3 minute read
Free Birds by Rav Moshe Weinberger 7
Dear Readers,
In the Zohar, many times before Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai shares a particularly important revelation, the Zohar prefaces that revelation by saying that Rabi Shimon would cry. It is only after he cries that he shares the revelation.
This Lag B’Omer, we all cried.
Many cried when the first joyous videos of the festivities in Meron made their rounds on early Thursday afternoon. After the trials and tribulations of the past fourteen months, this, in a sense, felt like the surest sign that life in the Holy Land was about to resume once again. The sight of tens of thousands dancing in unison, davening, hoping, and celebrating Yiddishkeit reminded us of the resilience of our nation.
They were happy tears.
Then, unfortunately, came the bitter, bitter tears.
Words can’t describe these tears.
Many only cried in their hearts, perhaps too overwhelmed or scared to fully grasp what happened.
Many cried openly, their hearts wrenching with tsunamis of pain.
But even as we grieved, many still had the tune playing in their heads, “Bar Yochai nimshachta ashrecha…”
It was Rabi Shimon’s faith in Yidden that led him to declare, “Ki lo tishachach mipi zaroh – the Torah will never be forgotten.”
It was Rabi Shimon’s steel conviction in the just ways of Hashem that enabled him to explore the deepest secrets of Torah while burrowed in a cave for thirteen years.
It was Rabi Shimon who reached the highest spiritual levels, yet taught us that even the Jew who seems to be on the lowest level is kodesh kedoshim.
It was the song of Rabi Shimon that even in these tragic moments played – unwittingly, subconsciously – in our heads even as we were crushed by the devastating tragedy.
As a nation, and individually, we grieve for the forty-five korbanos who died minutes after being mekabel ohl malchus Shamayim and shortly after singing “Ana
Hashem hosheya nah, ana Hashem hatzli-
cha nah,” words that are usually said somberly but are sung joyously at the hilula of Rabi Shimon. We mourn the forty-five souls that were taken from us so suddenly. And we are heartbroken for their families who are going through unimaginable pain.
Our only hope is that, just like Rabi Shimon’s crying in the Zohar, may Klal Yisroel’s tears over this tzaar be the precursor for a revelation – the ultimate revelation by Hashem – with the coming of Mashiach.
May we share in besuros tovos, Shoshana
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