02 May TORAH WELLSPRINGS: EMOR/LAG BAOMER

The Gemara says,
“Reb Akiva had
twelve thousand pairs
of talmidim (24,000
students). They lived
[all over in Eretz
Yisrael] from Gavas
until Antifras, and
they all died in the
same peri-od of
time because they
didn’t honor one
another… They died
between Pesach and
Shavuos.” The Beis
Yosef explains that
they stopped dying
two weeks before
Shavuos, on Lag b’Omer. Therefore, the
days of sefirah are days of mourning, and
Lag b’Omer is a day for celebrating. The
Pri Chodosh asks why should we celebrate
Lag b’Omer? It’s true that the students
stopped dying on Lag b’Omer, but that’s
mostly because almost all the students had
already perished and only five students
remained. So what’s there to be happy
about? The Pri Cho-dosh answers, on this
day Reb Akiva took his five remaining
students and began to teach them Torah.

The five students were: Reb Meir, Reb
Yehudah, Reb Yossi, Reb Shimon and
Reb Elazer ben Shamo’a, and from them
the Torah continued to live on in Klal
Yisrael. That is a reason to celebrate. Let’s
contemplate on what happened at that time.
Only a few weeks earlier, Reb Akiva had
twenty-four thousand students. They all
died. There were many fu-nerals each day.
The situation was tragic.
Reb Akiva was left with only five students.
But Reb Akiva didn’t give up. If there are
only five students left, he will teach them.
And from those five students, Torah went
forth to the world. All the Torah that we
have today is essentially from those five
students. The Zohar and Kabbalah, for
example, came from Reb Aki-va’s student,
Reb Shimon. It’s these five students that
are repeated throughout Mishnayos. They
are the main continuation of Torah sheb’al

peh. The Torah continued to live on be-
cause Reb Akiva didn’t lose hope, and

he salvaged what-ever he could so Torah
will remain by Yidden. Reb Shi-mon bar
Yochai also didn’t give up. Chazal tell us
that the Romans wanted to murder Reb
Shimon, so he hid in a cave for thirteen
years together with his son, Reb Elazar.

Reb Shimon could have de-spaired and
felt that all is lost. He was distant from the
Torah centers, removed from all teachers
and students. Furthermore, at this point,
Reb Shimon thought that he may need
to remain in the cave interminably. He
didn’t know that eventually he would
leave. (We will soon write what caused
Reb Shimon to courageously leave the
cave.) Living in a cave forever, doesn’t
seem to be very productive and glorious.
But Reb Shimon contin-ued to study the
Torah with all his might there in the cave,
and it was particularly there that he reached
his outstanding, unfathomable heights (as
we sing “there you ac-quired your glory”).
He reached those levels, because he didn’t
lose hope. We should learn from Reb
Akiva and from Reb Shimon never to lose
hope. Sometimes it seems like everything
is destroyed, but if we don’t lose hope, we
can rebuild again. This hap-pened after the
Holocaust. The tzaddikim who survived
the War didn’t give up. They re-built new
Torah centers on top of the ashes, and now
the Torah flourishes again. If they would
have suc-cumbed to despair, there wouldn’t
be Torah and yiddishkeit today. And this is
the approach that everyone person should
take. Whether one’s problems are spiritual

or material issues never lose hope. Keep
davening, continue trying, and you will
see wonders. On Lag b’Omer we sing Bar
Yochai, “the son of Yochai.” Why don’t
we sing Reb Shimon? Why do we mention
his father’s name? The answer is, we
purposely call Reb Shimon “Bar Yochai”
to remind us that Reb Shimon was a child,
born from parents. He was a hu-man
being. He wasn’t a malach. And we have
the obligation to try to emulate his ways,
and to go in his footsteps. One aspect is to
never lose hope. When everything seems
desperate, remember that Reb Akiva
also had that feeling when 24,000 of his
students perished. And Reb Shimon may
have had that feeling while in the cave. But
they didn’t lose hope, they continued on
with what they could, and that led to their
greatness.