Rabbi 360

Today is Lag B’Omer, the holiday of political agitation. How so? Well first a little background.

To unpack this we need to reveal a few layers of meaning. A few weeks ago we celebrated Passover, the holiday when we mark the story of the Exodus and the ongoing narrative paradigm of oppression and liberation. And in a few weeks we will celebrate Shavuot, when we commemorate the story of Mount Sinai and the Revelation of the Torah from God to the Israelites, and the ongoing importance of sacred text, law and values in our lives.

The Torah teaches that we are to literally count the days between these two holidays: “And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. You must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to God.” (Leviticus 23:15-16). The “elevation offering” in Hebrew is Omer, and that becomes the name for the entire seven-week period.

Biblically this count is an agricultural practice marking the spring sowing and harvesting seasons. At the same time, counting the days and weeks between Passover and Shavuot has the effect of thematically linking the two holidays, directly connecting the events of the Exodus with the events of Sinai. While the Israelites were freed from Egyptian slavery and liberated from their bondage, they were not completely free until they received Torah, which set the guidelines for a new society and community. Freedom therefore is not just the absence of oppression, but being part of a community that guarantees that freedom. The Omer reminds us we are not only on a physical journey, but a spiritual journey as well.

Lag B’Omer is “the 33rd Day of the Omer,” and is a minor observance in and of itself. There are a few reasons for this: from the Talmud we learn that during the rabbinic era a plague wiped out 12,000 pairs of students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva, a plague which abated on Lag B’Omer. The day is therefore a celebration and an alleviation of what had been a period of mourning.

Another reason is that Lag B’Omer is the yartzeit (death anniversary) of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who was a scholar, a community leader, and a mystic (he is the traditional—but not actual—author of the great work of Jewish mysticism the Zohar). And while he is remembered for primarily because of this, he was also, according to the Talmud, a political agitator.

The most famous story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is that to evade persecution by the Roman authorities who were ruling at the time, he hid out with his son in a study hall where his wife brought him food and drink. When the pressure got worse, they fled to a cave for 12 years, where they studied Torah and subsisted on carob and water provided by a miraculous tree and spring. When word came that the Emperor had died and the decree nullified, they left the cave. The story continues:

They emerged from the cave, and saw people who were plowing and sowing. Rabbi Shimon bar Yocḥai said: These people abandon eternal life of Torah study and engage in temporal life for their own sustenance…every place that Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar directed their eyes was immediately burned. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Did you emerge from the cave in order to destroy My world? Return to your cave. They again went and sat there for twelve months…A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Emerge from your cave. They emerged…As the sun was setting on Shabbat eve, they saw an elderly man who was holding two bundles of myrtle branches and running at twilight. They said to him: Why do you have these? He said to them: In honor of Shabbat…Rabbi Shimon said to his son: See how beloved the mitzvot are to Israel. Their minds were put at ease. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 33b)

Here then is a lesson in the need to balance the spiritual and the material, and the fact that the two are not mutually exclusive. In first exiting the cave Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai made the mistake of not recognizing this and negatively judging others because of it, and therefore needed to be told by God to go back into the cave and think it through. [This power of Rabbi Shimon and son to burn things with their eyes is reflected in the contemporary practice of lighting bonfires on Lag B’Omer.]

This story speaks to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s commitment to Torah and his mystical tendencies and abilities. And his political agitation? That comes in the story immediately preceding this one that tells why he was wanted by the Roman authorities in the first place:

Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei and Rabbi Shimon were sitting, and Yehuda ben Gerim, sat beside them. Rabbi Yehuda opened and said: How pleasant are the actions of the Romans, as they established marketplaces, established bridges, and established bathhouses. Rabbi Yosei was silent. Rabbi Shimon ben Yocḥai responded and said: Everything that they established, they established only for their own purposes. They established marketplaces, to place prostitutes in them; bathhouses, to pamper themselves; and bridges, to collect taxes from all who pass over them. Yehuda ben Gerim, went and related their statements to his household, and those statements continued to spread until they were heard by the monarchy. They ruled and said: Yehuda, who elevated the Roman regime, shall be elevated and appointed as head of the Sages, Yosei, who remained silent, shall be exiled to Tzippori in the Galilee. And Shimon, who denounced the government, shall be killed. (Ibid.)

Here it is clear. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was ordered to be executed by Rome because he denounced the actions of the government, and accused them of acting only their own interest. While the Roman Empire was clearly authoritarian (having once been more democratic as the Roman Republic), he accused the government of neglecting the interests of the people by being a kleptocracy. The Talmud puts him in clear opposition to Rabbi Yehuda, who praises Roman rule believing that their actions serve all, and is rewarded for his loyalty, and Rabbi Yosei who is silent and exiled. [This fact that silence merits exile is also quite interesting.]

This Lag B’Omer, let us not just remember Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai the mystic in the cave, but lets remember Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai the political agitator who spoke truth to power and actively opposed the decrees of an unjust and immoral government. Let us, like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, recognize and resist a government that seeks to solely serve self-interest, a government that rewards loyalty and fealty and punishes opposition and disagreement, a government that trades in exploitation and oppression, and a government that actively transfers wealth upward, enriching the leaders and their cronies while impoverishing and causing suffering among the masses.

Let’s light that fire.