Lag B'Omer - Reason for Celebration

QUESTION: Why do we celebrate Lag B’omer?

ANSWER: Shulchan Aruch (OC 493:2) writes that Lag B’omer is the day that the 24,000 students of Rebbi Akiva, who all died in a plague during one interval, stopped dying. This needs an explanation. If the reason the plague stopped is because all his students had died and none were left, why is this a reason to celebrate? Rabbi Genack offered an explanation in the name of Rav Soloveitchik based on the Gemara (Yevamos 62b), which states that after all his students passed away, Rebbi Akiva traveled to the south of Israel and began teaching Torah to five new disciples – Rebbi Meir, Rebbi Yehudah, Rebbi Yossi, Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai and Rebbi Elazar ben Shamua. Rav Soloveitchik surmised that this too took place on Lag B’omer. On the very day that the last of his students perished in a terrible plague, he picked himself up and began anew. Through these five students, Torah scholarship was transmitted and preserved for all future generations. Lag B’omer celebrates Rebbi Akiva’s indomitable faith and optimism in the capacity of the Jewish people to persist in the face of adversity.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.