The Deeper Meaning of Lag B'Omer

 New shiur from Rabbi Mendel Kessin

Wonders in the Heavens #12

I have a random collection here.

First up, because it is Lag b'Omer, and Hashem gave us a giant rainbow over Bondi Beach yesterday afternoon about half an hour before Lag b'Omer began. [I didn't take the photo]

This video shows the sun with the giant halo

This video shows the moon and another shining object, which could be another planet or something.

Here we have a white UFO.

A very strange bell shape appears in this lightning. I think it is just a cloud, but these days who knows?

Here is that strange shape again, this time in daylight. It is a cloud, but not the kind of cloud we are used to seeing.

Here is a photo from the FAA camera, Larsen Bay Alaska, 22 April 2023. It's a planet!

Moshiach's Rainbow and Lag b"Omer

Lag b'Omer is the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, and we celebrate with bonfires and music.

It is also the yarzheit of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai. [18 Iyar]

This year it is tonight [Monday] going into Tuesday.

Why is Lag b’Omer celebrated with bonfires and bows and arrows?

by Rabbi Yossi Marcus

The bonfires celebrate the immense light that was brought into the world by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai [who passed away on Lag b’Omer], especially on the day of his passing.

The bow commemorates the fact that during Rabbi Shimon’s lifetime no rainbow was ever seen. [Bereishit Rabbah 35:2] Note: This was a good thing because the rainbow appears when the earth deserves punishment. The first time a rainbow appeared was after Noah’s flood, when G-d said that He will no longer destroy the world, rather He would send a sign: the rainbow. During Rabbi Shimon’s lifetime, the world was filled with merit because of him and therefore never saw a rainbow. [Genesis 9:8-17 and Rashi there]

There is a Kabbalistic tradition that on Lag b’Omer a rainbow will appear in a different color, which will symbolize the arrival of the Messianic age [Bnei Yissaschar]

Wonders in the Heavens #11

This is a photo of the moon in Manitoba, Canada, taken two nights ago by Brent McKean.

I don't think any more words are needed here.

King Charles III and the No. 40

As we all know, the coronation of King Charles III took place yesterday 6 May 2023.

He is the 40th British Monarch to be crowned.

40 is a famous number of completion.  Maybe this is the final British Monarch.....

The famous Nostradamus, who managed to accurately predict the date of death of Queen Elizabeth II, also said that the new King would abdicate his throne early, and that a surprise new King would take his place.  

Hmmmm.... I wonder if King Charles III will need to step down to make way for the King Moshiach.

The following text is from Aish.com

The number 40 has great significance throughout the Torah and the Talmud. The number 40 represents transition or change; the concept of renewal; a new beginning. The number 40 has the power to lift a spiritual state. 

Consider: 

When a person becomes ritually impure, he must immerse in a ritual bath, a mikveh. The Talmud tells us that a mikveh must be filled with 40 se'ahs (a measure of water). Immersion in a mikveh is the consummate Jewish symbol of spiritual renewal. 

It is no accident that in the story of Noah, the rain poured for 40 days, and submerged the world in water. Just as a person leaves a mikveh pure, so too when the waters of the flood subsided, the world was purified from the licentiousness which had corrupted it in the days of Noah. 

Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and came down with the stone tablets. The Jews arrived at Mt. Sinai as a nation of Egyptian slaves, but after 40 days they were transformed into God's nation. 

According to the Talmud, it takes 40 days for an embryo to be formed in its mother's womb. 

In Kabbalah, 40 represents the four sides of the world, each side containing the ten Sefirot (esoteric powers). 

When a rabbinical court finds someone guilty of a crime, the punishment is sometimes lashes, prescribed in the Torah as "forty less one." The purpose is to bring the offender to a point of change, transition and atonement. 

There are 40 days between the first day of Elul, when we begin to blow the Shofar to prepare for Rosh Hashana, until Yom Kippur, the end of the annual teshuva (repentance) period. These 40 days are the most auspicious time for personal growth and renewal. 

According to the Talmud [Avot 5:26], at age 40 a person transitions from one level of wisdom to the next. He reaches the level of binah - the deeper insight of understanding one matter from another. After Moses led the Jewish people for 40 years in the wilderness, he told them: "God has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day" [Deut. 29:3-4]. From here we see that it took the Jewish people 40 years before reaching a full level of understanding.

The Great Rain Remedy

The famous 18th Century Hasidic Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, a student of the Baal Shem Tov, writes in his book Nofet Tzufim:

"Rain which falls after the Jewish holiday of Pesach until the holiday of Shavuot constitutes a great remedy for all illness and disease. There's no medicine like it to be found in any pharmacy.

One must stand in the rain, expose his head to the rain, and also open his mouth to let the rain fall on the right side of his mouth."  [seemingly, tilt your head back and to the right]

Why Can't a Convert Marry a Kohen?

by Rabbi Aron Moss

I am a convert to Judaism and I'm very proud of it. I have always felt totally welcomed by the community and in no way an outsider. But I am deeply bothered by the law that says a convert is not allowed to marry a Kohen. If I am a fully fledged Jew like any other, why am I not good enough to marry into the priestly tribe? 

Answer: A convert can marry a king. A convert can marry a prophet. A convert can even marry a rabbi, the highest echelon of Jewish society (if you ask me). So it makes no sense to say that a convert can't marry a Kohen because they are second class citizens. There must be some other reason. 

When the Torah forbids a marriage, it is never because one party is not good enough for the other. It is because the parties are not matched to each other. They are simply not soulmates. In the case of the Kohen and the convert, their soul dynamics clash, their spiritual energies contradict, and so they can't marry. 

The holiness of a Kohen is hereditary. If your father is a Kohen, then you are a Kohen. Priesthood is a birthright that is not achieved through a person's effort nor deserved through a person's righteousness. It is an honor that is bestowed at birth. 

The holiness of a convert is the exact opposite. It is completely earned. The convert was not born Jewish. He or she chose it. They achieve Jewishness of their own initiative and with their own hard work. They are self-made souls. 

So these two souls, the Kohen and the convert, are moving in opposite directions. The Kohen receives his power from above. The convert creates his own soul energy from bottom up. The Kohen has the ability to bring down blessings to others, just as his soul was given to him as a blessing. The convert has the power of innovation, of initiative, of creating holiness from the ground up. For this reason, their souls are not a match. 

Both the Kohen and the convert have awesome holiness. It is a great privilege to be gifted with the soul of a Kohen. And yet, the self-made soul of a convert has a depth of experience that inherited holiness cannot compete with. Neither are second class souls. 

The Kohen is crowned with a legacy from past generations. A convert creates his or her own legacy for future generations. The Jewish people is richer because of each of them.

Source: Chabad

What Really Happened to Rashbi?

Rabbi Efraim Palvanov

Lag b'Omer commemorates the life and teachings of the second-century sage "Rashbi", Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. His discourses form the core of the Zohar, the "textbook" of Jewish mysticism. In this advanced-level shiur, we explore the last Tanakh verse that Rashbi expounded upon and how he passed away, as well as explain the custom of lighting a bonfire on Lag b'Omer and the mysticial meaning of fire.