Lag Baomer and Jewish Nationalism

Lag Ba-Omer is coming up and since it is the day of the Hilloula (Yartzeit for ashkenazis) of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, I though it would be appropriate to talk about him and his relation to Torat Hanistar (the hidden Torah also known as kabala) in general.

Who was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai?




If you ask this question to different people, the most common answer you will get is that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was a great mystic. Living in the hills of Northern Israel, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) was one who loved meditation, uniting himself with nature, spirituality, mysticism, separating himself from this physical world etc…

NOT SO ACCURATE!

While it is quite possible that Rashbi was all of these things, this was not his defining characteristic. While all these things can be very productive for someone's connection to God (I am not criticizing these things), this was not what made Rashbi special. Rather, don't focus on the quiet meditation in the forest and imagine a religious, nationalist IDF Soldier!

Let me better explain myself:

It is well known that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was hiding in a cave for thirteen years, with all the food he needed from a Carob Tree and all the water he wanted from a flowing spring. This is the ultimate dream from any Ben Torah right? The best way to serve God! Go in a cave, have food provided and instead of struggling with the world, just dive into the world of Jewish Mysticism.

WRONG!

Let us remember that Rashbi did not go into this cave by choice. He did not try to find some spiritual, mystical “trip”. The cave was not his idea of a trip to Tailand. Rather, Rashbi was one very nationalistic Jew engaged in the revolt of Bar Kochba which was lead by his Rabbi, Rabbi Akiva. After making an anti-Roman comment, Rashbi was forced to flee in a cave in order to protect himself from the Romans which wanted to kill him.



So, what is exactly the Zohar?

The Zohar is the dream of a very special Nationalistic Jew emprisonned in a cave for years, yearning for the day in which Jews will once again take possession of the Land of Israel and rebuild the temple. Since it is a dream (which is slowly coming true), it is written in mystical language.Lets remember that it wasn’t so long ago that the temple was destroyed so the wound of its destruction was fresh, but so was the dream of its rebuilding. When we read the Kabbalah, we can't understand much - because it's hard for us to relate to this dream since we are so disassociated from it. It's so hard for us to understand what a world with the Beit Hamikdash is, even now that we have Jewish Sovereignty on our land.

It is for that reason that the sages have taught (and we see it with our eyes today), that when the redemption will start to unfold, people will start asking for the Zohar once again.

It is interested to note that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was the one who said we should study torah all day and not do any work. The question arises: How can this be the case if we are told to plant fields in the Torah? The Chatam Sofer answers that Rashbi was talking about chuts laaretz. In Chutz Laaretz, according to Rashbi, we should be learning all day and not do any work but in Eretz Israel, working the land is a mitzvah mideorayta and therefore of course we can work the land!

May we all connect to the deeper message of the Kabalah even if we are not at the level to study it. It is said in the Zohar that the learning of Zohar will lead to our gueoula. May our attachment to Am Israel and Erets Israel and the rebuilding of the temple, which is the essential message of the Zohar, lead us to our full redemption, Bimhera Beyamenu.