An exploration of the Kabbalistic meaning behind the tragic death of 24,000 students and the deeper spiritual lessons of Lag BaOmer.
Read the notes on this shiur: outline, sources, and more from Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky →
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The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.
To take the 24,000 of the greatest Torah sages that they should die a horrific death in in in in a matter of weeks. It's hard. It's hard. It almost has no answer. It's I I I think it's unbearable. So, the real secret of Lag BaOmer is that the first 32 days from the second day of Passover until the 30 uh second day of the Omer are days of judgment. Days of harsher judgment than judgment. Days of harsher judgment than the norm. We have to be aware of this. And that's that's that's why we have to be careful. Days of strict judgment, it just becomes more dangerous spiritually. For example, people try to avoid things that are dangerous, you know, during these times. It's important. Uh but on the 33rd day of the Omer, there's a shift from days of judgment and strictness. They become sweetened with mercy. And they become sweeter, softer, more merciful days from the 33rd onward. merciful days from the 33rd onward. And we could begin to appreciate and we're going to get to really the heart of the story right now. Initially, when we came out of Egypt, we counted the Omer. And this spiritual concept is forever. So, so forever the first 32 days of the Omer were more strict in judgment and harsher days spiritually. And the 33rd onward were always sweeter and more more imbued with mercy. Um but the days of Lag BaOmer were not connected to mourning
Jump to a moment
- 0:00To take the 24,000 of the greatest Torah sages that they should die a horrific death…
- 1:30connected to mourning until around the common era when the students of Rabbi Akiva finally die.…
- 3:31everything has a reason." It's It's I I think it's unbearable. We are stuck behind the…
- 5:36So, when the sages say 12,000 pairs of students died, let's let's let's open this up.…
- 7:40to go back to the secret of the letter aleph. And there's a beautiful lesson. We've…
- 9:42competition to to beat a selfish motivations to to to and and there was really a…
- 11:12heart. It's everything. I'm giving you me when I give you this Torah." And that's why…
- 13:16the Torah that makes them one and their ideas one and unites them. And so, Torah…
- 15:21a destructive fire that that that that that separates and destroys the oneness and unity that…
- 17:23course, selfishly separated from each other and made the peru, they made destruction. And so therefore,…
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