[Avodah] Lag B'omer Am Yisroel Chai

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 04:01:06PM -0400, Zev Sero via Avodah wrote:
:> It's observed as a day of rejoicing because qabbalistically inclined
:> communities -- Chassidim, and Sepharadim post-Chida and Ben Ish Hai --
:> find a lot of significance in R Chaim Vital (in the name of the Ari)
:> writes in Peri Eitz Chaim that it's yom simchas Rashbi. And then
:> a copying error turned that into "yom shemeis Rashbi", by dropping
:> the ches. However, it could well be two phrasings of the same idea.

: No typo is necessary.

It happened. Necessity isn't at issue. We know what the older version
was, and there used to be a ches there. "Shemeis" is simply not what
RCV wrote.

:                        What could "yom simchas Rashbi" mean if not
: his yortzeit, which he explicitly instructed his talmidim to
: celebrate as if it were his yom hillula?

Well, isb't that what I said in the last sentence quoted? But it's only
the most likely (in my opinion) possibility, and not -- as you are taking
for granterd -- the only one.

To continue from where you chopped off that text:
> Or perhaps it's the day Rashbi left the cave the 2nd time, or....

Simcha, in the sence that seeing the man carry two hadasim for
besamim -- zekhor veshamor -- yasiv da'ataihu. His simchah learning
with his son-in-law, R' Pinchas b Ya'ir. "Ashrekha shera'isi
bekakh..." Shabbos 33b-34a give you plenty of reason to believe
he was joyous, and wanted to share that joy with the qehillah.

Or maybe R Aqiva started teaching his 5 new students in earnest the
very day the massacre or plague stopped. And therefore Lag baOmer is
the day Rashbi started learning qabbalah.

Or maybe...

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 31st day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        4 weeks and 3 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Tifferes sheb'Hod: What level of submission
Fax: (270) 514-1507                      results in harmony and balance?