Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was a student of Rabbi Akiva Lag B'Omer - Yartzeit of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai - Author of the Zohar
Carpe diem, seize the day! It would seem that this should be the rallying cry for each and every day. I try to read all these little explanations that are really so deep, that I know that I have no chance to even get an inkling of some relevant meaning. Of course I am referring to all this books that explain the inner essence of each of the 49 days that we count the Sepherot HaOmer. Like all words which we transliterate from Hebrew to English there are several different ways to spell Sefirat Ha’omer
We start counting after the second night of Pesach (Passover) and we keep on counting until Shavout. There are 49 days and each one of these has special significance. None of the days are as significant as the 33rd day, which is L’ag B’omer.
We are told to count the Omer which is the number of day between Peysach (Passover) and Shavout and we are commanded to bring the “omer” of barley to the Temple. After the evening prayers are completed, we say a bracha (blessing) which states that blessed is G-d who has commanded us to count the Omer, and then we state which day in the omer count they we are in. After prayers this evening we counted the 23rd day, so we are now 23 days (or three weeks and two days into count).
There is a great deal of literature written discussing specific characteristics (midos) that we are supposed to be working on for each and every day. However in my mind focusing on one specific quality on a specific day could cause one to miss out on something of extreme importance because, well they just might not be focused on the particular value on that day.
For example lets say, it happens to be one of those day where you are working on the specific quality of the Gevurah She be Netzach. Gevurah is often described as strength or might, while I know I have heard the word victory for netzach it seems most of the references call netzach endurance. so one blogger wrote the idea of the weeks tied into days very nicely as:
“Today is Gevurah she b’Netzach - a day of strength in a week of endurance.”
The simplicity of the statement and the sheer power of how that idea hit me just now is enough for me to thank the author of that phrase right now with the international currency of appreciation: A citation and a link: Divah World mdivah.blogspot.com Thank you, Marilyn Heiss.
Sometimes life throws us so many curve balls and its amazing that all these simply lousy things seem to happen to us all in one week.
Then you may have seemed challenged to just unleash your pent up wrath and just yell or scream: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it”
Then somehow something kicks and in and you decide not to do that rash, crazy, impulsive and self destructive act and decide to sort of just pause, and take a step off the merry-go-round. To yourself you say “Hey, I can handle this”. You realize that as long as you remain cool and calm, that you can rise to the challenge.
You can do this because you just experienced having “a day of strength in a week of endurance”
“
Stephen (Aharon
Moshe) Sanders April 22, 2010 To be continued to include the next topic in the title (or as a separate piece).
Incoming search terms:
- rabi shimon bar yochai
- bar yochai
- Lag b omer
- rabbi chimon bar yohai
No related posts.
What Are People Saying?