Good morning, everybody. Welcome to class number 100, in memory of Max Tawel, alav hashalom (peace be upon him), on his first yahrzeit. We're having a special Lag BaOmer edition, as tonight is Lag BaOmer. Lag BaOmer is very strongly connected to Bitachon (reliance on God), as we'll see in a moment from Rav Shimon bar Yochai's life. Rav Avram Shor writes in his sefer that Rav Shimon bar Yochai is one of our strong role models in Bitachon. What is the ultimate Bitachon lesson? It was the manna in the desert. We were able to dedicate ourselves to God at a very high level, without working, without doing anything, just with reliance on God. Again, this is not suggested for most people today. As we know, the Gemara mentions Rav Shimon bar Yochai as an approach to life, but not for the masses.
Rav Shimon bar Yochai is like the man. He goes into a cave and survives for 12 to 13 years without anything. Hashem creates a brook, Hashem creates a carob tree, and he survives. So our first lesson from Rav Shimon bar Yochai is that we rely on Hashem, dedicate ourselves to Him, and He provides. That's lesson number one. It's a very important lesson. But there's possibly a greater lesson of Bitachon from Rav Shimon bar Yochai. After his long stay in the cave, he came out, and all his skin was cracked because, if you remember the story, he had only one pair of clothing. Therefore, he would stay with his neck under the sand, learning all day and night, and he would put on his clothing only for prayer. His skin was cracked because of that. When he got out, he went into a bathhouse, and his father-in-law was helping him. His father-in-law cried when he saw all the cracks on his skin. One of the tears fell into a crack, and tears have a salty consistency, so it caused more pain. Rav Shimon bar Yochai screamed out in pain. His father-in-law said, “Woe to me that I see you like this. This is horrible. Look how you're suffering.” His response was, “Woe to me if you didn't see me like this. I only became what I became because of this.”
Rav Shimon bar Yochai became one of the greatest men of his generation, one of the greatest men of all time. In one of the Pizmonim (liturgical songs), we say, “When God said, ‘I want to make man,’ he made a man like Rav Shimon bar Yochai.” He was one of the greatest of men. He lived his life like Adam HaRishon before the sin. He was dedicating himself just to Torah and Mitzvot (commandments). So we can learn more from Rav Shimon bar Yochai's second approach to life than from the first lesson. Relying on Hashem to the point that we don't have to work at all and put ourselves in the category of Ochlei HaMan, those that eat the manna, is definitely not for the masses. There are people who can live that way, but we're talking to the masses. As the Gemara says, the masses followed him and were not successful.
But the second lesson is for everybody. Rav Shimon bar Yochai's lesson is that when a person is going through a challenge, not only does he not bemoan the challenge, but he says, “If life were any different from the way it is, that would be a bemoaning situation.” This is a lesson of Rav Shimon bar Yochai. He actually learned this lesson from his teacher, Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva also had that attitude and approach and that resilience. He was able to overcome all situations and always said something. Rabbi Akiva's rabbi got the nickname Gamzu because of what he always said in all situations. The Gemara says that the one who says this is Melumad B'Nissim, miracles happened to him. He has a positive attitude, and he realizes everything Hashem does is for the good. Hashem saves him in miraculous ways.
There are themes here, and our rabbis tell us a very interesting Remez (a little hint). There are four parts of Torah: Pshat (plain meaning), Remez, Drush (interpretation), and Sod (secret meaning). So we'll give you a little Remez, a little hint. There are 50 days total in Sefirat HaOmer. If you subtract 33, you're left with 17. 17 is the numerical value of Tov, which is good. That means that Lag BaOmer is the turning point. We realize that even the death of Rabbi Akiva's students, even the suffering of Shimon bar Yochai, and even the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai are Gam zu letova. He's the only tzaddik (righteous person) who said, “Celebrate my yahrzeit.” Death is a sad event, mourning somebody who passes away. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said no. On my yahrzeit, everyone's going to celebrate, because everything is good and everything is positive. Those were the lessons of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. May we learn from his lessons, Be'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), and get the Bitachon that he had.