[Avodah] Um,...Hello?! RaShB"I Didn't Die on Lag b'Omer

[Zev Sero]

On 6/05/2012 12:44 PM, Prof. Levine wrote:

> From http://tinyurl.com/d7b583

The link is to a blog by Ya'aqov Ben-Yehudah, who is a friend of mine,
but is IMHO somewhat naive, and under the influence of R David Bar-Haim.
The article he quotes is full of holes.


> 1. One of the bases for believing that RaShB"I died on "Lag b'Omer" comes
> from a manuscript of Rabbi Hayim Vital, talmid muvhaq of  the AR"I,
>supposedly mentions this date as the day of death of RaShB"I. Yet,
> an examination of the original reveals the abbreviation "shin-mem"
> for "shemeth" haRaShB"I (died), to be a scribal error. The original
> reads "sim_h_ath" haRaShB"I (happiness, festive day).

So?  What sort of proof is that?  What is "yom simchas Rashbi"?  The Zohar
(Idra Zuta) tells us that it was "the day that R Shimon sought to leave
the world", the day on which his neshama became "united, grasped passionately,
and bound" to Hashem.
http://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%90_%D7%96%D7%95%D7%98%D7%90


> 2. Leading Qabbalist of modern times, the Ben Ish Hai confirms this notion
> that RaShB"I did not die on this date,...
> 3. ...as does the HID"A.

So claims the article the blog cites, but it gives no reference to be
checked, and I'm not about to take the author's word for it.


> 4. And, even if this were the anniversary of death of RaShB"I,  the Hatham
> Sofer was very much against the idea of celebrating on such a day. "Do we
> celebrate on Moshe Rabbeinu's anniversary of death?"

What kind of argument is this?  The Idra Zuta says that it's a hilulah,
a day of simcha, and this is the precedent for celebrating the yartzeits
of tzadikim.  If the ChS was unfamiliar with it, we are not.

At any event, yartzeit or not, and the Pri Etz Chaim (even in the
"correct" version) says explicitly that it is the day of Rashbi's simcha,
and that when someone said Nachem on this day Rashbi was angry at him,
with tragic consequences.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon