Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron, getting ready for Lag BaOmer, the great, great Yom Tov and the great holiday of the Tanna, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
Everyone knows that everything in the world has an outside and has an inside.
On the outside we focus on our body, our physical needs. The inside is always my soul. Even in the holy things, the Torah, has the outside revealed part of the Torah, and then there is the secrets of the Torah, Kabbalah, mysticism.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is the author of the Zohar Kadosh. The anniversary of his death is commemorated on Lag BaOmer.
When Moshe Rabeinu went up to get us the Torah, there was a big fight between him and the angels. Moshe Rabeinu brought down the revealed part of the Torah, and Shimon Bar Yochai was the master of the secrets of the Torah
The passuk says “You went up to heaven שבית שבי. You took captives.
And there the word שבי spelled Shin Bet Yud, stands for Shimon Bar Yochai — Shimon the son of Yochai.
We’re hoping in the merit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who took all those secrets of the Torah that were in captivity and he brought it down, and the last day of his life he shared all the secrets of the Torah from the highest places he revealed the 32 paths of wisdom, the 50 gates of Bina.
We hope that all our captives should be freed. This week we celebrated the release of Edan Alexander an American, a dual citizen. A lone soldier who was able to come out of his captivity.
So too we should see in the merit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who spent 12 years in that dark cave and eventually was able to come out.
So to we should see all our captives come out this Lag BaOmer together with the secrets of the Torah.
God should revealed to us that great light that’s been in captivity for so many years. The light of Moshiach. The light of Geula.
Amen and amen.
