Lag B’Omer is very strongly connected to Bitachon as we will see from Rav Shimon Bar Yochai’s life.
R Abraham Schorr writes in his sefer that Rav Shimon Bar Yochai is one of our strong role models in Bitachon.
We know that the manna in the desert was the ultimate of lessons in Bitachon. Just by relying on Hashem, without doing any work, Hashem sustained us with the manna.
(The Gemara mentions that Rav Shimon Bar Yochai was like that manna. He went into a cave and survived for years on nothing but water from a brook and a carob tree. )
So the first lesson we can draw from this is that when rely on Hashem and dedicate ourselves to Him, and Hashem provides.
This might be too hard a lesson for us to apply today. It may not apply to us, the masses.
There is though, possibly a greater lesson for us in what happened when he came out of the cave. He had been in the cave for many years. He learned day and night while covered in sand. He had saved his only set of clothing solely for prayer. So after this long stay in the cave, he came out with cracked skin. When he came out he went to a bath house. His father in law tended to his cracked skin and cried at the sight of it. A tear fell into one of the cracks and stung Rav Shimon, who screamed out in pain. His father in law said, “Woe to me to see you like this.” Rav Shimon replied “Woe to me if you hadn’t seen me like this.” Because he knew that everything that he had become was because of his suffering. He accomplished so much through that hardship, if it hadn’t happened he’d be worse off.
He became of the greatest men ever.
In fact, when we sing in Pizmonim נעשה אדם ....
We say “When G-d said I want to make man, he meant Shimon Bar Yochai.” He was one of the greatest of men.
He lived like Adam before the sin. He devoted his life to the service of Hashem.
While we can’t really apply the first lesson,
There are those can can draw from the אכלי המן, but they are the few. We the masses can’t really apply those lessons. As the rabbis say, the masses follow and weren’t successful.
This second lesson is more applicable to us:
Rav Shimon Bar Yochai didn’t bemoan or regret the challenges he went through. He realized that life wouldn’t be as it was without them.
He learned this from his Rebbe, Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva had that resilience and was able to overcome all of his challenges. And Rabbi Akiva’s Rebbe did this so well that he was known as Nachum Ish Gamzu because he was always saying Gam Zu L’Tova (this too is for the best)
The Gemarah says about Nachum Ish Gamzu that one who relies on Hashem and is able to see the good, he gets to see miracles. He realized everything is for the good, Hashem saves him in miraculous ways
There is a remez/hint to this theme of Lag B’Omer in the numbers.
There are fifty days total of the sefira/counting.
Lag=33 so we subtract 33 from 50. We are left with 17 which is the numerical value of טוב - Good
Lag B’Omer is turning point, where we can see that suffering and even death is all for the good.
Rav Shimon Bar Yochai is the only Sadik that ever said to celebrate his yarzheit. Most people look at death as a sad day to be mourned. But he was able to see that even death is good and positive.
May we learn from his lessons and get the Bitachon that he had.