It might sound like the lyrics from a popular song by Neil Young, yet its deeper meaning rings truer today than back in the day when songs by the same musician for the rallying cries of college student staged protests

As much as pop culture tends to dominate the thoughts of various  generations  gone by, there also seems to me as if there is a very subtle barely perceptible change, that i must state right here and now, that I can almost feel it in the wind.

Meanwhile, to get a handle on what all this could possibly mean, I could draw from two sources on seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum. From the orthodox realm, there are a few personalities who’s nearly tangible presence can not be ignored. One of these personalities is Rabbi Akiva, who’s stature as a great Rabbi and Torah scholar is unchallenged amongst all the various Torah observant communities. The reason for the semi-period of morning that the accompanies the counting of the Sephirot He”Omer is because during the time period of the counting of the Omer, that 24,000 Talmidim (students) of Rabbi Akiva died from a plague. The importance of these great and very learned students is that they were the ones who would transmit Torah, to subsequent generations.

At this point this essay which hopes to give over some very deep concepts can unravel into anyone of a myriad of different paths or explanations which all have value.

The important idea here is how did Rabbi Akiva become the great Rabbi that he was, from some very humble origins. One of the stories I have read was that one day while out in the nature, Rabbi Akiva noticed a hollowed out concavity within a rock which he noticed was underneath a small yet constantly dripping source of water.

When he came to understand that the great feat of carving out a substance as hard as rock came about from just this tiny little drop of water, drop by drop.The tiny drop of water itself was not a particularly strong force in nature, as compared to the hardness of a rock, however with this small yet constant effort, it seemed as if anything would indeed be possible.

All this greatness, having developed from such humble origins, of course begs the question, as to why was it to be decreed, that Rabbi Akiva’s students all had to die? An interesting question which any grade school Yeshivah Bochur would simply tell you that they died due to a plague because they did not show proper respect to each other. {Even though we record a medical reason for the death of these students of Rabbi Akiva we often explain things as per the will or decree of G-d, both in the good things that happen as well as in the bad things that happen}

So far everything sounds pretty much like text book stuff that even a 5ht grade yeshiva students would know cold. So now we need to understand one more small piece of the puzzle, which truly helps us to understand the greatness of Rabbi Akiva, and might cause one to even stop wondering about their seemingly untimely demise, and that concept gets answered by the death of one particular student of Rabbi Akiva, who’s name is none other than Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar hakodesh!

While it should be no surprise to the reader that there is a general lack of agreement regarding weather it is the 1st period of the Omer, which coincides with the death of Rabbi Akiva’s students the period before Lag B’Omer (literally the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer) or weather it is the last of the 49 days of the Omer that Rabbi Akivas students died, there is general agreement on one thing that on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, Lag B’Omer, that none of the students of Rabbi Akiva died. Therefore when various Torah observant individuals get together and discuss the relevant Halacha (laws regulating the observance of the semi-period of morning) they might ask each other, what Sephirot, they hold by.

Ah, I get it there must be something really special about the 33rd day of the Omer. Also you just said the death of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students seems to pale by comparison to one particular event that gets answered by the death Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar hakodesh!