Origins
The biblical mandate to count the Omer appears in Leviticus 23:15–6, which states that it is a mitzvah to count seven complete weeks from the day after Passover night ending with the festival of Shavuot on the fiftieth day. The 49 days of the Omer correspond both to the time between physical emancipation from Egypt and the spiritual liberation of the giving of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai on Shavuot, as well as the time between the barley harvest and the wheat harvest in ancient Israel. There are a number of explanations for why the 33rd day is treated as a special holiday.
The Talmud states that during the time of Rabbi Akiva, 24,000 of his students died from a divinely sent plague during the counting of the Omer. The Talmud then goes on to say that this was because they did not show proper respect to one another, befitting their level; they begrudged each other the spiritual levels attained by their comrades. Jews celebrate Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day of the count, to celebrate the end of the deaths. Although there is no Jewish tradition saying that they stopped dying on this day, the Tosafists cite sources that they died on 33 days scattered throughout the Omer period, so the 33rd day was designated as a celebration. This is the view recorded in the legal code of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, 120:1–10.
After the death of Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students, he taught just five students, among them Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The latter went on to become the greatest teacher of Torah in his generation. The day of Lag BaOmer is also celebrated as the hillula or yahrtzeit of bar Yochai, who is purported to have authored the Zohar, a landmark text of Jewish mysticism. According to tradition, on the day of bar Yochai's death, he revealed the deepest secrets of the Kabbalah.
During the Middle Ages, Lag BaOmer became a special holiday for rabbinical students and was called "Scholar's Day." It was customary to rejoice on this day through outdoor sports.
There are those who dispute that Lag BaOmer is Bar Yochai’s yahrzeit on the basis that it appears that in the original texts of Shaar HaKavanot by Hayyim Vital, Lag BaOmer is referred to as Yom Simchato (Day of his Happiness). The day of death of a tzadik isn't generally considered a day of celebration. However, on the day of his death, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai instructed his students to celebrate this day as a holiday to commemorate the vast amount of mystical teachings which he revealed at that time.
Read more about this topic: Lag BaOmer
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