In the merit of the safety and well-being of the Cape Town community during the fires on Table Mountain.
What is fire?
What does fire do?
Always burns upwards; unrelenting; takes no prisoners/obstacles; all-consuming; needs to be contained to be useful - for heat, cooking, light, energy; necessary for survival in the right doses; can purify (smelting); doesn't come from nowhere (yesh m'yesh, not yesh m'ayin); sharing a flame to another source does not diminish the original source, rather just create even more and stronger fire; transfers easily; requires effort to get it started but has a momentum of it's own once it gets going; fire only lasts as long as the fuel is kept up
What is the Omer?
How do we count the Omer?
Explaining the mitsvah of Sefirat HaOmer, Rabbi David Seidenberg writes:
Every night during the Omer we say a blessing for doing a mitsvah and then say the count which leads us from Passover to Shavuot...
Each day between the beginning of Passover and Shavuot gets counted, 49 days in all, 7 weeks of seven days... This cycle...is a chance to align ourselves with the rhythms of spring and the spiritual freedom represented by the Torah.
The Omer count is made starting the evening of each day – when the count happens at night the blessing is said and when the count happens during the daytime the blessing is not said. After the blessing the day is counted by absolute number and by its number within each week, i.e., “Today is the thirty-third day of the Omer, which is four weeks and five days” – that’s Lag Ba’omer (lamed plus gimel, ל + ג = 33).
The biggest challenge of counting the Omer is that it is one long mitsvah lasting 49 days. What that means is that if you go one whole night and day without counting, the halakhah is to no longer say the blessing. Making it all the way through seven weeks without missing a day is not easy for most of us! Hence, the proliferation of calendars, websites, and apps for counting the Omer.
Why do we count up? Normally we count down until we reach our goal...
Numbers are infinite, and so is the Torah and our capacity to learn and grow. Counting down to Matan Torah would imply that when we reach zero, we have arrived and the job is done. In fact, the job is just beginning.
Derech eretz kadma l'Torah - have period of self improvement before we can reach the Torah.
What are the restrictions of the Omer?
(א) דינים הנוהגים בימי העומר. ובו ד' סעיפים:
נוהגים שלא לישא אשה בין פסח לעצרת עד ל"ג בעומר מפני שבאותו זמן מתו תלמידי ר' עקיבא אבל לארס ולקדש שפיר דמי ונשואין נמי מי שקפץ וכנס אין עונשין אותו: הגה מיהו מל"ג בעומר ואילך הכל שרי (אבודרהם וב"י ומנהגים):
(ב) נוהגים שלא להסתפר עד ל"ג לעומר שאומרים שאז פסקו מלמות ואין להסתפר עד יום ל"ד בבוקר אלא אם כן חל יום ל"ג ערב שבת שאז מסתפרים בו מפני כבוד השבת: הגה ובמדינות אלו אין נוהגין כדבריו אלא מסתפרין ביום ל"ג ומרבים בו קצת שמחה ואין אומרים בו תחנון (מהרי"ל ומנהגים) ואין להסתפר עד ל"ג בעצמו ולא מבערב (מהרי"ל) מיהו אם חל ביום א' נוהגין להסתפר ביום ו' לכבוד שבת (מהרי"ל) מי שהוא בעל) ברית או מל בנו מותר להסתפר בספירה לכבוד המילה (הגהות מנהגים):
(1) It is customary not to get married between Pesach and Shavuot, until Lag BaOmer (the 33rd day), because during that time, the students of Rabbi Akiva died. However, to do "erusin" and "kiddushin" (engagement and betrothal) is OK...
(2) It is customary not to cut one's hair until Lag BaOmer, since it is said that that is when they stopped dying.
Why do we have restrictions in the Omer?
...Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of students in an area of land that stretched from Gevat to Antipatris in Judea, and they all died in one period of time, because they did not treat each other with respect. And the world was desolate of Torah until Rabbi Akiva came to our Rabbis in the South and taught his Torah to them. This second group of disciples consisted of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosei, Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua. And these are the very ones who upheld the study of Torah at that time. Although Rabbi Akiva’s earlier students did not survive, his later disciples were able to transmit the Torah to future generations... They all died a bad death. The Gemara inquires: What is it that is called a bad death? Rav Naḥman said: Diphtheria.
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: Is it possible that a person plows in the plowing season and sows in the sowing season and harvests in the harvest season and threshes in the threshing season and winnows in the windy season, as grain is separated from the chaff by means of the wind, and is constantly busy; what will become of Torah? Rather, one must dedicate himself exclusively to Torah at the expense of other endeavors; as when Israel performs God’s will, their work is performed by others, as it is stated: “And strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and your vinedressers” (Isaiah 61:5). When Israel does not perform God’s will, their work is performed by them themselves, as it is stated: “And you shall gather your grain.”
They ruled and said: Yehuda, who elevated the Roman regime, shall be elevated and appointed as head of the Sages, the head of the speakers in every place. Yosei, who remained silent, shall be exiled from his home in Judea as punishment, and sent to the city of Tzippori in the Galilee. And Shimon, who denounced the government, shall be killed. Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, went and hid in the study hall. Every day Rabbi Shimon’s wife would bring them bread and a jug of water and they would eat. When the decree intensified, Rabbi Shimon said to his son: Women are easily impressionable and, therefore, there is room for concern lest the authorities torture her and she reveal our whereabouts. They went and they hid in a cave. A miracle occurred and a carob tree was created for them as well as a spring of water. They would remove their clothes and sit covered in sand up to their necks. They would study Torah all day in that manner. At the time of prayer, they would dress, cover themselves, and pray, and they would again remove their clothes afterward so that they would not become tattered. They sat in the cave for twelve years. Elijah the Prophet came and stood at the entrance to the cave and said: Who will inform bar Yoḥai that the emperor died and his decree has been abrogated? They emerged from the cave, and saw people who were plowing and sowing. Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai said: These people abandon eternal life of Torah study and engage in temporal life for their own sustenance. The Gemara relates that every place that Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar directed their eyes was immediately burned. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Did you emerge from the cave in order to destroy My world? Return to your cave. They again went and sat there for twelve months. They said: The judgment of the wicked in Gehenna lasts for twelve months. Surely their sin was atoned in that time. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Emerge from your cave. They emerged. Everywhere that Rabbi Elazar would strike, Rabbi Shimon would heal. Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Elazar: My son, you and I suffice for the entire world, as the two of us are engaged in the proper study of Torah. As the sun was setting on Shabbat eve, they saw an elderly man who was holding two bundles of myrtle branches and running at twilight. They said to him: Why do you have these? He said to them: In honor of Shabbat. They said to him: And let one suffice. He answered them: One is corresponding to: “Remember the Shabbat day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), and one is corresponding to: “Observe the Shabbat day, to keep it holy” (Deuteronomy 5:12). Rabbi Shimon said to his son: See how beloved the mitzvot are to Israel. Their minds were put at ease and they were no longer as upset that people were not engaged in Torah study.
Lag B'Omer is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
He wrote the Zohar - 'the fire of Torah', ultimate work of spirituality.
He was one of the 5 remaining students of Rabbi Akiva.
Rabbi Akiva "relit" the light of Torah with 5 students.
Ki ner mitzva v'Torah ohr - Torah is compared to light/fire.
Go back to our characteristics of fire - needs balance to be useable and useful and to prevent it being all-consuming.
Rabbi Shimon could handle the all-consuming nature of the fire of Torah, but for regular people, it burnt them.
He had to learn to keep his fire for himself and not burn others with it.
This is the work of derech eretz.
Omer is a time of personal development.
- Chesed (loving-kindness),
- Gevurah (might/strenght),
- Tiferet (beauty/balance),
- Netzach (victory/endurance),
- Hod (acknowledgment/humility),
- Yesod (foundation/connection),
- Malchut (kingship/nobility).
We use each of the middot to focus the others. If any midda is taken to extreme, it can be dangerous - like fire. We use the other middot to balance ourselves like fire-breaks to help contain the energy and make it useful.
Let's go back to the characteristics of fire and learn from them.