By Yochanon Gordon
We are a people who have unfortunately become accustomed to pain and tragedy, on both an individual and collective level. Any time somebody is forced to face pain and suffering it is unspeakably tragic, and we are there to empathize emotionally and financially, like no other nation that has ever walked this planet, but it has become almost part-and-parcel of the exilic experience and that is extremely sad. However, there was something unique about the tragedy in Meron on Lag B’Omer that has left us universally shaken and searching for answers—the date, the place in which it occurred, and the manner in which it took place.
Lag B’Omer has always been celebrated as a day upon which we mark the conclusion of a period of death and mourning; it is the day when the pairs of 12,000 students of Rebbi Akiva stopped dying from a plague that claimed their lives during the first 32 days of the Omer, and this year it has been marked as a day of death and mourning.
Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai is that Tanna who self-attests to his ability to absolve the entire world from judgment and somehow we were dealt the greatest expression of judgment particularly on his day and amidst the festivities which he so looks forward to year in and year out.
In case that is not enough, the Gemara in Gittin states: “Kedai hu Rebbi Shimon lismoch alav b’sha’as ha’dechak,” which on the Talmudic level refers to a ruling of Rebbi Shimon regarding a bill of divorce that was written by day and signed at night, rendering the woman issued a get under such circumstances, divorced. However, on an exegetic level, Rebbi Shimon has always been that Tanna Elokai whom we could collectively look to when things have not been working out for us; perhaps when our relationship with our Father in heaven has been somewhat strained, Rebbi Shimon has always been there for us. Therefore, the events of Lag B’Omer night, on which 45 of our most beautiful brothers were snuffed out in the most unfathomable manner, leaves us collectively and individually reeling in pain, unable to find respite from the spirit of mourning that has gripped our nation.
As I turned to Torah texts in search for a word or a teaching that could shed some light on what has befallen us, I came across a verse in Daniel. It states (10:8): “So I was left alone to see this great vision. I was drained of strength, my vigor was destroyed, and I could not summon up strength.”
The words “my vigor was destroyed” in the original Hebrew are “hodi nehepach alai l’mashchis.”
The fifth week of Sefiras Ha’Omer, which is compartmentalized based on the seven lower sefiros of chesed through malchus, is the week of hod. The day of Lag B’Omer is the day of Hod She’behod. What is hod and what is so great about Hod She’behod that it is the cause of such great celebration?
In what can be viewed as a sign of hashgachah pratis, or Divine providence, the chapters in Tanya that were being studied leading up to and over Lag B’Omer were 48–49, which includes a discussion regarding the attribute of hod. I was studying those particular chapters using the commentary of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, of blessed memory, who, in his Biur Al Sefer HaTanya includes a long study in contrast regarding the attributes of netzach and hod.
Netzach, Rabbi Steinsaltz explains, is the attribute of victory or eternity. It occupies the right side of the sefirotic map as it is an extension of chochmah and chesed, both of which align on the positive side of the map. Hod, by contrast, is on the left column, and its letters can be rearranged to spell daveh, which means pain. So whereas netzach connotes a situation where hope is clearly on the horizon, hod, which originates in the Talmudic phrase of “U’modeh Rebbe Meir l’chachamim” (from Masechta Bava Kama in which Rebbi Meir aborts his position for the majority opinion held by the sages) describes a contentious situation in which Rebbi Meir and the chachamim saw things in a different light. The expression of hoda’ah can only come into play in a situation where there is contention.
This is the solace that Rebbi Shimon offers in guaranteeing that despite the seeming descent in generation after generation, the Torah will never be forgotten from Israel. And furthermore, on an exegetical level, this is the reliability of Rebbi Shimon to represent us in a time of great need.
So while Hod She’behod is a joyous time in the sense that Rebbi Shimon sits in our defense regardless of how bleak things get in the continual dumbing down of society, it allows for a negative manifestation of hod into daveh or “destruction,” as in the verse “Hodi nehepach alai l’mashchis,” which is an occurrence we are all sitting here trying to figure out.
These are just some of the thoughts that have been circulating my headspace since the news of this tragic incident. It is these sentiments that colleagues of mine have called me to discuss, and therefore it leads me to believe that the contradictory circumstances in which this tragedy unfolded is the hardest part of this episode to come to terms with.
There is a rule amongst Torah commentators that if you want to identify the accurate meaning of a specific word you are best off looking at the context of its first use in the Torah. Well, if that is true with regard to the translation of terms, I guess the same could be said about the characteristics of Divine tests. Avraham Avinu was challenged with ten tests and he withstood them all. However, there was something about the tenth and final test, the akeidah, which bears similarity to the one we have had to endure just a week or so ago. Although it wasn’t Avraham’s first test, it was the one that would have negated all the others that preceded it had he not withstood it in the heroic fashion that he did.
If we review the narrative of the akeidah we will see that Avraham Avinu had encountered more than just one contradiction, making it exceedingly difficult for him to pass the test. Hashem sent his angels to a barren Avraham and Sarah, advanced in years, and informed them that they will bear a son together, a son who will be the perpetuation of his and our matriarch Sarah’s progeny. The couple bears a son, whom they name Yitzchak after Sarah’s laughter upon hearing that at 90 years old she would physically be able to bear a child; shortly thereafter, Avraham is commanded to take his only child and offer him up on the altar.
In addition, once Avraham fulfills the command that was accompanied by obstacle upon obstacle and he foists his only son Yitzchak upon the altar, he is commanded not to lay a finger upon him and to remove him from the altar. However, Avraham, who kept the entire Torah before it was given, knew that once a sacrifice is loaded upon the mizbeiach it cannot be removed—yet another contradiction in the way of dutifully fulfilling the command of G-d.
This is just too significant to be dismissed as happenstance in the mind of any serious or inquisitive student. There is a famous teaching from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, in his Likutei Maharan Tinyana, Torah Yud-Beis titled Ayeh Mekom K’vodo (Where Is The Place Of Your Glory). Anyone who has encountered the Torah of Rebbe Nachman knows that it is difficult to encapsulate his teachings into one word or one line, but if I had to do that with regard to this teaching I would say: the closer we come to the realm of the Divine the more questions we are met with. There is a descriptive term in Chassidus of G-d’s Omnipotence, Nimna HaNimna’os, which essentially means that G-d is all able and that there is nothing that is beyond G-d’s ability to accomplish. However, being the limited creations that we are, bound to the laws of time and space, the more we retain our sense of autonomy while drawing near to the realm of the Divine, the more questions we will inevitably come to encounter by the very nature of our finitude and G-d’s infinity.
The only way to diminish the intensity of the contradiction and questions is to forfeit one’s sense of autonomy in achieving what the Chassidic masters refer to as bittul, or self-abnegation. In a video that was making its rounds, Rabbi Meir Elhadad during the shivah of his sons Yosef Dovid and Mordechai, who were 18 and 12 years of age, respectively, beseeches G-d that his faith in Him remain intact and pointed out that the number 45, corresponding to the number of casualties, is the numerical equivalent of the word “mah,” which means “what,” as in the famous words of Moshe and Aharon “V’nachnu mah,” and what are we that you lodge complaints against us? Rabbi Elhadad was teaching that the only way to make it through such devastating events to the other side, with one’s faith intact, is to achieve negation and ultimately unity with the Divine.
In my speech at our son’s bar mitzvah, which was celebrated at the end of June of last year, I included a teaching of Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh, shlita, that the 13th klal in the beraisa of Rebbe Yishmael is: “And so two verses which contradict one another until the third verse arrives and arbitrates between them.” Rav Ginsburgh teaches that each one of these rules of exegesis correspond to another year in the life of a developing child and culminates with the entrance of that child into the realm of adulthood. Rebbe Yishmael was teaching the defining characteristic of adulthood, which is the ability to see the unity at the backdrop of all contradiction.
In Nusach Ari on the word “v’chein,” which means “and so” there is a nusach acher, a variant version, which says “v’kan, and here.” I have researched it extensively and asked many scholars and I have not been offered a plausible explanation into what the nusach acher represents. When I was davening on the morning after this horrible tragedy occurred, I said the words “V’chein shnei kesuvim” and I observed the variant version of “v’kan” and I acknowledged the presence of two verses, which seemingly continue to be at odds with one another. This gives way to the prayer that Chazal inserted immediately following these words: “Sheyibaneh Beis HaMikdash b’meheirah b’yameinu v’sein chelkeinu b’sorasecha…”
May we merit to see that day and the resolution of all questions and contradictions, soon, in our days.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
