Lag B’Omer 5781: United in Sorrow?
Dateline: Friday morning, Lag B’Omer, Tzfat (May 31) Last night, long before the disaster happened, I basked in my curmudgeonly smugness. We came to Tzfat for the holiday weekend as my wife and kids excitedly anticipated joining the hundreds of thousands in a long night of singing and dancing in honor of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai in nearby Meron. Although Lonni tried valiantly to get me to join her, I was quite content to sit on my mechutan’s mirpeset (balcony) in Tzfat and look at the lights of Meron across the valley. I generally do not like endless singing and dancing; I wonder what the revelers are thinking about and how much it really has to do with Ahavas Hashem. I question how it connects with the rather severe personality of Rav Shimon that we meet in the Gemara. Maybe it is my nature as a Yekke or a cynic – I felt little connection to the crowds that I was grateful to avoid. And then, shortly after midnight, I heard a siren. And another. And th...