Moving Forward After Tragedy

Rav Mann זצ״ל wrote about Lag B’Omer and the message to be learned from it. He described how Rabbi Akiva had the resolve to continue after the tragedy of losing his 24,000 students.

Despite the tragedy, he recognized that there was no choice but to pick up the pieces and move forward. He would learn the lessons and continue to spread his Torah teachings.

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai hid in a cave for twelve years and a thirteenth. He was on the run from the Romans. He turned that difficulty into an opportunity to write the Zohar, revealing the secrets of the Torah.

One of the fathers whose teenage son perished in the Lag B’Omer tragedy in Meron also spoke about dealing with tragedy. He said that there was no point in blaming anyone. This was a decree from Hashem that we must accept. Moving forward means bringing about unity among the Jewish people.

He has been deeply moved by our coming together as a people in such a difficult time.

The lesson here is that we must have the strength to take adversity and tragedy, and convert it into greater unity and a higher level of serving Hashem.