[Avodah] Why we mourn during the omer Model" in New Jersey: Rabbi Aaron Kotler

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Mon May 25 15:24:17 PDT 2020


The first two se'ifim in the Arukh haShulchan mention two reasons:
talmidei R' Aqiva and the Crusades.

But I think one can go earlier.

The omer is a special time in Avodas BHMQ. But unlike other times when
there are special qorbanos, there is no issur aveilus. The omer is the
one time we are permitted to mourn the loss of a special qorban.

And then, a generation after losing the BHMQ to sin'as chinam, R Aqiva
rebiulds talmud Torah. But we hadn't learned enough. The students aren't
guilty of outright sin'as chinam, but they still lacked kavod.

A period when people were already feeling the absence of the joy of the
qorban omer became a period when they had to face the truth that they
weren't ready yet.

The death of talmidei R Aqiva stirred all that up again.

It wasn't "just" the death of 24,000 of the best and the brightest. It
was the death of the hope they brought.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 46th day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   6 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Netzach sheb'Malchus: How can some forms of
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                       "unity" be over domineering?


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