We are in the period of the Omer (sheaf offering). The period of the Omer is really a tumultuous time in the Jewish calendar. It started with something very positive. The Omer is the Korban (offering) that they used to bring the day after Pesach, in crescendo, going up all the way to Shavuot. So it is a period that unites the holiday of Pesach with the holiday of Shavuot: coming out of Egypt with receiving the Torah, which is the main purpose of coming out of Egypt and becoming a nation. So it is a happy time. It is a connector. It is someone going up the stairs, somebody growing in their spirituality. All of a sudden, during the rabbinic period, there was a tragedy that we will discuss, and that tragedy completely changed the happiness of the time of the Omer into something negative. Some people even use the time of the Sefirah, what they call the time of the Sefirah, the time of the counting, as something negative. People mourn during this period as part of a national mourning period for the Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people).
This is a narrative from the Gemara in Masechet Yevamot. The Gemara tells us that 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died during this period. Now, how do you change something that is almost like a biblical commandment to be happy into a Rabbinic commandment? And why do we still observe this period of mourning? There was an incident approximately 2000 years ago. We are very sorry and very sad about it. There was a big risk that, since the students of Rabbi Akiva died, maybe there was no Torah left for us today. But thank God, 2000 years later, here we are. Why are we still mourning that? Why is this mourning relevant? Why is it important for us now?
There is actually one of the Geonim, Rav Sherira Gaon, who wrote letters. In those letters, he says something interesting. He says something a little different from what the Gemara says. The Gemara says they died through a mysterious disease called diphtheria. But Rav Sherira Gaon says it was actually through diphtheria. The war, a religious war, a time of Shemad (a religious war), that they died. Now, we know that in the time of Rabbi Akiva there was only one religious war, and it is called the revolt of Bar Kokhba. So let me explain what the revolt of Bar Kokhba was. 62 years after the destruction of the second temple, the Jews who remained in Israel decided to revolt against the Roman Empire. They got together with Bar Kokhba, and it was a failure. They tried, but it did not work. It ended with the famous battle in Beitar, where many Jews died. That was the end of the revolt of Bar Kokhba. According to Rav Sherira Gaon, the students of Rabbi Akiva were either warriors or participating in the revolt of Bar Kokhba, and they died as a result of the revolt.
Now, why is that important? The Rambam and other sources tell us that it was a calamity. It was a mourning for the Klal Yisrael as severe as, or more severe than, the destruction of the temple. Why was that? I think we could put everything together and think in the following way. It happened 62 years after the Churban Beit Sheni, after the destruction of the second temple, which means that perhaps, in the minds of the Jews, the reason they made this revolt was that they were trying to mimic what was happening between the first temple and the second temple. There were 70 years between the first temple and the second temple. They thought perhaps that after the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (Temple), there would be a similar period of time, 60, 70 years, and they would rebuild the third Beit HaMikdash. So they made a revolt in order to start a campaign to rebuild the third Beit HaMikdash. But it did not work. Their hope was to repeat the history from the first to the second Beit HaMikdash, and from the second Beit HaMikdash to the third Beit HaMikdash. They thought they were going to be successful and rebuild the third Beit HaMikdash the same way they rebuilt the second Beit HaMikdash. But the revolt was not successful. As a result of the calamity of the failure of this revolt, 50 forts were destroyed, 985 settlements were destroyed, and 580,000 Jews died. On top of that, there was no rebuilding of the third Beit HaMikdash. That is the severity and seriousness of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Because after that, there was really no more hope for rebuilding a Jewish presence in Israel and the third Beit HaMikdash. It was really a moment of facing the reality that Jews were going to leave Israel, that they were destroyed as a nation, and that it was probably the end of the Jewish people. We know the rest of the story, and we are still around, thank God, Baruch Hashem (thank God).
But the seriousness of the moment is really what we mourn. It is not really about maybe the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva. It is about the Jewish people. It is about what they represented. Because they were part of the rebels in the story of the revolt of Bar Kokhba, and they failed in their mission, that marked the end of an era of connection between the Jewish people, the land of Israel, and the Beit HaMikdash, and of full authority over the land. It started a long, long period of exile that we are still in. And we are still observing this Avelut (mourning), I believe. It is not just the death; it is because of what it brought with it. We are still in this Galut (exile), although this month and this period of the Omer are so interesting. It is an emotional and historical roller coaster. Also, during the month of Iyar that we are in, we have Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron, which are difficult days. But at the same time, we have Yom HaAtzmaut, and we know that the state of Israel was voted in by the UN during the Sefirah. So this time of the Sefirah has these high moments of happiness and difficult moments at the same time. It is both a time when we get ready for Shavuot and a time when we still observe the Avelut, because it is a historic tragedy that, to this day, we are still not completely reunited in our land. And therefore this emotional roller coaster is still what we are living today.
I believe we are living in historic times today, of biblical perspective and proportions. In the same way, we are now at war and having difficulty with what is happening in Gaza and in Israel. Be'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), we pray that we go from that emotional roller coaster, from the positive to the negative. Now we are going to go from the negative to the positive. Be'ezrat Hashem, the Hachamim were very smart. They said, “You have to make a national mourning forever.” Why? So that we remember the source of the problem. And the Hachamim told us there was no Kavod between the people, because there was no respect between the people, between us. So if we stay united, we can stand, and that is what we have to learn today. We should be able to restore that, and this month of Iyar and this time of the Sefirah should be a time when we celebrate by being united.