The story goes that a Litvak is walking down the street when he passes a Chassidic shtiebel and sees everyone celebrating – dancing, singing, and drinking. Curious, he walks in and asks one of the Chassidim, “Why are you celebrating?”

The Chassid responds, “You don’t know? Today is the yahrzeit of our Rebbe!”

The Litvak replies, “Listen, I didn’t like the guy either, but that’s no reason to celebrate!”

And that, in many ways, is the question of Lag Ba’Omer. Do we celebrate the yahrzeit of a great Rabbi like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai? After all, isn’t that the reason for Lag Ba’Omer and the pilgrimages to his tomb in Meron? Rav Chayim Vital records in the name of the Arizal that Lag Ba’Omer is the day Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai died. But do we throw a party on someone’s yahrzeit? We do not celebrate the yahrzeit of Avraham Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, David HaMelech, or other great figures with bonfires and festivities. Some people make a l’chayim in memory of a parent on a yahrzeit, but the Rema actually rules that one should fast. Additionally, the Shulchan Aruch writes that some have the custom to fast on the 10th of Nissan, when Miriam died, and others on the 7th of Adar, when Moshe died. So why are we celebrating the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai?

Some Rabbinic scholars, including the Chida, Rav Chayim Yosef David Azulai, the eighteenth-century Rav of Jerusalem, suggest that there may have been a textual mistake that led to this interpretation. A manuscript of the Pri Etz Chaim by Rav Chayim Vital states: v’ha’ta’am shemet Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai b’yom Lag Ba’Omer – the reason for Lag Ba’Omer is that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai died on that day, because he was among the students of Rabbi Akiva who died during Sefirat Ha’Omer.

However, other manuscripts contain the word samach instead of shemet – a samech instead of a taf. Samach means “rejoiced.” According to that reading, samach Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai b’yom Lag Ba’Omer – Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai rejoiced on Lag Ba’Omer; he did not necessarily die on that day.

Based on this, the Chida suggests that Lag Ba’Omer marks the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)