Question: What is the meaning of the holiday Lag Ba’Omer?
Answer: Lag Ba’Omer is a special holiday; it is a festival of light, the day when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the author of The Book of Zohar (a work unparalleled in all generations of humanity), passed away from this world.
Within this single book, all the laws of the spiritual world are described, together with the entire network of connections that governs us from above, and determines the whole process we undergo in this world.
The spiritual world is the upper system that activates our world, which is completely governed from above. Our entire world emerged from a single point of the Big Bang, expanded, and developed over 14 billion years.
In the course of this evolution, the Earth was formed with its solid crust surrounding a raging fire. The cooling of this crust allowed life to exist on the surface, together with all surrounding nature.
But the question is not how the still, vegetative, and animate levels developed, but how we develop and where we are heading. This is what The Zohar speaks about. It truly speaks about everything, including the formation of the upper worlds that influence and govern us.
This can also be seen in The Zohar and in the writings of Isaac Luria, the great Kabbalist from Safed in the 16th century. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah has much to say about the counting of the Omer (Sefirat HaOmer). But in essence it speaks about the correction of a person who must transform himself to become a spiritual being.
Question: What must he correct?
Answer: It is written: “I have created the evil inclination, and given the Torah for its correction, for its light returns to the source.” We are initially created from the evil inclination, an egoistic desire to receive, and therefore we consider only ourselves, not others. In this form, the world exists, and we see where it is heading.
The purpose of creation is, that through the process of our development, we eventually come to the realization that our ego, our egoistic desire to enjoy, is actually causing us harm; that we have reached a dead end in development and are no longer capable of moving forward; that we are destroying our lives, our families, and the lives of our children, with no hope for a good future.
Comment: This resembles the current situation in Israel.
My Response: Indeed. But all of this is intended to bring us to a state of repentance regarding our egoistic development, to make us realize that our ego is an evil inclination that is leading us to destruction.
At that point we come to feel a need correction: “How can we correct our nature? How can we treat others with friendship? How can we live in love, unity, and bestowal?” This is the only way can we exist in an integral world, a world where we are all interconnected and mutually dependent. How can we be connected if we are mired in mutual hatred?
In such a state, the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed; it explains what the Torah truly is. For this very reason Kabbalah is referred to as the true Torah. It is through this science that we learn how to correct ourselves. To correct oneself means to relate to others according to the main rule of the Torah: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is well known, yet rarely observed.
To love your neighbor means that I must just as I love myself. This seems unrealistic, and indeed it is beyond human ability. Yet it is written: “I have created the evil inclination, and I have given the Torah for its correction.”
This means there a force called “Torah” exists; it is not merely a book as commonly understood, but a method of correction through the light, as it is written: “its light returns to the source.”
“Torah” (from the Hebrew “Hora’a” – instruction) is also referred to the science of light or the wisdom of Kabbalah. When a person uses it correctly to correct themself, they awaken a force hidden in nature, which begins to operate within them, and they feel how they change.
This is a positive, benevolent force of nature, the force of bestowal and love; it gives a person a good feeling and a kind attitude toward others. Through it one exits their ego, rises above it, and becomes bestowing, kind, and good toward others.
The instant this force is revealed in a person, they begin to perceive reality differently. Instead of this world, one perceives the upper world.
We begin to perceive reality through newly acquired qualities, qualities not of reception, but of bestowal; no longer driven by a constant urge to receive solely for our own sake, exploiting everyone else in the process, but by a desire to act for the benefit of society as a whole. We see that everyone is interconnected like one family, and it is impossible for one to be well while another suffers.
Today we have reached a state where we must embark on this process of correction. We see that it is impossible to continue as before. Consequently, the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed, which explains how we can correct ourselves and build a society connected by good relations.
Question: How is the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer connected to this process?
Answer: This is precisely where correction occurs. Kabbalah explains that our egoistic desire to receive—to absorb everything into ourselves at the expense of others—is an evil force within each person. Therefore our soul is called “shattered,” and we must repair it.
It is known in Kabbalah that the soul consists of 49 parts (7 X 7). There are 7 main qualities, each divided into 7, making 49 in total. Each must be corrected.
We correct them through the light that reforms, a special force that is hidden in nature. During the days of the Omer count, we reveal specific egoistic desires within ourselves that cause harm to others, and we seek to correct them.
We draw the light that reforms and it corrects each of these 49 parts of the soul.
In this way, we correct these 49 parts, from the holiday of Passover to Shavuot. But on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, Lag Ba’Omer, there is a special state. Its uniqueness is that if we reach this stage in correction, we can be assured we will continue and complete it.
For this reason, it was on this day that Rabbi Shimon completed his work and departed from our world, and we celebrate the elevation of his soul.
Question: You say the soul has 49 parts. Can they actually be counted?
Answer: Yes. This is how we perceive them as we correct the soul. Even a simple religious person recites which Sefira he is correcting daily during the Omer, although he may not feel or understand it.
But those who study Kabbalah not only say these words, they realize these corrections within themselves.
Comment: The 49 days of the Omer conclude on the 50th day, the holiday of Shavuot, when it is customary to eat dairy and wear white.
My Response: Shavuot is both the giving of the Torah from above and its reception from below. The giving has already occurred; the reception depends on us.
It is written that every day a person should say that the Torah has been given to him. The problem is only in receiving it, that is, in feeling that I must correct myself, and therefore I need the light that reforms.
Then I accept all the rules of the Torah: to be “as one man with one heart,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” and “do not do to another what is hateful to you.”
Let us hope that ultimately we will understand that we have a powerful force in our hands that is capable of correcting us and elevating us above this entire reality.
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From Kab Radio 103FM
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