The Real Meaning of Lag BaOmer

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Today and tomorrow I am not going to speak about Lag Ba'omer, although I will talk about Sefirat Ha'omer, unless I don't finish the Lag Ba'omer today. And that is tonight, of course, is the 33rd day of the Omer that we abbreviate with the word Lag Ba'omer. And we know that although during the Sefirat Ha'omer we uh practice certain rituals of mourning, uh we don't get married, we don't get haircuts, we don't listen to at least live music, whether recorded music, you can talk to your local Orthodox rabbi about that. And uh Lag Ba'omer, however, is a break in the mourning rituals. And there's a machlokes in Halacha depending on your minhagim if it ends the Sefirah restrictions, so even after Lag Ba'omer you're allowed to have weddings, or it is only an interruption, it is only a hiatus. That depends on different customs. But according to virtually everybody, although not all Sefardim, according to virtually everybody Lag Ba'omer is a day of heter uh because there's a certain joyous aspect to Lag Ba'omer. Now, why is Lag Ba'omer a joyous day? So, we actually have two contradictory reasons. Reason number one, it is a day that people stopped dying. Reason number two, it is the day that somebody very special died. So, in a modern way, we are both celebrating the cessation of death and we are celebrating, I'll explain why we're celebrating, celebrating a death.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Today and tomorrow I am not going to speak about Lag Ba'omer, although I will talk…
2. 4:15Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is of that second group of talmidim. Think about this. All of…
3. 9:05really upset about this, but they do. But okay, but be that as it may, but…
4. 13:55and we're being Masaken the Lo Nahagu Kavod Zeh LaZeh. But these are not two separate…
5. 18:17which is often called Gimel Rishonot, the the first three, are described as Mochin. They are…
6. 23:11let's look at Lag Baomer. And let's plot it out in terms of its Sefirah as…
7. 27:54shine. Hold. Meaning I step back. Now, that can sometimes be detrimental, right? The people want…
8. 32:06these teachings to talmidim and then they wrote it. So, so even the earliest origin of…
9. 36:53book in Am Yisrael till the 1200s. That's 1,000 years later. Shimon bar Yochai died in…
10. 42:17been business partners, they had been friends. Then there was some fight about who owns something…

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