Lag B’Omer is the yarzheit of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai. One of the great things that he introduced to us is the Zohar. The Zohar tells us secrets that were not previously known. I once heard from Rabbi Yaakov Hillel that these secrets were only revealed later in time because, as time goes on, our tests in Emunah become greater, and we needed to have certain secrets revealed in order to help us survive these difficult, dark times.
Rabbi Yaakov Hillel said that one of those secrets is the secret of Gilgulim, which are people that come back to this world again. We don’t understand why things happen to people, because we don’t know who they were the last time.
We will discuss two examples Gilgulim, of Rabbis that have a connection to Rav Shimon Bar Yochai.
The Gemarah tells that there was a great rabbi called Nachum Ish Gamzu. His student was Rabbi Akiva, and Rabbi Akiva’s student was Rav Shimon Bar Yochai. When Nachum Ish Gamzu was on his deathbed, he was in a terrible state. His hands and legs had shriveled up, he was blind and deaf and impoverished to the point that there were moats of water around his bed so that the ants would not climb up and eat his skin.
His students came in to visit him, as his rickety house was about to fall down. They wanted to take him out of the house but he told them that first they should take out the utensils, and then him, because so long as he was inside, the house would not collapse. So they followed his instructions. They took the utensils out first, then they took him out, and then the house collapsed. The students commented to him, “Woe onto us that we see you this way!” His response to them was, “Woe onto me if you hadn’t seen me this way.” This is what the Gemarah in Masechet Taanit says. The Yerushalmi comments that when Rabbi Akiva said that line to NachumIsh Gamzu, his response was,
“Woe to me if I don’t see you suffering like this at your death.”
Rabbi Akiva then asked if he was cursing him. Nachum Ish Gamzu said, “You don’t like Yissurim/suffering?”
Rabbi Akiva had a horrible death. His skin was combed off with metal combs.
And both of these stories can only be understood with Gilgulim.
We are told by the Rama M’Pano that in his previous life, Nachum Ish Gamzu was none other than Lot, the nephew of Avraham Avinu. Lot was a great man. Then he went to Sedom and ended up getting influenced. But we can’t disqualify Lot because, together with his two daughters, he produced Ruth, who produced David HaMelech, who is going to produce Melech HaMashiach. So he was a great man, but obviously he had what to perfect. When he went to Sedom, his middah of charity was tainted.
Nachum Ish Gamzu came to a horrific ending. Why? He told his students that he was once stopped by a poor man, while riding one donkey and leading another donkey that was loaded with food and drinks.
When the poor man stopped him, he first started to unload the food and drinks off the donkey and by the time he finished, the poor man had died. Nachum Ish Gamzu then cursed his entire body; that his hands and legs that hadn’t moved fast enough should fall fall off, and that he should be covered in boils.
Why such a harsh punishments for a seemingly slight deviation? Of course, a person died, but how was he supposed to know that this poor person was so deathly ill?
However, Nahem Ish Gamzu was there to specifically fix Lot’s middah of hesed and charity, so he was being held on a very high level in that area.
And regarding his house, he knew that it wouldn’t collapse while he was in it, based on his intuition. Just as Lot was saved Sedom, and the city couldn’t be overturned until Lot left, Nachum Ish Gamzu knew his house wouldn’t fall until he left it.
There is another famous story of Nachum Ish Gamzu. He once had a chest full of jewels that he was supposed to bring to a king, but an innkeeper discovered the chest,, stole the jewels, and replaced them with dirt.
When Nachum Ish Gamzu came to the king with a chest full of dirt, he said, “Gam Zu LeTova- it’s all for the good.”
Sure enough, G-d sent an angel, who looked like one of the kings advisers, to tell the king that perhaps it was magical dirt from Avraham Avinu, that would turn into arrows and swords. Avraham had used that dirt in the war he fought to save Lot.
The dirt proved to be magical, and Nachum was saved.
So here again, Nachum, who was Lot, was being saved by this magical dirt.
Any time there is a Gilgul, there are many correlations between the previous life and this one. We just don’t know what they are. The Zohar and Kabbalists gave us a little insight into some of them, in order to make life easier for us. We don’t understand what is going on in our lives, or why things don’t work out the way we want them to. But Nachum Ish Gamzu said, “Woe to me, if I wasn’t seen this way!” He meant that then he wouldn’t be perfecting himself.
And when he told Rabbi Akiva, “Woe to you,” he meant that he also had something to perfect.
Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students died during the Omer, and he died a terrible death by the Romans.
Who was Rabbi Akiva?
Many years earlier, in the desert, Zimri committed a sin with Kozbi and 24,000 people from his tribe died.
The Kabbalists say that Rabbi Akiva was a Gilgul of Zimri.
Zimri, in his final moments, was sinning while enjoying a pleasure of skin, so the next time around (as Rabbi Akiva), his skin was combed off, in order to atone for that. That’s why Nachum Ish Gamzu told him that line, “Woe me if I don’t see you this way.”
And the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva were those 24,000 men that sinned by Shechem, and that’s why they died and came back as Rabbi Akiva’s students- in order for him to teach them Torah. They eventually died because of a lack of respect (as judged on their high-level) in order to fix their previous sins.
These are two fascinating Gilgul stories.
We talk about them on Lag B’Omer because Rav Shimon Bar Yochai was the one that reveled these things to us.
If you take the word Gilgul, which also spells Galgal, and switch the letters around, it spells Laglag, which refers to Lag B’Omer, because Rav Shimon bar Yochai was the one that revealed these secrets to us. The reason why we celebrate his death (we don’t celebrate any other Sadik’s death- on the contrary, we fast), is because he introduced the concept to us that nothing is bad. That is why he didn’t want people to mourn his death. He wanted people to celebrate, because he was able to see things from a such a vantage point. He truly understood the legacy of Nachum Ish Gamzu who said,”Gam Zu LeTova - This, too is good”
Rabbi Akiva said, “Whatever God does is for the good.”
He was once traveling through a town and had nowhere to sleep. No one would take him in. So he went out to sleep in the desert. He had a donkey, a rooster, and a candle with him. The candle blew out from the wind, the rooster and donkey were both attacked, and he was left with nothing.
When he went back into the town the next day, he discovered that bandits had destroyed the city. Had he slept in the town, he would have been killed. If he had his candle, his donkey or his rooster, they would have heard or seen him, and he would not have been saved. But he said, “Everything that God does is for the good.”
There are 50 days in the Omer. It is interesting that Lag B’Omer comes out on the 33rd day. 50-33= 17, which is the numerical value of the word Tov/Good, meaning that this too is for the good. Lag B’Omer is a time to put on our special Gam Zu LeTova glasses.
B’ezrat Hashem, we should all only see the good and when we say Gam Zu L’Tova, it truly is Tova.
Have a wonderful day, a wonderful Lag B’Omer and a Shabbat Shalom.