[Avodah] A Printing Mistake and the Mysterious Origins of Rashbi’s Yahrzeit

[Rafi Hecht]

I've read this before, just in a different context:
http://muqata.blogspot.com/2006/05/lag-baomer-one-big-mistake.html
<http://muqata.blogspot.com/2006/05/lag-baomer-one-big-mistake.html>
Best Regards,

Rafi Hecht
rhecht at gmail.com
416-276-6925
www.rafihecht.com
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Never Trust a Computer You Can't Throw Out a Window - Steve Wozniak


On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 5:32 AM, Prof. Levine <llevine at stevens.edu> wrote:

>  The following is taken from  http://tinyurl.com/3ddwkh4  Please see this
> URL for the entire article.
>
> The most well known explanation to the connection between Rashbi and Lag
> Ba-Omer is that Rashbi died on that day, and he was one of the students of
> R. Akiva. Assuming for a moment that this is factually correct, it is quite
> strange that we celebrate Rashbi’s death. We don’t celebrate the yarzheit of
> Avraham Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, David HaMelech, or any other great people
> with bonfires. Rather, halakha states the opposite - to fast on a yahrzeit,
> especially on those days that great people died. This problem is addressed
> by the Sho’el u-Meshiv (5:39) and because of this question and others, he
> was very skeptical of the celebration that takes place at Meron. R. Aryeh
> Balhuver, in his Shem Aryeh (no. 13), points out that because of the
> celebration that takes place at Meron for Rashbi, people began to be lenient
> about fasting on the yarzheit of their parents.
>
> Another problem is that neither Chazal nor any of the Rishonim mention
> Rashbi dying on Lag Ba-Omer; and as a general rule we do not make any form
> of a Yom Tov on a day that is not mentioned in Chazal. This issue was
> addressed by the Chatam Sofer in his teshuvot (Y.D. 233) and because of
> this, he too was very skeptical of the way Lag Ba-Omer is celebrated.
>
> The late Meir Benayahu z"l and, more recently, R. Yaakov Hillel, confirmed,
> based on many early manuscripts that this reading that does not have Rashbi
> dying on Lag be-Omer, is the correct reading from the writings of R. Chaim
> Vital. Recently, R. Yaakov Hillel printed the *Sefer Shaar Ha-Tefilah *from
> a manuscript of R. Hayyim Vital’s actual handwriting, and in that location
> (p. 312), as well, the passage states that it was the day of Simchat Rashbi,
> not the day he died.
>
> Interestingly, the Chida in his work *Birkhei Yosef*, printed in 1774,
> writes that Rashbi died on Lag Ba-Omer. But in a later work of his, Ma’aret
> Ayin, printed in 1805, he writes that the Prei Etz Chaim is full of mistakes
> and this statement regarding Lag Ba-Omer and Rashbi’s death day is one of
> them. So the Chida’s conclusion is that it is not a reference to Rashbi’s
> day of death at all. This conclusion is accepted by later authorities,
> including* Takfo Shel Nes *(p. 59a), *Shu”t Rav u-Po’alim* (1:11), and *Tziyun
> LeNefesh Chayah* (no. 65)
>
>
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