Okay, I'll make it clear the subject is Lag BaOmer. Even though we are already a few days after Lag BaOmer, but it doesn't matter. First of all, we have to prepare ourselves for next year, so we have to know what Lag BaOmer is. Plus, even after the day, we still have to learn about it, like we learn all year round in Chumash or in Gemara or in Shulchan Aruch, we learn הלכות פסח, even though it's not during Pesach. So, it doesn't matter if we learn a little bit later. Especially, it's still, it's been within a few days of Lag BaOmer. First, just let's go through the reasons of why Lag BaOmer is a Yom Tov. What is the reason for the celebration of Lag BaOmer? So, we know the two famous reasons, and they are: one is that this is the day that the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying. We know that Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 students. Again, 24,000, that's a large, large number. 24,000 students that all died within the period of Sefirah, in the period when they count the Omer. And the reason they died, it says, is because לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, because they didn't respect each other, they didn't behave with good respect to each other. Hashem, so to speak, punished them and they died within the period of Sefirat HaOmer, when they count the Omer. And Lag BaOmer was the day they stopped dying. There are different, different opinions of exactly when this took place. Some say that they stopped dying on Lag BaOmer, but they started dying right when Sefirah started. And one opinion is that they started dying on Rosh Chodesh Iyar, and it went all the way to Shavuos, but on the day of Lag BaOmer, that day itself, they stopped. It's all based on one point. We know that they died only for 33 days out of the Omer. Now, which 33 days, that's the subject, that's the question. So, some say it started right from the beginning of Sefirah, which is from the beginning of Pesach, the second day of Pesach, and they died all the way through till Lag BaOmer, till that 33 days. And therefore, those are the days of mourning, because we know we mourn during Sefirah, certain things we don't do, we can't get married, we can't take a haircut, we don't listen to music. It's those 33 days till Lag BaOmer. After that, after Lag BaOmer, since they stopped dying, there is no reason to mourn, and you're allowed to do all these things. The other opinion is that they started dying on Rosh Chodesh Iyar, and they died for 33 days from there. Therefore, according to this opinion, till Rosh Chodesh Iyar, you're allowed to hear music and you're allowed to take a haircut, get married, etc., etc. So, some people have this Minhag, some people have that Minhag, and they're both just as good. The only thing is, you shouldn't put the two Minhagim together and be Meikil, that there are some people that they do all this till Rosh Chodesh Iyar and then from Lag BaOmer, and that you can't do. If you keep it from Rosh Chodesh, it has to go all the way to שלושת ימי הגבלה, so three days before Shavuos. If you start from the beginning, if you want to, after Lag BaOmer, do all these things, then you have to start from the beginning of Sefirah. Truth is, the first few days are not included because it's Yom Tov, Chol Hamoed, so then you're allowed to, you can't get married anyway, but you can't take a haircut anyway, but you're allowed to listen to music, etc. But basically, what I'm trying to talk about here is not about Sefirah, but about Lag BaOmer. So, Lag BaOmer is the day where the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying, and that's why it's a simcha, it's a special occasion, a special celebration. We could imagine, just put ourselves in the position of that period, imagine if we have lived there, and the tragedy that took place, that within a small period there was an epidemic, and 24,000 of the greatest scholars of the generation died just like that. Imagine what kind of sadness would have taken place, what kind of mourning. And that's why when it stopped, on Lag BaOmer, the simcha is very great. From then on, every year we celebrate simcha. Then there's the second reason. This is the yahrzeit, the day that Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai passed away. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, who was one of the students of Rabbi Akiva. As a matter of fact, he was one of the five students that remained. 24,000 died, and five students remained alive, and Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai is one of the five. It just turned out that years later, when he passed away, it also happened to be in Sefirah. It's not like some people think that the reason his yahrzeit is Lag BaOmer because he was one of the students of Rabbi Akiva who died in Sefirah. That's not so. He was one of the five that remained, and afterwards When the time for his passing came, it was also during Sefirah, Lag BaOmer. But because his yahrzeit is a great simcha, and this is unlike other yahrzeit, which is not always a great simcha, by many yahrzeit of tzadikim, it mentions the Shulchan Aruch that it's a day of a taanit, fast day. For instance, ז' Adar, seventh day of Adar, which is the yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu, is called a תענית של צדיקים. It's a day that the tzadikim would fast. It's a fast day. Nevertheless, by Rabbi' Shimon bar Yochai, it's not a fast day, it's a day of simcha. And the reason is because Rabbi' Shimon bar Yochai himself said: Please celebrate on the day that I passed away, and that should become a celebration for all the years later. And as we all know the story of Rabbi' Avraham Halevi, that Rabbi' Avraham Halevi, who was a student of the Arizal, used to say every day in his prayer, he used to say נחם, the special prayer that is said on Tisha B'Av. But he felt so bad for the destruction of the בית המקדש every day of the year, that every day of the year he said נחם. He happened to be Lag BaOmer in Meron, the burial place of ר' Shimon bar Yochai, and he there too said Nacham, which is an expression of sadness for the destruction of the בית המקדש. And ר' Shimon bar Yochai was upset, came in his dream and upset, and the story says he punished him, for said, \"You're disturbing Yom Simchati, the day of my simchah.\" So we see how important it was for ר' Shimon bar Yochai that people should be happy on the day of his simchah. And this is the second reason for the celebration of Lag BaOmer. There is a third reason, not a popular one, and that is mentioned in the teshuvot of the Chatam Sofer. And there it says that according to the Midrash, when the Jews left Egypt, the mann started coming down on Lag BaOmer. The Jews left Egypt on the 15th day of Nisan. It says in Chumash that the food that they took out of Mitzrayim lasted them for a month. And therefore, the opinion of the Gemara is and of Rashi in Chumash, that a month later the mann came down, and a month later means the 16th day of the month of Iyar. But according to the Midrash, it did not come down till the 18th of Iyar, two days later. The 18th of Iyar is Lag BaOmer. And because of that, because the Chatam Sofer says, we have a celebration every year on Lag BaOmer. And even though we do not find in any of the sefarim anywhere mentioned till the time of ר' Akiva and ר' Shimon bar Yochai that Lag BaOmer should be any special day, if the celebration is because of the mann that came down, that started about 2,000 years or 1,500 years before ר' Akiva, why don't we find any celebration then? Well, the truth is we find other things too, that the celebration did not start till years later, even though we celebrate something that took place before. Just to use as an example, example of Shabbat HaGadol. Shabbat HaGadol, which is the Shabbos before Pesach, we celebrate for a specific reason, not because it's the Shabbos before Pesach. It's Shabbos Hagadol, the celebration is for its own right. Because the Shabbos before Pesach, when the Jews were still in Mitzrayim, and the goyim heard, the Mitzrayim heard that the Jews are going to sacrifice the korban Pesach, and Hashem is going to kill the firstborn, so it says that on the 10th day of Nisan, and that year the 10th day of Nisan was Shabbos, Hashem told them to take the sheep into their bedroom and tie it to the bed, and the goyim asked, \"What is this for?\" and they told them that Hashem is going to kill the bechorim and this will be the korban Pesach. So the bechorim came to their fathers and said, \"Please let the Jews out, we don't want to die!\" And their fathers and Paroh did not let them, and there was a civil war on the 10th day of Nisan, which was the Shabbos before they went out of Mitzrayim. And that's why we celebrate Shabbos Hagadol every year, the Shabbos before Pesach. But that celebration did not start till years later. How do we know that? Because one of the questions is asked: Every Yom Tov that we celebrate for a certain occasion is celebrated on the day of the month when it happened. So why don't we celebrate every year the 10th day of Nisan? And it says because the 10th day of Nisan was the yahrzeit of Miriam. Miriam passed away, and we don't want to make a celebration on the day of her yahrzeit. But didn't this happen before she passed away? She passed away 40 years later! So obviously the celebration of Shabbos Hagadol did not start till years later when the day already was the day of her yahrzeit. So we see that there are things that we started celebrating later, even though it's for an occasion of before. But then there is another reason, and that is sometimes there are certain occasions that they themselves are not deserving of making a special day out of it. But when it meets up with another special happening, then we start celebrating it. The same thing here, the day the mon came down was a special day, but not enough to celebrate to make a special Yom Tov for it. Years later, when on the same day the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying, and the day that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai passed away, so then we made it a special day and we already included the old בשורה טובה, the old good thing that happened years years before. And therefore it makes sense to say that we celebrate because of the mon, even though for hundreds and hundreds of years we didn't, because after we celebrate it for other reasons, we already include that also. So here we have three reasons why we celebrate ל״ג בעומר. But, like I said before, the third reason is not a popular one, it's only mentioned in some sefer, it's not the one that is known, and that is not the real reason why we celebrate ל״ג בעומר. So the real reason mainly is these two: the day that the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying, and the day of the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. And what we are going to discuss now is to try to explain a little bit, according to deeper understanding, what took place with the students of Rabbi Akiva, and what is the meaning of the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. And being that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the author of the Zohar, which means that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is, as we can say, the father of Kabbalah, the real father, many times we refer to the AriZal as the father of Kabbalah. So we will call then Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, could that be the grandfather of Kabbalah? But he is really the first source of Kabbalah because he wrote the Zohar. So some of the things that we explain concerning Lag BaOmer will have to have a flavor of Kabbalah, a flavor of Chassidus, and the way in Kabbalah of what these days mean.

Let's first get to the understanding of what it means that the students of Rabbi Akiva did not have kavod one for another, did not respect each other. Let's start analyzing that. What does that mean? We're talking here about such great tzaddikim like the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, people who deserved the title talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. If they were not tzaddikim, they would not be called talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. If the Gemara refers to them as students of רב עקיבא, obviously they were so great that they deserved that title, so they were tzaddikim. And how could we say that tzaddikim, such great people, Tannaim! They were all Tannaim! Talmidim of Rabbi Akiva were all the chachamim of the time of the Mishnah. All Tannaim! That they should not have kavod one for another? Especially that they were talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, and usually a talmid tries to follow in the footsteps of his rebbi. If he's a talmid who deserved the title talmid, and obviously he is a talmid of that rebbi, and a talmid of a rebbi means that he follows the teachings of his rebbi. So for sure these talmidim followed the teachings of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva is famous for a lot of things, but there is one statement Rabbi Akiva made which is probably the most famous one that every child in school knows. On the pasuk of ואהבת לרעך כמוך, that you shall love your friend like yourself, Rashi brings, the Gemara says, אמר רב עקיבא, Rabbi Akiva said: זה כלל גדול בתורה, this is a great rule of the Torah. In other words, Rabbi Akiva stressed very much the concept of ahavat Yisrael. Talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, that's the one that be following in his footsteps, and certainly would follow the direction and take the lesson of Rabbi Akiva. So how is it possible to say, how do we understand that the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva did not have ahavat Yisrael, did not love one another, they did not respect each other, when they were such great tzadikim and talmidim of Rabbi Akiva? There must be something more to it. So, what it says, what the Rebbe explains, and the Chassidishe pshat is like this. They were very, very great tzadikim. They served Hashem with all their heart, with all their might. Since they were students of Rabbi Akiva, they practiced ahavat Yisrael to the fullest degree. Obviously, if Rabbi Akiva said this is the greatest mitzvah, ahavat Yisrael, כלל גדול בתורה, so they had the greatest ahavat Yisrael, not like people think, the simple pshat, that these were people that they were lacking in the mitzvah of ahavat Yisrael. On the contrary, they had, they practiced the mitzvah of ahavat Yisrael to the fullest degree. How does one practice the mitzvah of ahavat Yisrael? Well, you help, that the mitzvah is to love in your heart, but how do you express your love to another person? By to help him. That's ahavat Yisrael. You see a person who needs something, you give it to him. You see a person who needs something, and actually he doesn't even realize he needs it, so you have to make him aware of it, no? And you have to help him, try to give it to him. If helping a person physically is an expression of ahavat Yisrael, helping a person in his spiritual needs is certainly ahavat Yisrael. So, if a person knows that this is the best way to behave spiritually, and if I have ahavat Yisrael, what do I have to do? I will come to my friend, who I love, and try to teach him, try to explain, look, this is the best thing, I'm giving you something worth more than money, more than riches. If I would have money to give you, it would be considered ahavat Yisrael. If I teach you and I explain to you what this is, this spiritual thing is, is certainly ahavat Yisrael. 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, each one served Hashem in a different way. There are so many different ways to serve Hashem. Generally speaking, it says there are seven ways, since there are seven middot: chesed, gevurah, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod, malchut. So there are seven ways to serve it, could be explained, explained in Kabbalah, the seven candles of the menorah represents seven types of Jews who serve Hashem in seven different ways. So there are seven ways, we all know that each each one of the seven is a seven. In Sefirah we have seven middot, and there is in each one seven, the first week is chesed, you have chesed shebechesed, gevurah shebechesed, you have 49. Now the truth is we know of 49. In truth, each one of these 49 is made of each one of the 49 is made up of seven, and you go on and on, so in detail, you go through in all details, there are thousands upon thousands of different ways a person is able to serve Hashem. These talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, each one served Hashem in a special way that he felt was the best way to serve Hashem. So what did he do? If that felt was the best way, he was a student of Rabbi Akiva, who taught him ahavat Yisrael, so what did each student do? He'd go to the other student and say, \"Listen here, I want to teach you my way of serving Hashem, it's the best way. I want to help you.\" And they really meant it be'emet, they want to help them. Now the other guy didn't want to take it, because he felt his way is the best. He said to him, \"You know what? But look at this about him! This is the best way to serve Hashem.\" And the third guy says this is the best way to serve, to serve Hashem. And because they loved each other so much wanting to help each other, it turned into a clash that each one tried to persuade the other, and it turned out that they did not have kavod to each other. And the truth it goes even further, because they were students of Rabbi Akiva, they tried to follow Rabbi Akiva in everything. There was something else that Rabbi Akiva said. Rabbi Akiva said, when he died al kiddush Hashem, we all know that Rabbi Akiva was one of those killed by the government, when he died al kiddush Hashem, he had mesirat nefesh, he gave up his life for Hashem. And before he died, he said to his students, \"כל ימי הייתי מצטער, all my life I pained for this, waiting for this, מתי יבא לידי ואקיימנו, when will this great level come to me and I will be able to fulfill it?\" Which means that Rabbi Akiva said that all his life he lived a life of mesirat nefesh, waiting for mesirat nefesh. Now we know that the concept of mesirat nefesh is, means giving yourself up completely. That means that Torah and mitzvot it penetrates into you completely. That's mesirat nefesh really, so much so that you are ready to give everything up for that holy deed. And Rabbi Akiva all his life lived that way, that whatever he did ברוחניות, whatever he did in the spiritual way, the spiritual life, it was built in him and penetrated throughout his whole being, and that was the way he lived it. Talmidim were the same, because they were talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. So every one of the talmidim, when he had his derech, his way of serving Hashem, it penetrated completely into his being. The whole being was he couldn't see anything else. Just like when a person has mesirat nefesh there is nothing else in his being but Hashem and what pure serving Hashem. Talmidim of Rabbi Akiva had that way of mesirat nefesh. So they were so much absorbed in their way of serving Hashem, and then having ahavat Yisrael trying to help someone else, there was no place to listen to somebody else that he's to explain that his derech was also something, because with mesirat nefesh there is nothing else, there's no place for anything else. And it's all because they were talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, it's not like we ask the question, talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, how did they go against the teachings of their teacher? Opposite! This is taking the teachings of their teacher, and because of that, it worked out that there was this clash and later on kavod etc. In other words, what did they do? And also why was it wrong, in that case, why were they punished so heavily? If good, each one meant well, and they tried to help the other, try to give him over his derech in avodat Hashem, what is wrong with it? Why did they deserve to die? Well, there's a similar thing we find by somebody else, and this will shed some light on what happened to the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. And that is the two sons of Aharon. The two sons of Aharon also died. And they were great tzadikim. Simple peshat looks like they died because they did something wrong, they were מקריב קטורת when they shouldn't. The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh explains on this the story of Acharei, of Acharei Mot, where it talks about the death of the children of Aharon, says they were so great that they had, and Using the terms of Chassidut and Kabbalah, which is really based on an expression of Sefer Yetzirah, they had a ratzo without a shov. The word ratzo means running out, shov means returning. A person is expected to run out of himself, so to speak, and go and get close to Hashem. You're expected to do that, try to forget about everything else, about all the gashmiyusdike things, and try to get close to Hashem. And a person can start getting closer and closer and closer, and know what could happen: you get so close that your neshamah leaves the body. What's expected is not that. What's expected is a ratzo with a shov. That means you have to go do it, you have to get close, but not to the point where there is no return. You have to get to a point, the highest possible level, and then return, and that great spiritual level that one reached, to bring it back down and bring it into this world. That's what's supposed to be done. If you don't do that, if you have a ratzo without a shov, running without returning, and then what happened to them, that's what the children of Aharon had, and they died. They missed out on coming back. That's what he explains: they got so involved in the spiritual thing that they didn't realize that you have to relate all these great levels that you have, you have to relate it to the world. You can't go away from the world. Hashem created the world for a purpose, gave us a mission to bring the kedushah into the world, but not for us to go away from the world. So we have to go away to the world from the world only enough to gather the strength to come back and bring it into the world, bring that high level to the world, but not to go against it, not to go away completely. That's what happened to the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. They were so much involved in their levels that they didn't know how to have the shov and relate it into behaving down here with one to another and bringing it down and recognizing that there is a world, and not everything can be spiritual as you expect it. You have to apply this spirituality to the way it is down here, but you can't be in that spiritual level and stay that way, because then you're missing in the שוב. And that's the point that they missed: they had this high level, they were absorbed with mesirat nefesh and a high, but they didn't know how to bring it down and apply it into living in this world. And in that way, they were not like Rabbi Akiva. That's where they missed the point of being like Rabbi Akiva. By Rabbi Akiva we find, Rabbi Akiva their teacher we find, he had a רצוא with a שוב. Where do we find that? The Gemara says: ארבעה נכנסו לפרדס. There were four great chachamim that went into the garden. Now, the garden here means the spiritual garden of having a רצוא, getting close to Hashem. Three of them, it says, didn't come out okay. One of them died, one of them became meshuga, and one of them יצא לתרבות רעה, turned away from the path. The only one was Rabbi Akiva, it says, נכנס בשלום ויצא בשלום. Rabbi Akiva went in in peace and came out in peace. That means, chasidut says, Rabbi Akiva had a רצוא with a שוב. Now, why did he have the רצוא with a שוב? Why didn't they return properly and he did? Because it all depends on how you go. The Rebbe explains, the Gemara's expression is that they all, they didn't come out. Rabbi Akiva came in in peace and came out in peace. So the Rebbe asks the question: the difference between him and them was how they came out. They all went in the same way, so why does it say נכנס, that he went in in peace? It should have said רבי עקיבא יצא בשלום, that Rabbi Akiva came out in peace! The answer is the difference is not how they came out, that's a result. The difference is how you go in. Rabbi Akiva went in, afilu in the beginning, was he knew that he's going there just to gather strength in order to come back. They didn't. They just went, and that's it. So Rabbi Akiva showed that you have to have this great, high spiritual level, absorbed with this and nothing else around, but then you have to take that and bring it back down into this world, and apply it to your friends, apply to know how to live with other people, to apply in this גשמיותדיקע world. And that's what his talmidim did not have. And therefore, they died similar to this to the sons of, to Nadav va'Avihu, or similar to the one that was נכנס לפרדס, went in the garden and he died. So it was, I want to say a punishment, but it was more than a punishment: they just had this רצוא. They went so high, and they couldn't, didn't come back. But it all came because they had this great level, trying also to convince others because they couldn't see anything else but their spiritual level, which is good. A person should see nothing but your spiritual level, but that's just one aspect of it. You have to see it that way and also apply it, which is the שוב, but they were missing in that part. why they died.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, he was one of the students that remained and didn't die. And he and the other five, it says, rebuilt the Torah, because Rabbi Akiva, the yeshiva was the top yeshiva in that time. When the 24,000 students died, the Gemara says היה העולם שמם. The world was שמם, how do you translate that in English? Desolate. Desolate. שמם. Till came these five talmidim, and it says they rebuilt the Torah. Now obviously, since these five תלמידים rebuilt what was lost by the תלמידים of Rabbi Akiva, so obviously they were not with that mistake. They did not make that same mistake. Obviously the תלמידים of Rabbi, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the other five or four תלמידים, they were ones that did not miss out on teshuvah. And out of all five, there is one opinion it was seven, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the main one. For Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai really really followed Rabbi Akiva's footsteps 100%. It says by Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: מידותי תרומות מתרומות מידותיו של רבי עקיבא. My middot, he says, my characteristics are taken from the middot of Rabbi Akiva. He was like an image of Rabbi Akiva. He was like mamash like Rabbi Akiva. So therefore, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, he didn't have this problem, and he got to rebuild the Torah. And it's interesting what the Gemara says, that the world was desolate. The world was שמם. That means there was a ratzon, but it didn't come into the world. So the world didn't have it. And in Chassidus it says in Kabbalah that the difference between the levels, and here we're going to hear a little bit in Kabbalah, the difference between the level of the other students of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the similar difference to עולם התוהו and עולם התיקון. In Kabbalah we learn, when it talks about the סדר ההשתלשלות, the סדר, the order of the evolvement of the אור אין סוף, of the light of Hashem, of the infinite light of Hashem that came from all the way from the beginning from Hashem Himself, and went through the tzimtzum, and then goes through one world to another till it's more, it's less and less and less. So there are stages in between. There is one level which is called עולם התוהו. The world of, how do you translate תוהו? Of chaos, or similar to שמם. Desolate. And then you have the next world which is called עולם התיקון, the world where everything is fixed, everything is the proper way, which is the עולם האצילות. And then afterwards you go עולם הבריאה, יצירה, עשיה. What is it, what happened, what is עולם התוהו, עולם התיקון the way in Chassidus? And again, they are not physical worlds, they are not planets. These are spiritual stages of the evolvement of the אור אין סוף, as קבלה explains. So it says like this: In עולם התוהו already we have עשר ספירות. We know that every world has 10 ספירות, it says in חסידות taken from קבלה. There are 10 ספירות: חכמה, בינה, דעת, חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, ומלכות. In the higher worlds you still don't have ספירות. ספירות is a division of levels. In the higher worlds before, when there is still the beginning of the אור אין סוף, of the infinite light, it's not divided into 10 different parts. First there is no no ספירות at all. And then you have what it says in a world called עולם העקודים, which is all 10 ספירות in one כלי. Came to עולם התוהו, it says there are 10 ספירות already. It was the beginning of 10 ספירות. And of course the next world, תיקון, there's certainly 10 ספירות. But what happened in עולם התוהו was there was שבירת הכלים. I'm not going to explain it, these are just kabbalistic things that it needs a shiur in itself just to explain it, but I'm going to bring the facts of קבלה, like I said, it is from Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai which kind of explained according to קבלה. You have עשר ספירות, 10 ספירות in עולם התוהו, and there was שבירת הכלים, the כלים, the vessels broke, and the light left. But there it stayed proper, it didn't break. And it continued into the next world, which is בריאה, יצירה ועשיה. It says in קבלה: What was the reason why in עולם התוהו there was שבירת הכלים? And it says the reason is because over there there was no התכללות. Like this we know every מדה, every attribute, every ספירה, whatever it is, is made up of a combination of the rest. Like we know, what is the מדה of חסד? It's a combination of חסד שבחסד, גבורה שבחסד, תפארת שבחסד, נצח שבחסד, הוד שבחסד, יסוד שבחסד. שבחסד, מלכות שבחסד. What's גבורה? It's combined of all the others. And being that in תיקון, the second level, there was a התכללות, so all the ספירות could last together. But in עולם התוהו there was no התכללות. Each ספירה was a ספירה for itself. חסד was pure חסד, גבורה pure גבורה, תפארת pure תפארת, etc. etc. And therefore they could not be together. When you have חסד within גבורה and גבורה within חסד, or the same with every other ספירה, so they all could basically be together because each one has a little bit of the other, so there is no real contradiction between one and the other. But when you have pure חסד and pure גבורה and pure תפארת, pure נצח, pure הוד, pure יסוד, and pure מלכות, each ספירה is completely by itself, חסד and גבורה are opposite, so they cannot exist together. And that's why, what happened there, there was a שבירת הכלים. Not that, God forbid, God forbid השם made a mistake and He made something and it broke and He had to redo it. That's all part of the system. Like I said, I'm not going to explain it now, but it's all part of the סדר השתלשלות is that in order to continue to the level of עולם האצילות where you have the התכללות, the connection of all the ספירות, there has to be a state before which is called עולם התוהו. And there has to be the שבירת הכלים, this is part of the process. But I'm not going into that, just telling you what it is, not even trying to explain it to understand it either because it needs explanation. It's not like you go to some קבלה classes, they'll tell you these weird things and you imagine things shooting and light breaking and dishes falling and It's not like that. It needs a lot of explanation in order to take it away from being גשמיות. It's not גשמיות. But that I'm just telling you beforehand, it needs an explanation that's not for now. But this is what קבלה says happened in עולם התוהו. There's another reason why there was שבירת הכלים and the difference between עולם התוהו and עולם התיקון. In עולם התוהו it says there was אורות מרובים וכלים מועטים, a lot of light and very little vessels to hold the light. In עולם התיקון, the next world, is אורות מועטים וכלים מרובים, a lot of vessels and less light. When you have too much light for less vessels, it'll break, just like physically. If you put something that's too hot into a vessel that can't take it, it'll break. You have to have a different vessel, you have to have it shouldn't be so hot, or a light that's very strong shines through something that can't take it, it'll break. So in עולם התוהו, this is what it was. So says in קבלה that the difference between the level of the תלמידים of רבי עקיבא and the level of רבי שמעון בן יוחאי is similar or that represents the difference between עולם התוהו and עולם התיקון. The talmidim of Rabbi Akiva were similar to עולם התוהו. לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, they did not have respect, which means, like I explained before, each one was strong in his way. In a good way, each one in his derech, in his way, his direction, just like the ספירה of חסד in אצילות was completely חסד, there's nothing wrong with it, Hashem made it that way, but the fact that it's חסד all the way, 100% חסד, all חסד, it can't be together with גבורה. And since there is חסד there and גבורה there, and others there, they can't be together. The same thing with the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. Each one was pure what he is, there was no התכללות, there was no mixture, no one was able to have a mixture of somebody else. Why? Because like I said before, each one was about the ruchniyut with mesirut nefesh completely in his way, didn't know how to bring it down and to relate to others, which would turn into a התכללות, and that's why they, just like in עולם התוהו, there was שבירת הכלים, there was this break, so to speak, couldn't last, so the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva couldn't last either. Came Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai started a new derech. His was a derech of being able to take the highest level, because Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the highest, he was greater than anyone of these talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, even of the five that were left over, and one of them was Rabbi Meir, who was the greatest, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was even greater. So if you're so great, so you can imagine how much mesirut nefesh he had, and how much he was absorbed with this highest spiritual, רוחניותדיקע מדרגה of kedushah and אלוקות, גילוי etc. etc., but nevertheless, he had this thing that he was able to take that רצוא and bring it down into a שוב and bring it down into the world. And that's actually the kabbalistic explanation in the Gemara. The Gemara says that the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva died, והיה העולם שמם, the world was desolate, which means it didn't bring it down into the world, plus it uses a term which is similar to תוהו. שמם is the same meaning as tohu, chaos. עולם התוהו, the word is the world of chaos, so to speak. This was a time of chaos, והיה העולם שמם, it was a world of chaos because of the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. Came Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and he was עולם התיקון, and he brought that you should be able to bring all that down into this low world.

And it's interesting, we see that Lag BaOmer is the 18th day of Iyar. י״ח אייר, or, as we will say, ח״י אייר. We all know the famous expression, the explanation of the Frierdiker Rebbe, chassidim in the name of chassidim concerning ח״י אלול. 18th day of Elul is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. So they said that it's the hashgacha pratis that it had ח״י אלול because it was the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe that gave a chayut, gave a new life into Elul. Elul is a time that we do teshuvah, but there are two ways to do teshuvah. You can do teshuvah in a very dry way, in a very, you know, without having the warmth and enthusiasm and depth of chassidut, and then you could have a teshuvah that's with a life of chassidut, and that's ח״י אלול. Same way here, Lag BaOmer, which is of the Rashbi, of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who is similar to the, in the same way the Baal Shem Tov, the Alter Rebbe, that it's all one line, they are the continuation of kabbalah and chassidut and he's the beginning. So you also have ח״י. Also gave a life. He gave a life into Iyar. What's Iyar? Iyar is the second month of the year. Says in kabbalah that first month of the year is chesed, and we see, Hashem took the Yidden out, with chesed to them, so it's a month of chesed. It's like the פסוק it says, זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך, the חסד that Hashem did when we were young, when we started off as a nation. So that was the month of Nisan, he took us out of מצרים. Iyar is the month of גבורה. And not to get into the details again, but all this is really all the things that could happen is based on גבורה. From חסד, these things don't happen, it's from גבורה that this could happen. But came Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and he brought a חיות, a life into the גבורה, into Iyar, that means that the problems that Iyar might bring, the problems that might come, which is with the תלמידים of Rabbi Akiva, came him and made brought a חיות into the level of Iyar. Because he took that high level that they had, but he was able to bring it down. It starts off a day before. We know first you prepare yourself ערב ל״ג בעומר for Lag BaOmer. ערב ל״ג בעומר, ל״ג בעומר is ל״ג, the 23rd of the 33rd of the עומר. The day before, which is preparation, is the 32nd. 32, we all know, is לב, it's the heart. Start off from the heart, the feeling that you're supposed to have in the heart, to bring down all these ענינים into the low מדרגה down here. And it's also, the day before is the 17th day of Iyar, and 17 we know is the גימטריא טוב. So when you prepare yourself looking in a good way and with the heart, you're able to reach that level of Lag BaOmer, which is the level of what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai did to bring it down. This is one aspect in the way חסידות and קבלה explains the ענין of Lag BaOmer.

There's another point which is all in continuation to the same idea, and that is the ספירה of Lag BaOmer. Lag BaOmer, every other day we have a certain ספירה that we mention, is הוד שבחוד. What is הוד שבחוד? I'm not to get into the details of what it is, but one thing is clear: when we talk about the ספירות, and again this gets a little bit קבלה'דיק, when we talk about the seven ספירות of חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, and then you say the מלכות, it says that the main ספירות, or even by a person, the main מדות are the first five: חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד. יסוד is already the way that מדות are to be משפיע, the word יסוד is the מדה of being משפיע, of giving others, that's already going for what you have, giving others. מלכות is already completely separate level. So the main ones are these five. So in the siddur of the Alter Rebbe, I don't mean to the siddur if you daven in, there is a sefer of the Alter Rebbe full of Chassidus called the siddur, and it explains all the ענינים of the siddur according to Chassidus. It says there that ל״ג בעומר being הוד שבחוד means it's the end of all the מדות. Since the הוד is the end of the מדות, הוד שבחוד, the הוד of the הוד, that's the end of the מדות. So basically, ל״ג בעומר, if you want to look at it, the first stage of completion of purifying one's מדות is on ל״ג בעומר. The true completion comes at the end, when you come to מלכות שבמלכות right before Shavuos. But the first stage, which is one level of completion, is when you come to הוד שבחוד. And that's what ל״ג בעומר is, that's the completion of the מדות. And what does הוד שבחוד mean? But הוד שבחוד, הוד comes from the words הודאה, which means to admit, to give in, that's ביטול, קבלת עול, accepting the yoke of Hashem, giving in. And that was the level of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, why? Because what could make a person be in the highest level and still bring it down into this world? If you're at the highest level, how could you think about worldly matters? The only reason you can is because the world is an opposite of the high level of רוחניות. But if a person is in the high level of רוחניות because he is בטל to Hashem, so whatever Hashem wants, he'll do the same. Hashem wants me to wash floors, I'll wash floors. Hashem wants me not to be at the high level, to bring it down into this world, I'll do that too. So the bitul is the cause for Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's high madrega. And that's why the הוד שבהוד is the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Then we find more things just to mention about Lag BaOmer. It says in sefarim a hint for Lag BaOmer is from the פסוק גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך. Which means גל עיני, reveal my eyes, open up my eyes and I will see the wonders of your Torah. גל גימל למד, that's a remez, a hint for Lag BaOmer, למד גימל בעומר. Then we find another place where it says גל. גל is a pile. When Lavan ran after Yaakov, and finally met up with him and they made a peace treaty, they said let's put up a pile, and גל עד, עד הגל הזה, let this גל, this pile be a witness that this will be the border, I won't go across this way, you won't cross to me, it's supposed to separate. Also it's גל. And it says that's also a remez for Lag BaOmer as well. What's the connection? Because Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was the one that revealed, started revealing the inner secrets of the Torah. So that's the first פסוק, גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך, open my eyes and I will see the wonders of Torah. What are the wonders of Torah? The wonders of Torah is the Kabbalah, is the inner secrets of Torah, and that's connected to Lag BaOmer. And the other one, also. What's the idea of this גל? This גל is to separate between two sides. But there are other ways of making a separation, to build a wall. The difference between building a wall and making this גל is when you build a wall, then there is no way you can cross. If you have a גל, it's a sign. It's supposed to remind you not to cross, but it shows that if you have to, you're able to go over. The division that's there between the secrets of the Torah and the revealed part of the Torah, it's supposed to be a division, you're supposed to separate between the two. But at the same time, from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on, that separation became weaker and they started connecting it more. So that's hinted in that גל that was put up, the word גל, to show that as much as there's separation, there is a possibility to cross over, and this is what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai did. And this is really the main reason for the celebration of Lag BaOmer, the realizing that the avodah, the derech in avodah the way the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva had was not right, Lag BaOmer they stopped dying means that their דרך stopped and the דרך of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is the right one, which is the combination of both things: to be the highest level, everyone is expected to work utmost to be the most רוחני, to get involved in Chassidus, to get involved in Kabbalah, and get involved in learning, in נגלה, to try to strive to work on the highest level. But at the same time, that is not You're not supposed to stay that way away from the world. The point is to take all that, apply it, know how to relate to others, apply it down here, know how to relate to this world, and then we have the combination of both, we have accomplished the ratzo v'shov. Mashiach will come, then we all will be at that level, we'll have the highest levels and we'll be able to bring it down to this world. But who started that, where do we see in a very strong way, by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and he gave us the koach, and every year when we celebrate Lag BaOmer, we strengthen ourselves to this avodah, and the more we do it, closer we get to the accomplishment of this level, and this is when Mashiach will come במהרה בימינו. Amen. Any questions? You said that Iyar was a month related to gevurah? Refuah. Right. Refuah is connected to gevurah? Refuah is connected to gevurah, yeah, a lot Chassidus it says refuah comes from the sefirah of gevurah. A person is sick, you have to you know, refuah is when you're sick, so that shows gevurah. Yeah. If there's 400 people a day dying, when did they first notice, and when did they when did What did Did Rabbi Akiva speak about this while it was going on? We only know what it says. This is not mentioned. At least not anywhere that I'm aware of. Thank you all, please. There's plenty of refreshments. Again, we do need sponsors. It's $15 to sponsor refreshments. Next week is Shavuos, the at least the title of the lecture, Shavuos. Following week is Shavuos, so there'll be no lecture, obviously, and then we'll be back first week in June. Thank you all.