15. Fire, First Haircuts, and the Flame of Kavod | 6 minutes of Halacha and Pnimiyut

Why do we light bonfires on Lag Ba’Omer? Why do children receive their first haircut at Rashbi’s kever? In this soul-stirring teaching, Rav Shlomo Katz unpacks the fiery legacy of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai—whose final moments were surrounded by literal flames and eternal light. From the passion of Torah to the holiness of our first mitzvahs, this episode grounds minhag in halacha and warns us: honor the tzaddik, but direct your tefillos to the One beyond. The fire must burn, but only in truth.

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.

שבוע טוב ושקוע. Good morning, everybody. Before I forget, very, very important, spread the word, come yourselves tonight, 8:00, צדיק בא לעיר, גדול דור בא לעיר. We have such a זכות to host here מורנו ורבינו הרב אשר וייס.

I just speaking to him on the phone last night for 30 seconds was like a... I think he heard that I was like, you know, trembling before him, but it's not. You don't have to tremble, just be בשמחה and be with כבוד. That's tonight, 8:00, and spread the word.

It's going to be very, very special.So, just a few things that we're going to be משלים עניינים of ל״ג בעומר, a little bit more of הלכה today and tomorrow we'll finish more in פנימיות of ל״ג בעומר. Many מנהגים have developed over the years regarding ל״ג בעומר, especially since when it comes to הלכה, we don't have much that it tells us what to do besides some עניינים of תחנון וכולי. But on the day of ל״ג בעומר, as you all know, מדורות and תספורות. חלאקעס, mainly.

We have a we have this ענין of bonfires taking place by רבי שמעון, but throughout the whole country. I don't know who told me this yesterday. I'm going to be on a plane ליל ל״ג בעומר. He said, he said it's one of the craziest nights to actually be on a plane because when you look out as you're leaving, you're probably going to see a bunch of, I don't know how much the מדורות are going on over there by לוד and בן גוריון, but I'm sure there's there's other types of fires going on there during the anyway, with a lot of gangs and stuff, but it'll be a very special thing.

But what's this whole ענין of the fire? So obviously, there's a lot of different פירושים, there's no there's nothing הלכתי over here. But when it comes to this מנהג, we see again, going back to the day of the פטירה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, that as he was giving over those last few secrets right before his פטירה, the תלמידים couldn't even come so close because there was a fire surrounding his house. But obviously, the ענין of כי נר מצוה ותורה אור, that the תורה is supposed to produce a fire, a burn, התלהבות of passion within us, specifically, especially when it comes to תורת הסוד, when it comes to the whole תורה of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, that also infuses us with this this ענין of like coming close to השם, fireballs. It's got to be it's got to be strong.

Someone came to one of the מנינים last week for the first time. I hear the guy clapping. He asked me afterwards, he says, you should tell the guy to not clap because he מבלבל me, telling me that I should thinking I should say יעלה ויבוא. It was a weekday.

He's not used to anyone clapping during a מנין that is not a reference of טל ומטר, changing of משיב הרוח, whatever it is. Just יעלה ויבוא. No, because this year, the his initiation into into his יידישקייט was more that it has to be fire and whole תורה of רבי נחמן about about מחיאת כף. Whatever it is, it's got to be with fire.So therefore, the חסידים have for years and years and years this ענין of lighting lighting the מדורות on ל״ג בעומר, there by מירון and also throughout the country.

But again, there's you won't find this in the רמב״ם or the שולחן ערוך. Letting everybody know, you won't find this in the רמב״ם and שולחן ערוך. Now, what about the חלאקה? So that's that's a thing that's also מקובל like בכל העולם. Children that are either just about three years old, also right before the age of three and after the age of three.

The ענין of חלאקה בכלל is, you know, the whole ענין of ערלה. That that's that's something לא קשור. But the ענין of דוקא, why, what's the שייכות to רבי שמעון בר יוחאי and ל״ג בעומר? So the ספרים are telling us is that we want to, this is already an ענין that's that's very, it's become more more and more מקובל in our חצרות, that the child's first כניסה to the ענין of מצוות should be connected to a צדיק, should be surrounded by the light of a צדיק, should be in the inspiration of a צדיק. So therefore, it became over the years the מנהג to do this by מירון or on ל״ג בעומר, לכבוד רבי שמעון בר יוחאי.

Which brings us to the last ענין, which is a much, much broader subject that he brings up over here and others as well. And that is making sure you know what you're doing when you go to מירון. What does that mean? With תפילה. דאווענען.

We don't ever, ever, ever, ever, and I could stress this till tomorrow, we don't ever דאווען to a צדיק. And this is stuff we speak about a lot when we go on the trips to the Ukraine. We have a bunch of שיעורים describing this, explaining this quite clearly. So if you're not דאווען to a צדיק, what are you doing דאווענען in the area of a צדיק? It could be very misleading, it can mess you up, and you can get confused in the middle.

Especially since humanly speaking, we could connect more to a בשר ודם, someone that was once בשר ודם, than we can to the מלך מלכי המלכים who's אין עוד מלבדו, who's infinite. So here we have to just be very, very careful. We דאווען by the קבר of a צדיק for many, many reasons. One of them is that in the זכות of who we're דאווענען by, he should be מליץ יושר in שמים to help our תפילות be מקובל.

Even on that, people have a hard time. But that's definitely one of the ways that we understand this תפילה by the קבר of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, where it seems that it really originated there. I think it really, really took off once the אריז״ל came there with his son at the age of three and did a חלאקה there instead of דאווענען there. And that kind of opened the gates for everyone else to say, \"Oh, okay, listen, the אריז״ל is showing us this is an ענין." But again, to be very, very careful.

We we דאווען by the קבר of the צדיק not only for that reason, but it's also to מעורר ourselves that we're in the presence of the body of someone who was כולו קודש. They completely purified and refined their physical body while in this world to show us that it's possible to live a Godly life while we're still in physicality. Even though the צדיק's light is מלא כל הארץ, not מלא כל הארץ, but on the level of it spreads to everywhere. But that's why just to, I always try to make sure this is as clear as possible on our trips out there.

But even when we go to צדיקים who are here and anyone that's going to רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, it's also why ר' אשר וייס who we're hearing from tonight made a big a big קול קורא, I think it was last year or two years ago to be very careful, like we said the other day, לכבוד התנא האלוקי. אלוקי, but the song, the ניגון unfortunately is לכבוד התנא אלקי, רבי שמעון, because it rhymes. But really, רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. He says, אסור בתכלית האיסור to say those words.

לכבוד התנא האלוקי, the godly תנא, not that my God, the תנא, אלקי, my God, the תנא רבי שמעון בר יוחאי. חס ושלום. So these things over the years just need some fine tuning. הלוואי this be the biggest problems we have in life that we're struggling with.

אמן כן יהי רצון. And the light of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי should shine bright in our lives and bring a tremendous שמחה and ישועה to כלל ישראל, בעזרת השם.