21 May LAG B’OMER: THE QUANTUM MECHANICS OF JUDAISM WHAT IS KABBALAH? WHAT IS CHASSIDUS?

In the Beginning
A man comes to the
psychiatrist, shouting
that he is in dire need
of help. The
psychiatrist attempts
to calm him down but
to no avail. The man is
in a state of panic, screaming that it is an
emergency and he must be helped
immediately.
The psychiatrist informs him that if he
continues hollering this way, he won’t be able
to help him. “Please sit down and tell me the
whole story from the beginning.” The patient
finally gives in. He sits down, and starts
talking silently: “In the beginning,” he says,
“I created heaven and earth.”
The Birth of Jewish Mysticism
This Friday, known in Hebrew as Lag
B’Omer, the thirty-third day of the omer, is
the anniversary of the passing of one of the
greatest sages and spiritual giants in Jewish
history, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi
Shimon, who lived in Israel under Roman
occupation around 165 CE (approximately
one hundred years after the destruction of the
Second Temple in 70 C.E.), was an
extraordinary scholar and author of the
Zohar, the most basic work of Kabbalah.
Kabbalah is the official theology of Judaism,
its inner spiritual meaning, and Reb Shimon
was responsible for revealing the wisdom of
the Kabbalah. The Zohar relates, how the
most significant revelation came about on the
day of Rabbi Shimon’s passing, on which he
expounded for many hours on the most
intimate secrets of the Divine wisdom before
he passed on. That day was Lag B’Omer.
Centuries were to pass before the great
Kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572),
would proclaim, “In these times, we are
allowed and duty-bound to reveal this
wisdom.” More than a century later, Rabbi
Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) and his
disciples were to make them accessible to all
via the powerful teachings of Chassidus,
while other great masters of Kabbalah would
teach Jewish mysticism in their own unique
way, like Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
(1707-1746) and the Vilna Gaon (1720-
1797), and many others. But Lag B’Omer
remains the day on which “Jewish mysticism”
made its first emergence from the womb of
secrecy and exclusivity.
Before his passing, Rabbi Shimon instructed
his disciples to observe his yahrzeit (the day
of his death) as a time of joy and festivity,
since the day of a person’s death marks the
culminating point of all that he achieved in
the course of his life on earth. Since then,
Jews the world over, especially at his resting
place in Meron, Israel, celebrate this day with
singing, dancing, Torah study, and an increase

in acts of love and unity.
Playing with the Bow
One particular custom practiced on the day
of Lag B’Omer is unique: Children go to
parks and fields to play with bows and
arrows.
What is the reason for this peculiar custom?
One well-known explanation is that during
Rabbi Shimon’s lifetime, no rainbow ever
appeared in the sky. The Torah states that the
rainbow represented G-d’s covenant never to
destroy the world again even humanity is
corrupt. But as long as Rabbi Shimon was
alive, his merit and piety alone were enough
to ensure that G-d would not regret His
creation, with no need for the rainbow.
On the day of Rabbi Shimon’s passing,
however, the world was in need of the
rainbow. So each year on that day we recall
this man’s greatness by playing with the bow.
Why Focus on the Negative
Yet, this explanation is enigmatic. First, it
seems far-fetched to associate the archer’s
bow with the celestial rainbow, just because
they both include the word ‘bow’ in English
and share the same term in Hebrew, “keshes.”
Second, according to this interpretation,
playing with bows and arrows on the day of
Lag B’Omer constitutes a negative symbol,
reflecting the tragic potential of humans to
destroy the world.
Yet, on the day of Lag B’Omer, we ought to
focus on the life of Rabbi Shimon, not on his
death! Especially that he himself requested it
to be a day of joy, not melancholy. Why
would we institute a custom that might
hamper the intense joy of the day?
There is another way to explain this
interesting tradition. The bow and arrow
represent a positive symbol, one that fits into
the joyous nature of the day, celebrating the
life and vision of Rabbi Shimon. Indeed,
Rabbi Shimon’s book, the Zohar, states: “Do
not anticipate the coming of Moshiach
(Messiah) until you see the shining colors of
the rainbow.” From the Zohar’s perspective,
the bow represents a powerfully positive
symbol.
Two Types of Weapons
The first weapons devised by man were
designed for hand-to-hand combat: the
sword, the spear, the ax, and the like. But a
person’s enemy or prey is not always in
arm’s-length, or even within sight; soon the
warrior and hunter were inventing an array of
weapons capable of reaching targets that are
a great distance away or that are invisible.
Chief among these new weapons was the
bow and arrow, invented early on in human
history. (The Torah, too, speaks of the bow as
a weapon: Isaac and Jacob both discuss it
with their sons.) For many countries and

cultures, the bow and arrow have served as
the main projectile weapon for a long time.
The person who invented this weapon had
to grasp the paradox that the arrow must first
be pulled back toward one’s own heart in
order to strike the heart of the enemy; and
that the more it is drawn toward oneself, the
more distant it can reach[12]. Indeed,
virtually all long-range weapons (including
the rocket) operate on this principle: they
cause an action by the means of an opposite
action; they impel up and away by means of a
force that is exerted down and back toward
the launch point.
Two Types of Adversaries
One of the fundamental ideas in Kabbalah is
that every physical invention and
phenomenon originates in the realm of
spiritual consciousness. The two types of
weapons, the sword and the bow, designed
for two different types of foes, exist also on a
psychological and spiritual plane.
Every one of us has two types of adversaries:
The exposed challenges, those behaviors and
emotions that overtly threaten our well-being
and happiness. Immoral and hurtful words
and deeds, the expression of negative
emotions, and outbursts of anger and
animosity are openly destructive. But we also
possess an entirely different array of
skeletons: Our subliminal paradigms and
feelings invisible to the conscious brain.
To confront my invisible adversary, the
“sword” won’t do the trick. I need a new style
weapon: the bow and arrow. To confront and
conquer my unconscious traumas, pain, and
brokenness, I need to pull back and retreat to
the core of my soul; I need to open myself to
trailblazing pathways that have never been
charted. I must discover what I look like on
the inside.
Two Aspects of Torah
Judaism contains these two types of
weapons. The Torah, the body of Jewish
wisdom transmitted and developed over 3300
years, is generally comprised of two parts,
the “niglah” and the “nistar,” the revealed
Torah, and the concealed part of Torah. The
former can be compared to the “sword,” the
latter to the “bow.”
The first stream of Torah, Jewish law and
ethics, is like the close-range weapon that
could confront the obvious enemy. It
delineates for me right from wrong, moral
from immoral, holy from profane, good from
bad. It teaches us to distinguish between the
desirable and the disgraceful, between noble
and coarse behavior. It is the foundation of
living a moral, meaningful, and good life.
But how about confronting the pain and
trauma in the depth of my being? What about
the chaos at the core of my consciousness?
How about facing my existential loneliness

and angst? How about confronting my inner
toxic mindset and paradigms? How about my
questions about ultimate purpose, meaning,
and truth? How about dealing with my inner
confusion, anxiety, insanity, and uncertainty?
How about the profound pain of life and
being?
This is where the “hidden” part of Torah
becomes a life-saver. The teachings of
Kabbalah and Chassidus are the “quantum
mechanics” of Judaism, where infinity and
finiteness merge, where paradoxes abide side
by side, and where G-d and the human person
stand face to face with each other. Just like
the bow, the Kabbalah and Chassidic
teachings guide the person toward the
quintessence of his or her consciousness,
uncovering the “fragment of G-d” that
constitutes the core of my soul, teaching me
how the complex notes of the human psyche
are a Divine symphony, and how the entire
universe is pulsating infinity.
Both parts of Judaism make up its divine
mosaic. People who only learn mysticism,
are often disconnected from the concrete,
pragmatic and authentic expression of Torah.
Conversely, the exclusive study of Jewish
law may leave you with the lingering
question, what is this all about? How do I
find real joy and passion in my life? Can I
learn to love freely?
A Complicated World
There was a time in history when the
revealed part of the Torah sufficed. The
Kabbalah remained concealed from most of
the people and only a select few passed it on
from generation to generation. But as the
world became a much more complicated
place, and as the consciousness of redemption
and full healing become more manifest, we
must extricate the last traumas hidden inside
of us, obstructing our full alignment with the
Divine. Hence, Divine providence sent the
great mystical masters, chief among them
Rabbi Shimon, to teach us how to open
windows to the super-conscious forces of our
soul; how to discover the oneness in all of
reality, how to perceive your darkness as a
manifestation of infinite light, how to see
yourself as an ambassador of love, light, and
hope.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai gave the Jewish
people and the world the bow and arrow.