Special Features A LOOK BACK AT LAG BA'OMER Lag BaOmer is an enigmatic semi- holiday, of which the Shulchan Aruch speaks in terms of "a bit of joy", which grew to a festive day of major proportion in the Chassidic world. Lag BaOmer should be seen in the context of the whole Omer period, in order to be properly understood. From the perspective of the Torah, the Omer period is analogous to Chol HaMoed, being sandwiched between Pesach and its Atzeret, Shavuot. In the context of the Beit HaMikdash, the period of counting runs from the bringingof the first Barley offering to the Two Loaves (from wheat flour) on Shavuot. The Omer corresponds to the preparatory period between Y'tzi'at Mitzrayim and Matan Torah, during which time, a nation that had just emerged from long slavery and oppression prepared itself physically, psychologically, and spiritually for thegreat events at Sinai. All indications point to the Omer being a joyous period. The mournful aspect of the Omer came in two stages: With the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash and the cessation of the Omer and Shtei HaLechem offering, the counting of the Omer became "hollow". A vacuum was created. We continued to go through the motions of counting, but without the "from" and the "to", something was missing, to say the least. Then comes the Talmud account of the tragic deaths of the students of Rabbi Akiva. The combination of when they died, why they died, AND the emotional vacuum of the Omer, resulted in the Sages ordaining practices of mourning during these days. Having died during this time of the year would not have, by itself, shaped thepresent nature of these days. But the statement in the Talmud (Y'vamot) that they perished because they didn't treat each other with respect - this has an ironic element that the Sages chose not to overlook. During the seven weeks from the Exodus to Sinai, when the Jewish People were preparing themselves to be worthy ofreceiving the Torah, how sharp is the implied lesson and warning - see these scholars? High marks in the Torah-learning side of the issue. But a human failing on an interpersonal level. This cannot be. And this is what our Sages wanted us to think about during this pre-Shavuot period. It was then natural to include mourningthe devastation of the Crusades during the Omer as well. As far as Lag BaOmer is concerned, several factors combine to define its nature. That the students of Rabbi Akiva "stopped dying" on the 33rd day, or they died during a 33 day period, or on a total of 33 days (these are different opinions as to what happened), prompted the Sages to make a statement on day 33 of the Omer,to allow that day to represent the turnabout from the tragic nature that the Omer had developed. Pri Chadash raises the question: why celebrate when the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying, if they were all gone? His suggested answer is that "they stopped dying" represents the hope for the future, that Torah learning and scholarship has not ended with their deaths. Rabbi Akiva would have more students and many Rabbi Akivas will have many many students. Lag BaOmer is not an intrinsically happy day, but it represents the bright promise of the future. Behavior on Lag BaOmer differs from community to community - some allow weddings, some don't; some cut hair, some don't - yet in all cases, Lag BaOmer stands out as a bright day in contrast to the mournful flavor of the rest of the Omer. It's almost as if each day of the Omer says "just give me an excuse to be festive again and you'll see what I can be, you'll see what I should be. The original days of the Omer (right out of Egypt) were days of potential that came to fruition at the foot of Har Sinai. The students of Rabbi Akiva represent another kind of potential, both in the pursuit of Torah scholarship as well as in the Bar Kochba revolt (which is another element in the story). These potentials were not realized. The Omer stands for both kinds of potentials: the fulfilled and the not yet fulfilled. The Chatam Sofer says that it was on the 18th of Iyar (Lag BaOmer) that the Manna began to fall. This is based on the idea that the food supply (matza) that we brought out of Egypt lasted until the 14th of Iyar (which marks the 14th of Iyar as the end of the Pesach Time Frame, hence its choice by G-d for Pesach Sheni).Then the people went hungry for three days - 15,16,17 of Iyar, complained, and received the Manna on the 18th. This adds to the celebratory nature of Lag BaOmer. Finally, we come to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Forced into hiding, his success in all areas of Torah, esp. the hidden, mystical dimensions, show us the great potential, and the realization of the potential that defines Living Judaism. So it his yahrzeit, and more, the reflection on his life and accomplishments, that allows Lag BaOmer to stand up and say: Remember - this mournful behavior is only temporary. We must continue to grow in Torah and we will be privileged to the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash, speedily in our time. And then the days of theOmer — all of them — will be restored to their joyous potentials. Until then, we celebrate the life of the great Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and rededicate ourselves to G-d and Torah. A Letter to the World from Jerusalem by Eliezer Ben Yisrael I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe. I am a Jerusalemite - like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people. I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you, or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city; you did not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it. And we will be damned if we will let you take it away. There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin, Moscow, London, and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves-a humane moral code. Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning. Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender, and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arms wither. For two pain-filled millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to this city. Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: Gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised." On every Yom Kippur and Passover, we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem. Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the ghettos into which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror, the holocaust (and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it)- all these have not broken us. They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed, but they forged us into steel. Do you think that you can break us now after all we have been through? Do you really believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz we are frightened by your threats of blockades and sanctions? We have been to Hell and back- a Hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare us? I have watched this city bombarded twice by nations calling themselves civilized. In 1948, while you looked on apathetically, I saw women and children blown to smithereens, after we agreed to your request to inter-nationalize the city. It was a deadly combination that did the job. British officers, Arab gunners, and American made cannons. And then the savage sacking of the Old City the willful slaughter, the wanton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building materials, for poultry runs, army camps- even latrines. And you never said a word. You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our places, the Western Wall, in violation of the pledges they had made after the war- a war they waged, incidentally, against the decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionnaires in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls. Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift "to save the gallant Berliners". But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the East Germans ran through the middle of the German capital- but not one peep out of you about that other wall, the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem. And when that same thing happened 20 years later, and the Arabs unleashed a savage, unprovoked bombardment of the Holy City again, did any of you do anything? The only time you came to life was when the city was at last reunited. Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of "justice" and need for the "Christian" quality of turning the other cheek. The truth is-and you know it deep inside your gut- you would prefer the city to be destroyed rather than have it governed by Jews. No matter how diplomatically you phrase it, the age old prejudices seep out of every word. If our return to the city has tied your theology in knots, perhaps you had better reexamine your catechisms. After what we have been through, we are not passively going to accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal homelessness until we accept your savior. For the first time since the year 70 there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem. For the first time since the Romans put a torch to the Temple everyone has equal rights. (You prefer to have some more equal than others.) We loathe the sword - but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace - but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to. We are home. It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wander over the face of the globe. We are not leaving. We are redeeming the pledge made by our forefathers: Jerusalem is being rebuilt. "Next year" and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time- "in Jerusalem!" PIRKEI AVOT This Shabbat in Israel we read/learn the fifth perek of Avot. Four qualities of people: He who says what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours — this is an average trait. And there are those who say that it is a characteristic of S'dom. Which is it? An average quality or a sign of cruelty? It probably depends upon motive and situation. If it is motivated by a real respect for the other person: I respect you and your things. I don't want to impose upon you. (I'd also not like to be imposed upon.) Thenit reflects an okay kind of trait. Not the nicest of attitudes. But average. But if the attitude extends into the ZEH NEHENEH V'ZEH LO CHASEIR area, to situations where it would greatly benefit you to borrow something of mine, AND it would not inconvenience me at all to lend it to you, nor would it depreciate the value of what is mine at all, and I still insist on what is mine is mine — then weare out of the average behavior traits and into the cruelty of S'dom, where doing favors for others was considered an abomination. (Based on commentary of Rav Menachem Ben Zion Sacks z"l) Rabbi Murray Atik, a colleague and mentor of mine from "the old country" pointed to the text in Avot for another explanation of the statement. If one says – HA'OMER, singular – What is mine is mine, etc. then it is an average and tolerable situation in society. But when it becomes V'YESH OMRIM, plural, many people withthat attitude, then you might be looking at a S'dom- like community. [The B'har-B'chukotai
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