Lag b’Omer: celebrating Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

Lag b’Omer, traditionally associated with bonfires, bows and arrows and excursions, is popularly associated with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai – Rashbi. Whether or not he actually wrote the Zohar as we know it, Kabbalah and Rashbi are inseparably intertwined. And despite the views of certain great rabbinic luminaries including the Chasam Sofer who was not in favour of a newly created festival not known to the Sages such as Lag b’Omer, and despite opinions that association with his yahrzeit is incorrect, it is entrenched as such in our calendar.

I would add that, however it is celebrated by those who so do, it is not a “chag” and use of the greeting “chag sameach”, on this and other post biblically instituted occasions – however popular – is actually taken out of its original context.

Technically a “chag” is a festival on which as per Torah law a korban chagigah – a particular festival sacrifice – is prescribed for service in the Beit Hamikdash. This is limited to the shalosh regalim – Pesach, Shavuot and Succot – and is not even an appropriate greeting for other biblically prescribed dates – Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when these days I have often heard the expression used.

And incidentally, the Arabic word “Hajj” that in Islam refers to their major sacrificial ceremony and associated practices is exactly the same word as “chag”.

But leaving aside mystical actions and teachings attributed to Rashbi in the Zohar, what do we know of him from sources such as the Talmud?
We all know that he spent a total of 13 years hiding in a cave. But why? The Talmud reports how Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai came to be set apart as an “enemy of the state” by the Roman governor.  One day, Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai, Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Shimon were sitting together. Yehuda ben Geirim joined them. Rabbi Yehuda said: “Look what fine projects this nation undertakes.  They built marketplaces, bridges and bathhouses.”
Rabbi Yossi remained silent and said nothing. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai replied: “They did everything for their own benefit. They set up the marketplaces for their own pleasure and good.  They built bathhouses to indulge in their own pleasure.  They built bridges so that they would be able to charge tolls for using them.” (A not unfamiliar set of criticisms of governments through the ages.)