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

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "Prof. Levine" <llevine at stevens.edu>

>From  http://tinyurl.com/d7b583

....Rabbi Shimon 
Bar-YoHai [RaShB"I] did  not actually die on 18 Iyyar, the 33rd day of 
S'firath haOmer  ....


4. And, even if this were the anniversary of death of RaShB"I,  the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Sofer>h_ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mose
s_Sofer_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Sofer)   Hatham 
Sofer was very much against the idea of celebrating on such a day.  
"Do we celebrate on Moshe Rabbeinu's anniversary of death?"

YL



------------------------------


From: Zev Sero _zev at sero.name_ (mailto:zev at sero.name) 

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




>  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.  





>>>>>>
 
In Sefer Hatoda'ah (The Book of Our Heritage) by Eliyahu Kitov (Tr. R'  
Nachman Bulman) it says:
 
--quote--
THE HILULA OF RABI SHIMON BAR YOCHAI
 
There is an ancient tradition that the demise of Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai  
occurred on the thirty-third day of the Omer, and that the day of his demise 
was  filled with a great light of endless joy through the secret wisdom which 
he  revealed to his disciples that day--and which were written down in the  
Zohar.  That day was to him and his disciples like the day on which a groom 
 rejoices under his Chupah.  Tradition relates that its sun had not set 
till  he had revealed all that he had been permitted to reveal--whereupon the 
sun set  and his soul ascended on High (Zohar Ha'azinu).
 
For this reason the day is marked by rejoicing though the day of the death  
of the righteous is a day for fasting.  Such was however the desire of Rabi 
 Shimon Bar Yochai, and many of our ancient Sages adopted the custom of 
investing  the day of his demise with a festive character every year.
 
Ever since ancient times, candles were lit, accompanied by much public  
activity at the burial spot of Rabi Shimon on Lag Ba'omer.  Rabi Ovadyah of  
Bartinora writes in a letter to his brother in the year 5149 (1389):  "On  the 
eighteenth of Iyar, the day of his death, people come from all the  
surrounding areas and they kindle large torches...."
 
The Ari (Rabi Itzchak Luria) and the greatest of his disciples and their  
disciples--who were greatly learned in this hidden wisdom--disseminated among 
 the people the great virtue of rejoicing in this Hilula.  Afterwards, the  
disciples of the Ba'al Shem Tov--who followed in the paths of the Sages of 
the  Kabalah--also strengthened this custom.  And thus Lag Ba'omer became a  
universal day of memorial to Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai.
 
--end quote--
 
I'd just like to note that pace RZS we do /not/ generally celebrate  the 
yahrzeits of tzaddikim, as Kitov mentions above.  Certainly Ashkenazim  do not.
 
I did once hear of Sephardim having a hilulah for some famous  Sephardi 
godol of yesteryear, I don't remember who.
 
ps "Eliyahu Kitov" was a pen name and in his lifetime I never heard him  
called "Rabbi Kitov."  My father called him, "Reb Avraham." I don't  remember 
his real last name.
 

--Toby Katz
=============
Romney -- good  values, good family, good  hair


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