Lag B'omer Celebrations

Lag B'Omer is one of the highlights of the year.  It is celebrated in a unique manner- many people make bonfires and shoot arrows and dance and sing.  Celebrations are wonderful, and I certainly say that in our long and bitter galus, we could use more such days to chase away the gloom and doom that weighs heavily on our shoulders.

But Lag B'Omer is an odd day to celebrate, I think.  Yes, the talmidim of Rebbi Akiva stopped dying on that day.  The reason they stopped dying is because every last one of them was dead.  There was nobody left to die.  This we celebrate?  The  famous talmidim of Rebbi Akiva that we know of were those that he taught after all the others had died.

As for the "Hilula of Rav Shimon bar Yochai" that is mentioned in the Zohar- that, too, is difficult to understand.  If it is the yahrtzeit of Rav Shimon bar Yochai, the day of the death of a tzadik is not the time to make a party.  On the contrary; there are many Gemaros that say that one should fast and mourn on the anniversary of a Tzadik's death:  the suggested fast days we know of are the seventh of Adar, for Moshe Rabbeinu, Rosh Chodesh Nissan for Nadav and Avihu, the tenth of Nissan for Miriam, and so on.  So why are we celebrating on the day of Rav Shimon bar Yochai's death?

The Zohar that calls it a "hilula" means something else entirely.  Although the day of a tzadik's death is a day of Middas Hadin, a day of sadness and introspection for the treasure we lost, that is only on Earth.  In Shamayim, it is a day of rejoicing, like a day a Kallah is brought to her Chassan.  In Shamayim, it's a Yom Tov, a mo'eid of Hillula.  On Earth, among the living, it may be a mo'ed, but it's a mo'eid like Tisha Ba'av.

I understand that what I've written seems disingenuous, and seems to denigrate a holy minhag that has existed perhaps for millennia, certainly for hundreds of years.   As for what I said about their not dying anymore because they were all dead, well, it's no different than the fifteenth of Av, when the generation of the Midbar stopped dying because they, too, were all dead, but we celebrate the end of the gzeira ra'ah.  Also, at least Rebbi Akiva remained alive, and he ultimately managed to teach his Torah to other talmidim.  As for Rav Shimon bar Yochai's death being a sad loss for mankind, but we are all told that on the day of his death he revealed many secrets of Toras Hanistar to us, so it's like the day of Mattan Torah of Toras Nistar.

(UPDATE: A comment came in in May of 2018/Iyar 5778 pointing out that the Gemara BB 121a and as explained by the Rashbam says that the fifteenth of Av is celebrated not because the dor hamidbar finished dying, but because the Dibbur returned to Moshe Rabbeinu.  (If not for the Rashbam, the Gemara might be read to mean that the tamu is the reason and the dibbur is a siman of the simcha, evidence that the matzav of nezifah had ended with the death of the last of the dor hamidbar and simcha had returned.)

רב רב דימי בר יוסף אמר רב נחמן יום שכלו בו מתי מדבר דאמר מר עד שלא כלו מתי מדבר לאלא היה דיבור עם משה שנאמר ויהי כאשר תמו כל אנשי המלחמה למות מקרב העם וסמיך ליה וידבר ה' אלי לאמר אלי היה הדיבור 

Rashbam

שכלו בו מתי מדבר. במדרש איכה יום שבטל בו החפר דאמר ר' לוי כל ערב תשעה באב היה כרוז יוצא הכל יצאו לחפור חפרין וישנין בהן ובשחרית הכרוז יוצא יבדלו החיים מן המתים והיו בודקין אותן ונמצאו ט"ו אלף ופרוטרוט חסרין בכל שנה וכך עשו מ' שנה יום לשנה יום לשנה הרי מ' שנה בשנה אחרונה עשו כן בדקו עצמן ונמצאו שלמים אמרו שמא טעינו בחשבון וכן בי' בו וכן בי"א וכן בי"ב וכן בי"ג ובי"ד עד דאיתמלי סיהרא כיון דאיתמלי סיהרא אמרו ביטל הקב"ה אותה גזירה קשה מעלינו ועשו משתה ושמחה ויו"ט: דאמר מר כו'. ולכך עשו ימי משתה ושמחה על הדיבור שחזר למשה: לא היה דיבור עם משה. פה אל פה כבתחלה אבל אם הוצרכו לדיבור כגון במעשה דקרח שהיה אחר מעשה המרגלים היה מדבר על ידי מלאך או באורים ותומים אי נמי לא היה מדבר עמו אלא על ידי צורך מעשה הצריך להם: אלי היה הדיבור. דמצי למכתב ויאמר ה' אלי כדכתיב לעיל ויאמר ה' אלי אל תצר את מואב אי נמי מדסמכו לויהי כאשר תמו קדריש הכי ולא ממשמעותא דקרא אלא מייתורא דויהי כאשר תמו דקרא יתירא הוא: )

That being the case, one might propose that the celebration of Lag Ba'omer as well is not because there was nobody left to die. It is because with the end of the gzeirah, Reb Akiva was able to begin the mesora of Torah to Klal Yisrael again, similar to the return of the dibbur to Moshe Rabbeinu.)

In defense of my seemingly "haskoolisheh" post, I would like to point out that nothing that I've written originated with me.  Everything I wrote is lifted- almost verbatim- from (second paragraph) the Pri Chadash in OC 493:2, and (paragraphs three and four) from the Chasam Sofer in Parsha Emor.  They are the ones who disapproved of the party atmosphere of Lag Ba'omer and the mass gathering in Tzfas, not me.

The Chasam Sofer's words were written in a eulogy he delivered upon hearing of the disastrous Earthquake of the Galilee that occurred on Sunday January 1, 1837- 24 Teves, 5997.  That earthquake hit Tveria and Shchem and destroyed most of the Jewish section of Tzfas, leaving thousands of Jews dead; adding insult to injury, it barely touched the Arab section.  The Jewish community of Tzfas, destitute even before the earthquake, was decimated, dislocated, and plagued by injury, infection, and disease.  The Chasam Sofer suggests that this was divine punishment visited upon us for ignoring Yerushalayim.  He says that for around one hundred years prior to that date, nobody wanted to live in Yerushalayim, but instead everyone went to Tzfas to be in the proximity of Rav Shimon bar Yochai's grave.  He says this was a terrible insult to Yerushalayim, the Gate of Heaven, the source of all Kedusha.  He brings from the Ya'avetz that even now there is a mitzvah of Aliya le'Regel, (though I haven't found the teshuva he's referring to,)  and we, as a people, were punished for insulting the kedusha and centrality of Yerushalayim.

Eli, in the comments, notes that "it was also found (in the Cairo Genizah) that in the times of the early Geonim, Iyar 18th was considered the yahrzeit of Yehoshua Bin-Nun, and, accordingly, a fast day."  The Chasam Sofer in the above hesped says that Yehoshua bin Nun's yahrtzeit is the twenty sixth of Nissan, though.

So, if your Rosh Yeshiva tells you that you can't go dance in Miron because it's bittul Torah and hollelus, at least you know that while your Rosh Yeshiva won't win any popularity contests, he'll be unpopular together with the Pri Chadash, the Chasam Sofer, and the Geonim.

But in the end I have to admit that Lag B'Omer, whether it really has any intrinsic deep meaning or it's just fun, is certainly a good and healthy way to enjoy the achdus and spiritual aspirations of Klal Yisrael.  Like many other good minhagim, you get out of it what you imbue into it.  As George Bernard Shaw wrote,

I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

Le'shana haba'ah be'Uman!

Thank you DixieYid for the photograph.

UPDATE MAY 2014

Someone sent in a valuable yediyah from the Rama MiFano in his Mayan Ganim.  He says that the Gzeira of death on Reb Akiva's talmidim included him.  It was on Lag Ba'Omer that it became clear that the Gzeira against Reb Akiva was rescinded.  In that case, Lag Ba'omer is indeed precisely like Tes Vov b'Av.