Rabbi's Derasha

Sometimes I get calls or messages just because I’m one of the last 5% of US rabbis up at a certain hour of the night.  If a problem arises after 11 pm or midnight on the East Coast, a call to a local rabbi might be considered rude.  But on the West Coast, it’s still early.  The OU has a Daily Chizuk Call on weekdays at 1 pm EDT.  I have spoken twice in the last few months.  The first was planned well in advance but this week I got a message late on Tuesday that there had been a cancellation and they needed someone to speak the next day.  

On Wednesday, I shared  something I had said in part for the daily Halacha here on Wednesday morning.   I spoke to someone on the East Coast yesterday who said they were listening and that they enjoyed what I said.  I figured if they still remembered it a few days later, it must have been worthwhile.  

Many people think that the custom to have Matza on the 14th of Iyar is because it is Pesach Sheni.  But that’s a misunderstanding.  The Mishna says that you can have Chometz around for Pesach Sheni.  That is, even if you have to make-up for Pesach, you don’t have to clean again.  You need to eat the offering with Matza but you can have Chometz around too.  Plus, Pesach Sheni is not a national event.  It involves individuals who were unable to take part the first time.  But it’s never an obligation for everyone.    

Rather, the reason some eat Matza is to mark a Biblical event but one that took place before the first Pesach Sheni.  Remember, there was no Pesach Sheni when the Jews came out.  Anyone who didn’t participate that first day didn’t get a second chance.  The only way to survive that first year was to participate.  What event happened that first year?  The Gemora’s count of Matza meals after the Exodus ends on the 14th of Iyar.  That was the day they ate the last Matza.  When people have the custom to eat Matza that day, it’s because they want to mark that event.  

But let’s continue the story.  The Matza ran out on the 29th day after the Exodus, or the first day of the fifth week.  R’ Shlomo Fisher, ztz’l, cites the opinion of the Ch’sam Sofer to connect that event on the first day of the fifth week with what happened on the fifth day of the fifth week, which is the 18th of Iyar.  Today, we call that Lag B’Omer.  The Ch’sam Sofer says that the confusion and complaining in the desert went on for a few days.  And then the Mahn fell.  

So the biblical event that hints at Lag B’Omer is the initial falling of the Mahn.  In fact, R’ Fisher says that Moshe’s command to take a piece of Mahn to preserve for the ages (Shemot, 16:32) also occurred on that day.  Rashi says that that souvenir piece of Mahn was preserved for centuries.  It was brought out by the prophet Yirmiyahu when he rebuked the Jews for learning too little.  The people claimed that they could not learn more because they were worried about making a living.  So he told them to look at the Mahn and to remember its lesson that sustenance comes ultimately from Hashem.  It takes one form or another but it is always from Hashem.  We went from the bread of faith we call Matza, which reminds us of running into the desert at the Exodus with no prospects, to the bread of faith we call Mahn, which sustained us daily in the desert.   

This is why there is an association of R’ Shimon bar Yochai with Lag B’Omer.  It was he who famously said that the learning of Torah should take place regardless of what it meant for the prospects of making a living.  In the Gemora in Berachot, he argued that if people thought too much about Parnassa, they would never have time to learn.  It was R’ Yishmael who opposed him and said that such an outlook was never contemplated by the Torah, which always expected the Jews to maintain their learning at some level while making a living.  The Gemora does not take a side in this dispute.  It only points out that when the masses tried to live like R’ Shimon, it did not go well.  When the masses acted in accordance with R’ Yishmael, on the other hand, things did work out.  But that is not the reporting of a decision; it is an observation.  Which is why there will never be masses of people imitating R’ Shimon, but there will always be individuals who do so.   And the Bitachon, the trust in Hashem, of such people will be associated with the trust that the Mahn taught us.  

Lag B’Omer is always a reminder of the trust we learned at that time.  It was interesting that R’ Meir Soloveichik last Sunday worried about the anti-American tenor of the protests in that they seemed to indicate a weakening of resolve about the ideas at the heart of America.  America seems to be in danger, he said, but the Jewish people are not in danger.  Our ideas are eternal, and the trust we have that they will last should also be eternal.