Concerning Lag BaOmer, we know that one of the reasons why we celebrate Lag BaOmer is because the Gemara says in Yevamos דף ס״ב עמוד ב׳, and we also find a similar thing in Bereishis Rabbah פרשה ס״א ג׳ and in Koheles Rabbah פרשה י״א ו׳, that שנים עשר אלף זוגים תלמידים היו לו לרבי עקיבא, רבי עקיבא had 12,000 pairs of talmidim, which means he had 24,000 תלמידים, וכולן מתו בפרק אחד. They all died at the same time, which was between Pesach and Shavuos, as the Gemara says in Yevamos there and in Koheles Rabbah. And the reason was מפני שלא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, because they didn't have the proper respect one to another. And on Lag BaOmer, פסקו למות, that's when they stopped dying, as the Meiri brings in the name of the Geonim there in Yevamos, he says קבלה ביד הגאונים, there's a kabbalah in the hands of the Geonim that on Lag BaOmer they stopped dying. And also brought down in the Tur, in the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim סימן תצ״ג. But l'chorah, this story of the Gemara needs explanation, because it's a דבר הפשוט, it's very simple that all these talmidim, 24,000, didn't come in one day. They didn't become talmidim in one day at the same time. It definitely took many, many years till he gathered so many talmidim, 24,000. That means that after Rabbi Akiva started teaching the talmidim, and he became famous in the world, and his greatness became famous in the world, so talmidim started coming to him, and the amount grew till finally it reached to the cheshbon of 24,000 talmidim. It's also understood that this that the talmidim did not have the proper kavod one to another, did not happen in one day or within a few days, a few weeks. It didn't change at once that לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, but it went from madreigah to madreigah. It got worse and worse until finally it reached a point where לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה. So according to this, it's very hard to understand why were they all punished at the same time? Why כולן מתו בפרק אחד? Why did they all die in the same season, in those few weeks between Pesach and Shavuos? L'chorah, if it took a while, and it probably took a long time till they reached this so-to-speak low madreigah of לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, and not all at the same time, and also not all the talmidim came at the same time, so why didn't Hashem punish them slowly? Which means those that reached that low madregah would die, and then when other talmidim reached that low madregah, they would die? But why was it that they all died, all 24,000 died at the same time? And it's very hard to say, it's a big dochak to say, that punkt exactly in these few weeks between Pesach and Shavuos, that's when what we would call נתמלא סאתם, that's when all of the talmidim, all 24,000 talmidim, reached all together this low point of לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, and therefore exactly at that time they all died? It's very hard to say such a thing. Bipshitus, it didn't happen all at the same time, each one reached this madregah at different times, but nevertheless they all died in this time. Likorah, why? So we must say that something else happened at that time, that that, together with the fact that לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, that caused their death in this season, in this perek. To understand that, we first have to understand what is the meaning of this aveirah of the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva that לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה? And as we explained in the previous shiur, that likorah it is very not understood to say the פשוטע פשט that simply pashut they did not have kavod one to another, because these were all talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, and their rebbe, he was the one that expressed the greatness of Ahavas Yisrael, because he's the one that said that ואהבת לרעך כמוך זה כלל גדול בתורה, that's a big klal in the Torah, that's a very important rule in the Torah. So how is it possible that just his talmidim, they were the ones that לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, the opposite of Ahavas Yisrael, which was the main horaah, the main lesson, that their own rebbe gave?

So we explained in the previous shiur that adarbah, because they were talmidim of Rabbi Akiva who taught them Ahavas Yisrael, that was the cause for לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה. Because the Chazal say in Berachos דף נ״ח עמוד א׳ and in סנהדרין דף ל״ח עמוד א׳ and different Midrashim, that אין דעותיהם של בני אדם שוות. The mind, the intellect, the understanding of people are not the same, everyone has a separate mind. So we could understand that the 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, each one understood the Torah of his Rebbe, Rabbi Akiva, according to his own way. And each one felt that the way he understands the peshat in the words of his Rebbe, Rabbi Akiva, is the real peshat in the words of Rabbi Akiva. So therefore, if he heard that another talmid learns the peshat in the words of Rabbi Akiva differently, so according to his him, it was not true, so he couldn't have the proper kavod and respect to that other talmid, thinking that the other talmid is learning the peshat in the words of his Rebbe wrong. And he couldn't just act with derech eretz and kavod outwardly, even though in his mind he would feel that you shouldn't, because then it would be echad b'peh v'echad b'lev. One feeling in the heart and one feeling with the mouth, and that is wrong. And they were definitely אנשי אמת, they were definitely true people, and definitely tocham kevaram, so they couldn't act that way. So if he felt in his heart that the other talmidim doesn't deserve the proper kavod, so he wouldn't give him the proper kavod. So it comes out, because they were talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, that's why לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה. Each one was given over so much to the words of his Rebbe that he felt that if someone learns a wrong peshat in the words of his Rebbe, how could he give him the proper kavod? And even more than that, being that Rabbi Akiva was the one that said ואהבת לרעך כמוך is a כלל גדול בתורה, so each one not only learned the peshat himself and couldn't give the proper kavod to his chaver that didn't learn that peshat, in his mind since he learned the right peshat, and since he felt that he has to perform the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael properly as his Rebbe taught, so the real meaning of Ahavat Yisrael is to help someone else. If you see someone else is wrong, or you see someone else has something that he needs, you help him. You teach him the right way. You give him what he needs. So if he saw that his chaver doesn't have the right peshat in the words of Rabbi Akiva, each one tried to teach the other his pshat, being that he had the proper Ahavat Yisrael. And therefore, if the other one would not accept his pshat because the other one thought that his pshat was right, so therefore it came to a point of לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה. They couldn't get together, they couldn't talk together, and they couldn't have the proper kavod to each other. This is the meaning of what the Gemara says לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה. But according to this, the kushya comes up to the other direction: it's understood that this is wrong, because even though each one understood the pshat differently, and he felt that the other one's pshat is wrong, he should have, nevertheless, had the proper respect for the other, keeping in mind that even though he understands it differently, there is a place for someone else's pshat also. As we know that אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, that there are all the different pshatim that you have, they are all the words of Hashem, so he should have had the proper respect for the other too. And therefore, being that he didn't have, each one of the talmidim did not have the proper respect for the others, that is considered an aveirah, but it's hard to understand that for this aveirah they should be punished with the punishment of mitah, of death. Is it such a terrible aveirah that for that they have to die? Especially that it's self-understood that we're not talking here that each one was mezalzel his friend, that acted the opposite of respect; they just didn't have the proper respect. But it doesn't mean that they did things which are the opposite of respect, it's just that according to their level they should have acted with more respect. As we find in the Gemara in כתובות דף ס״ז עמוד א׳ that you have to do כדבעי ליה למיעבד, you have to do as it fits for you. So for them, it did not fit to act that way, but it doesn't mean chas veshalom that they acted to mezalzel one each other. And especially here we're talking about the milchamah of Torah, that the Gemara says in קידושין דף ל׳ עמוד ב׳ that when you have a milchamah, a war, concerning Torah, which means that the ones that argue are as if נעשו אויבים זה לזה, they become enemies one to another because they fight about the inyanim of Torah, but nevertheless the Gemara says אינם זזים משם עד שנעשים אוהבים זה לזה, they don't move from there till they become friends one to another. And the Gemara quotes the pasuk of Parshat Chukat where it says את והב בסופה, that the end is ahavah. So certainly by the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, even though they didn't have the proper respect the way they should, we can't say that they were mamash oyevim the whole time, they hated each other the whole time.

So it comes out that the aveirah that they did, even though it was not a right thing to do, nevertheless it wasn't such a terrible thing to say that they deserved to die. So the question is, so why did they die for this inyan of לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה? And in order to answer this question, the Gemara stresses the point that כולם מתו בפרק אחד, they all died at the same time. This teaches us that even though we say they died because לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה, nevertheless there was another reason that brought the death, and that other reason is expressed in the expression of the גמרא כולם מתו בפרק אחד, they all died at the same time, because that time was the time that brought about their death in addition to the aveirah that they did that לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה. Now what is the meaning of כולם מתו בפרק אחד?

So we find b'emet in Chazal in a different place where the same expression is used that כולם מתו בפרק אחד, and this is in ירושלמי סנהדרין פרק י״א הלכה ב׳. There it says מעשה בעשרים וארבע קריות של בית רבי, there was a story with twenty-four wagonfuls of the household of רבי, שנכנסו לעבר שנה בלוד, that they entered Lod in order to be מעבר the שנה, to add a month to the year where you need the talmidei chachamim, you need the Beit Din. So they, the twenty-four wagonfuls of talmidim of the household of בית רבי, entered into Lod to do that, ונכנסה בהן עין רעה, and an ayin hara went into them, ומתו כולם בפרק אחד, and they all died at the same time. Now in this story of the Chazal, it says clearly why they died. It says because נכנסה בהן עין רעה, that an ayin hara went into them. And since the Gemara there uses the same expression, ומתו כולם בפרק אחד, as the Gemara uses here concerning the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, we could understand that these two things are connected. That just like over there, the reason they all died בפרק אחד was because there were so many talmidim, twenty-four wagonfuls of talmidim, so this was a reason for an ayin hara, and that brought about the death, so we could say that the same thing is concerning the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. The reason they died בפרק אחד is because at that time, at that perek, that's when they reached the number of 24,000, which is a very, very big number, a lot of talmidim, so what happened? An ayin hara went into them. And this fits to the number twenty-four, just like over there it says that twenty-four wagonfuls of talmidim came, and that was a reason for an ayin hara, here too we find that they had 24,000. And we do find that the number twenty-four has a connection to middat hadin, as it says in the Zohar, in the third chelek, which really is the Idra Rabba, דף קל\"ו עמוד ב', and also there in the Idra Zuta, דף רצ\"ג עמוד א', that the number כ\"ד has to do with din because there are כ\"ד בתי דינין. There are twenty-four houses of judgment, and therefore, since there were twenty-four wagonfuls of talmidim, this was a reason for an ayin hara, and here too, since there were 24,000 talmidim, this was a reason for an ayin hara. And it is no contradiction to what it says clearly in the Gemara that they died because לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה, because they both together were the cause for their death. This that לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה, by itself, would not have been enough that they should die because of that, as we said before, that it wasn't such a big aveirah that for that they should deserve the death penalty, so to speak, and therefore they wouldn't have died for that. But because it happened already at the פרק זה, נכנסה בהן עין הרע, since they were 24,000 at that time, so that's an ayin hara came, and when a person gets an ayin hara, so even if he did a small aveirah, he could be punished for that severely. And that's what happened here, that because it was a time of an ayin hara, that's why they were punished for the aveirah of לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה, that they all died. And even though the aveirah itself was not that bad, but if you combine that with the ayin hara, this is enough for them to die. And also this is al derech like we find in the Gemara, in Menachot דף מ\"א עמוד א', and the way Rashi and Tosafot explain there, that even though to wear tzitzit is not one of those mitzvot that you have to fulfill, which means only if you have a beged, a garment of ארבע כנפות and you wear it, you must put in tzitzit, but it's not a mitzvah that you must look for a beged of four corners in order to have the mitzvah of tzitzit. Nevertheless, the Gemara says there that בעידנא דריתחא, when Hashem is angry, then He will punish even for not looking to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzit. So we see that sometimes things are not that strict. Nevertheless, at עידנא דריתחא, a time when Hashem is upset, then He could punish with a severe punishment even for a small thing. And the same thing is concerning an ayin hara, that when an ayin hara comes, so then a person could be punished with a very strong punishment even for a small aveirah. And that's what happened here. The aveirah itself of לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה was not such a terrible aveirah. As we explained before, it wasn't that they didn't have Ahavat Yisrael, on the contrary, they had Ahavat Yisrael, and they wanted to help each other, and because they were talmidim of Rabbi Akiva and such strong talmidim, given over completely to the Torah of Rabbi Akiva, therefore they acted that way. It was wrong because they should have nevertheless acted with kavod, but still, it's not that terrible to say that because of that, they should be punished. But when the פרק זה, at that time, they reached the number 24,000, which is a reason for an ayin hara, so when it had the ayin hara, so then they were punished even for this עבירה, לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה. And this is similar to what it says in the כתבי האר\"י ז\"ל in פרי עץ חיים, שער ספירת העומר פרק ז', and in שער הכוונות, ענין ספירת העומר, דרוש י\"ב, it says there that the reason they died between Pesach to Shavuot is because those days b'klal are ימי הדין. And it says there, לכן פגעה בהם אז מדת הדין על שלא נהגו כבוד זה לזה. That's when the מדת הדין touched them for not having kavod one to another. So it comes out there too that the reason Reason that they were punished was לא נהגו כבוד זה לזה, but that itself wasn't enough that Hashem should punish them for that, but because it happened during the time when it's ימי הדין. And the same is what we're saying here: it's not only because the time is ימי הדין, but it's also because they reached the number of 24,000, which is a big number, that was a reason for מדת הדין, as we said before, similar to the story in Yerushalmi, that when they were 24 wagonfuls of talmidim, that's when מתו כולם בפרק אחד, because as it says there, נכנסה בהן עין הרע. And because of that, we see another similarity between the story concerning the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva and the story in Yerushalmi. In the story of Yerushalmi it says that מאותה שעה עקרו מיהודה וקבעו בגליל. That from that time, since they saw that ayin hara came and because of that they died, they changed the place where they would be מעבר השנה. They changed it from Yehudah to Galil, because when you change the place, that is a segulah against an ayin hara. And the same thing here, too. It says after the 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva died, it says that בא רבי עקיבא, רבי עקיבא came, אצל רבותינו שבדרום ושנאה להם. He came to the Rebbes in Darom and he taught there. So he changed his place, too, that he left where he was before, and he came to דרום. And that fits to this idea that when an עין הרע came, so just like over there they changed the place, they changed the place here, too. And especially it says he came to דרום because we know that דרום is the place of chesed. צפון is a place of עין הרע, the place of din, like the pasuk says in Yirmiyah in the beginning, first קפיטל, פסוק י״ד: מצפון תפתח הרעה, that from צפון the רע comes, the evil comes. But דרום is just the opposite: דרום is the place of chesed, as it is explained in many sefarim. So here, because they had the מדת הדין, that's why Rabbi Akiva went to דרום, to the place of chesed. But the main point is that he changed places just like they changed the place of עיבור שנה there, so Rabbi Akiva, too, changed the place where he taught the Torah, because in the previous place there was an עין הרע. So now we see how it answers the question that we asked in the beginning, that how is it possible that all 24,000 should die in those few weeks as if they all came at that same time, and it's as if they all reached that low level at the same time, v'chulei, it's impossible. But according to what we said, it's understood that it wasn't because of that. They came separately. They reached finally the number 24,000 at that time, and that's when Hashem punished them because of the עין הרע, and also because it's yemei din, as it says in the Kitvei HaAri z"l. And the truth is the Chak Yaakov in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, סימן תצ״ג סעיף קטן ג׳, brings in the name of the Shibolei HaLeket and the Rabbeinu Yerucham that bichlal those days are days that there's משפט הרשעים, as it says in the Mishnah in עדיות פרק ב׳ משנה י׳, and also he says that it's ימי דין על התבואה, so we see bichlal that this is a time of din. So therefore, at this time, they were punished also for their aveirah of שלא נהגו כבוד זה לזה, even though for that aveirah itself they wouldn't have been punished with this severe punishment, but all the things together, that was the reason why כולם מתו בפרק אחד. U'mesaymin b'tov.