלום בעולם, it brings so much peace in the world. And even though, and we see, how many people go to מירון and study זוהר? Percentage wise.
How many people that go up to מירון could actually quote סוגיות and and פסק'ן according to רבי שמעון בר יוחאי? Let's be real. כמה? I would love to say... I don't know, give me a give me a nice optimistic כף זכות number right now. 5%? 55%...
I would like to say maybe, maybe, maybe 15%, maybe 20%. But that's the whole עניין. There's גישה, there's a רצון, there is access to go closer, to go deeper, even 55 and being large like they say in Israel.We should take advantage of it as well and this light of the צדיק of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי on this whole תקופה, but specifically on ל״ג בעומר, should be מתעורר in us a רצון להתקרב יותר ויותר and to remember to live life with consciousness. עולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור, עולם הבא דומה לטרקלין, אבל כדי שתיכנס, right? It's a it's a matter of us taking advantage בעזרת השם that we should just be loving this תקופה of עולם הזה, which is one long אירוסין.
Have a wonderful day.