Lag B’Omer

Today is Lag B’Omer, which literally means the 33rd day of the Omer. The Omer are the 50 days that we count between Passover and Shavout.

There are two interpretations of the holiday; I’ll briefly discuss them both.

First, there is the traditional meaning of the holiday. Back in the 2nd century CD (around the time of the Bar Kochba revolt), the major Rabbi was Rabbi Avikah. He was such a prolific teacher, that he has 24,000 students.

We’re told that between Passover and Lag B’Omer, these students started dieing of an unknown plague. Sources tell us that this was a spiritual plague brought about because the students did not treat each other with respect. The Plague stopped on Lag B’Omer, so we celebrate it as a holiday.

It’s because of this same story that we observe the first 32 days of the Omer as days of mourning.

The question is why do we have a special holiday for these students? There have been many cases in Jewish history where many people died – even many Torah scholars? Why is this one special?

The answer is that these 24,000 students made up the bulk of the Torah scholars in the world at that time. Had they all died of the plague, Torah would have been lost forever.