Nadene Goldfoot
On this day long, long ago of the 33rd day of counting Omer that had fallen in the Hebrew month of Iyyar 18, a plague outbreak had occurred among the pupils of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century and on this very day had ended. It is considered the "scholars' feast."
The Antonine Plague, a major pandemic in the Roman Empire, occurred in the 2nd century AD, though it's less clear how directly it impacted Israel specifically. It is widely believed to have been caused by the Roman army bringing the disease back from the Parthian Empire. The plague, which may have been a strain of the smallpox virus, was devastating, with mortality rates estimated to be around 7-10% of the population. While the Antonine Plague impacted the Roman Empire extensively, including areas bordering Israel, the exact extent of its impact within Israel itself is not as definitively documented as in other parts of the empire, except in our Lag ba Omer story that gives us the hint.
“In Kabbalah (mystical religious stream in Judaism) adopted by 12th century; everything is numbers and mathematics. The number is holy and infinite. In the universe everything is measurement and weight. For the Gnostics, God is a Geometrist. Mathematics is sacred. No one was admitted into the school of Pythagoras (Greek school) if they were not knowledgeable about mathematics, music, etc. Numbers are sacred.
This had happened during the Omer period when there were regulations for certain acts. This was then regulated for half; mourning (prohibitions of marriage, cutting the hair, etc.) being suspended.
Now, the Omer was the 1st sheaf cut during the barley harvest, which was offered in the Temple as a sacrifice on the 2nd day of Passover (Lev.23:15). Before the offering of this sacrifice, it was forbidden to eat the new grain. The 7-weeks beginning from this day and culminating in the Pentecost holiday is known as the period of the Counting of the Omer.
49 days are counted from the day on which the Omer was 1st offered in the Temple (according to the rabbis, Nisan 16; the 2nd day of Passover) the 50th day being the Feast of Weeks. SHAVUOT=this year, from evening of Sunday, June 1, 2025 to Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
This period of counting is known as the Sephirah period, during a certain part of which special mourning customs prevail and marriages are not solemnized. The number 49 (7x7)inspired the Kabbalists to read mystical meanings into the ritual of the counting, regarding it as marking the period of waiting between the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their betrothal to the Torah at Sinai. The number, 7, had so much meaning as it was; 7=a week with the 7th being Shabbat, 7 benedictions or blessings recited under the canopy in the wedding ceremony, and traditionally during the 7 days of feasting if new guests are present.
This was 2,000 years ago when 7x7=49, an awesome number, and still is. Today, we find Albert Einstein almost passe with his theory of relativity; In Einstein's theory of relativity, the equation E = mc² describes the relationship between energy (E) and mass (m). It states that energy and mass are equivalent and can be converted into each other, with the speed of light (c) being the conversion factor.
Genesis 49:1–50:26
Then there is the Drake equasion: The Drake equation is:
The equation was formulated in 1961 by Frank Drake, not for purposes of quantifying the number of civilizations, but as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue at the first scientific meeting on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
Then there are the 18 benedictions of the Amidah on the Sabbath and festivals as well. They refer to the principal prayer, done standing. This text reflects the political and economic situation at the dates of composition, decreed by the men of the Great Assembly, and some definitely originate from 2nd Temple times. For instance, #7 is for redemption. the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.
School children were given a holiday and formerly used to conduct a mock battle with bow and arrow.
Rabbi Simeon was a student of Rabbi Akiva who was put in jail by the Romans. Simeon was forced to hide in a cave with son Eleazar for 13 years; became known as a miracle-worker. He thought leaving Eretz Yisrael was a grievous sin. (Thus, we didn't all leave)!!!
A famous pupil of his was Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. Kabbalists have made his tomb at Meron a center of pilgrimage on Lag ba Omer, the traditional date of his death.
In Israel, the day is marked by the lighting of bonfires and a mass pilgrimage to the tomb at Meron of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai who is said to have died, transmitting his mystical lore, on this day.
In 1911, an estimated 10,000 people gathered to sing and dance before the traditional Lag Ba’Omer bonfires on the mountain, not far from the city of Tsfat.The event was chronicled by the Tsfat-born author Yehoshua Bar-Yosef in his 1949 book “Magic City,” according to the Jewish Press. “Tzfat has never seen such a crowd before … happy enthusiasm gripped the residents, he wrote. Just when the celebration reached its crescendo, the roof of the complex around the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai collapsed. Dozens came hurtling down. “ About 100 people who were standing on the roof at the time fell from a height of 8 meters toward the courtyard of the building. Forty were injured. Seven were killed immediately,” Bar Yosef wrote. Among those present that day was famed Israeli author and Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon, who had walked for five days to celebrate on the mountain and who understood his survival as a miracle. “The miracle that was done for me at the revelry of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron, was that a balcony fell and twenty-seven Israelites were killed, and I, who had stood a little while before with all those saints remained alive,” he wrote, though Bar Yosef and other historians cite 11 total dead. Bar Yochai, who lived during the 2nd century, is credited with composing the Zohar, a key kabbalistic text.
Einstein was not alone. There was Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils (c. 1300 – 1377) was a French-Jewish mathematician and astronomer in medieval times who flourished from 1340 to 1377, a rabbi who was a pioneer of exponential calculus and is credited with inventing the system of decimal fractions. He taught astronomy and mathematics in Orange and later lived in Tarascon, both towns in the Holy Roman Empire that are now part of modern-day France. Bonfils studied the works of Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom), the father of modern trigonometry, and Al-Battani and even taught at the academy founded by Gersonides in Orange.
Resource:
https://forward.com/fast-forward/468773/stampede-1911-mt-meron-lag-baomer/
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