{"id":6333,"date":"2023-05-09T15:51:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T15:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?p=6333"},"modified":"2025-05-22T13:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:05:55","slug":"what-is-lag-baomer-the-joy-of-pure-torah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/what-is-lag-baomer-the-joy-of-pure-torah\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Lag Ba&#8217;Omer? The Joy of Pure Torah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sefirat Ha&#8217;Omer &#8211; Should We Not Celebrate?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On the second night of Pesach, we began counting the Omer. Night after night, for 49 nights, we count down to Shavuot, that great day on which Hashem gave us the Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The days of <em>Sefirat Ha\u2019Omer<\/em> (counting the Omer) are days of national mourning, as no weddings take place, and we don\u2019t cut our hair, shave, or listen to music. But shouldn\u2019t the days we spend preparing ourselves for the great gift of the Torah \u2013 the word of Hashem \u2013 be days full of joy and happiness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">So Why Do We Mourn?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is well known that the 24,000 <em>talmidim<\/em> (students)<em> <\/em>of Rabbi Akiva passed away during this time of the year. Why? Because they did not treat each other with proper respect, such as being receptive to their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/mileage\/phone-systems.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chavruta<\/a>\u2019s take on Torah matters. As students of the great <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tannaim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>tanna<\/em><\/a> and <em>tzaddik<\/em> (righteous person), and the future leaders of the Jewish nation, each one was expected to respect the scholarship of the other. Failure to do so reflected a lack of reverence for the Torah itself, and that is why Hashem took them from the world during the time of year that <em>Klal Yisrael<\/em> (the Jewish Nation) is busy preparing for <em>Kabbalat HaTorah<\/em> (the receiving of the Torah).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Celebrating Torah in Its Purest Form<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When the dying finally ended on Lag Ba&#8217;Omer (the thirty-third day of the Omer), Rabbi Akiva was left with his five most prestigious disciples, who would carry the torch, teaching Torah to the next generation of Jews. The loss of so many <em>talmidei chachamim<\/em> (Torah scholars) surely left an impact on all future generations, and for this we must mourn. But on Lag Ba\u2019Omer, when the dying ceased, we celebrate the renaissance of Torah, Torah studied in its purest form, with proper respect for Torah scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lag Ba&#8217;Omer &#8211; A Day of Newfound Torah Wisdom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, one of these students was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, whose <em>yahrtzeit <\/em>is on this day. On the day he passed away, he revealed to the world great mystical secrets of the Torah, and the world rejoiced over this newfound wisdom. Thousands of Jews flock to his grave in Meron, Israel, and bonfires are lit all over the world, in celebration of the great \u201cfire\u201d of Torah he brought to the world on this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button tm-cta\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/sign-up.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Access Torah study right in your home! Join TorahMates to learn Torah on the phone for just half an hour a week.<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By Rabbi Nechemia Levi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sefirat Ha&#8217;Omer &#8211; Should We Not Celebrate? On the second night of Pesach, we began counting the Omer. Night after night, for 49 nights, we count down to Shavuot, that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,546,2,40,695],"tags":[532,531],"class_list":["post-6333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judaism-101","category-lag-baomer-holidays","category-shabbat-and-holidays","category-shavuos","category-torah-study","tag-sefirah","tag-sefirat-haomer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Lag Ba&#039;Omer? 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