Lag Ba'Omer Celebrations

The Shulchan Aruch codifies (Orach Chaim 493) that the 33rd day of the Omer is a day of celebration because that is when the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying from a plague, which claimed the lives of 24,000. Rabbi Chezkiah da Silva (1659-1698) in his commentary to the Shulchan Aruch, Pri Chadash, asks

יש לדקדק בשמחה זו למה, ואי משום שפסקו מלמות מה בכך? הרי לא נשאר אחד מהם וכולם מתו! ומה טיבה של שמחה זו? ואפשר שהשמחה היא על אותם תלמידים שהוסיף אח”כ ר”ע שלא מתו כאלו.

There is what to be examined - why do we rejoice? If it is because they stopped dying, what is so joyous? Behold there was not one of them left and they all died! What is the nature of this joy? Perhaps the joy is over those students which Rabbi Akiva added later on who did not die.

The Pri Chadash asks what joy is there in the fact that the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying? There were not any left after the plague ended! He answers that what we are celebrating is not the fact that the students stopped dying, because that was tragic, but rather the fact that Rabbi Akiva was able to start anew, with a fresh crop of students, and was once again able to spread Torah throughout the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Moses Sofer (1762-1839), in his responsa (Chatam Sofer Yoreh Deah 233) explains that the joyous nature of Lag Ba'Omer predates the students of Rabbi Akiva. He writes,

ולפי דאיתא במדרש במיום שכלה החררה שהוציאו ממצרים הלכו ג’ ימים בלא לחם ואח”כ ירד המן. א”כ היתה הורדת המן ביום ל”ג בעומר וראויה לעשות לזה זכר טוב.

Since it is stated in the Midrash that from the day the provisions which they took from Egypt ran out, they walked three days without bread and then afterward the manna fell. If that is so then the manna first fell on the 33rd day of the Omer and it is appropriate to commemorate this date.

The Chatam Sofer explains that Bnei Yisrael had enough food for thirty days when they left Egypt. After the food ran out they wandered for three days in search for food until the manna fell; therefore the manna fell on the 33rd day of the Omer, which is why Lag Ba'Omer is seen as a joyous day on the Jewish calendar.

In more recent years it has become increasingly popular in Israel for people to visit the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Lag Ba'Omer, which is traditionally believed to be his yahrtzeit. Rabbi Yosef Shaul Nathanson (1808-1875), in his responsa (Shoel U'Meshiv 5:39) questioned this practice. He wrote,

אבל באמת שם תמהתי דהרי אדרבא במות צדיק וחכם יש להתענות ואנו מתענין על מיתת צדיקים ואיך נעשה יום טוב במות רבינו הגדול רבי שמעון בר יוחאי ז”ל ובמות מבחר היצורים משה רבינו ע”ה אנו עושין ז’ אדר בכל שנה ואם הזוהר קרא הלולא דרשב”י היינו לו שבודאי שמחה לו שהלך למנוחה אבל אותנו עזב לאנחה.

In truth I questioned (the practice of celebrating the memory of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Lag Ba'Omer) for on the contrary, when a righteous and wise man dies, one should fast. We fast when the righteous die, so how can we make a holiday commemorating the death of our great rabbi Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai of blessed memory. With the death of the choicest of creations, Moshe Rabbeinu, we make the 7th of Adar (a fast day) every year. And if the Zohar refers to this day as the celebration of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, that is merely for him, for it was surely great joy for him to go to his resting place, but as for us, he left us in mourning.

Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin provides an answer to Rabbi Nathanson's question in his work, Ha'Moadim B'Halacha (pg 362). He writes,

המציא טעם חדש למנהג השמחה על קבר רשב”י בל”ג בעומר, על פי המבואר בגמרא, שהמלכות גזרה על רשב”י שיהרג בחרב ועל פי נס בטלה הגזירה, ולכן עשו שמחה ביום שמת בידי שמים, ולא בידי אדם, ומטעם זה הולכים אז על קברו, כי הרוגי מלכות לא היו ניתנים לקבורה, ונמצא שקברו מוכיח על הנס.

A new reason was found for the custom of rejoicing at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Lag Ba'Omer, according to what is stated in the Gemara, that the (Roman) government declared that Rabbi Shimon should be executed by the sword and through a miracle the decree was nullifed. Therefore they rejoiced when he died naturally, through the hands of Heaven and not by the hands of man. And for this reason we go by his grave, because those who were martyrs (during the time of the Romans) were not given a proper burial; we go and see that he was buried and it proves the miracle.

Whatever the reason for celebration - whether it be the end of the plague which struck the students of Rabbi Akiva, the subsequent renewal of Torah study after the deaths of these students, the manna falling or the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, Lag Ba'Omer is a joyous day on the Jewish calendar.