When Rabbi Simeon Wept (1960)
Lag Ba’Omer, the minor holiday we celebrate tomorrow, is a happy day in Jewish life. Especially in the Holy Land, Lag Ba’Omer is celebrated in a colorful manner. Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of this day is its intimate relationship with that stream of the Jewish tradition known as the Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism. On this 33rd day of the omer, the Zohar, the source book of all the Kabbalah, is said to have been revealed to the world some eighteen hundred years ago. The dominating figure in the Kabbalah, the reputed author of the Zohar, is Rabbi Simeon b. Yochai, who died on this very day of Lag Ba’Omer. So that tomorrow is the yahrzeit of the great Rabbi Simeon and the single most important day in the Jewish calendar, which represents and reminds us of the Kaballah. It is appropriate on this Sabbath preceding Lag Ba’Omer, therefore, to read again the last words of Rabbi Simeon. For his last remarks, as the Zohar relates them, are of utmost significance to all of us moderns. In a particularly dramatic and beautiful passage, we are told:בההוא יומא דרבי שמעון בעא לאסתלקא מן עלמא והוה מסדר מלוי. אתכנשו חבריא לבי רבי שמעון… והוה מליא ביתא. זקיף עינוי רבי שמעון וחמא דאתמלי ביתא. בכה רבי שמעון ואמר: בזמנא אחרא כד הוינא בבי מרעי, הוה רבי פנחס בן יאיר קמאי… אסחר אשא מקמאי ומעלמין לא אתפסק... והשתא חמינא דאתפסק והא אתמלי ביתא.On the day that Rabbi Simeon was to depart from this world, he prepared himself for the end. The friends and disciples of Rabbi Simeon came to his home to bid him farewell. Rabbi Simeon lifted his head, opened his eyes, and saw that itmalei beta – that the house was full, the room was packed with tearful disciples and students. At this sight, bakhah Rabbi Shimon – Rabbi Simeon began to weep, and said, “Once before, when I was ill and thought I was going to die, only one person came to visit me – and that was Rabbi Pinchas b. Yair. And when he came to see me, is’char isha – a great fire enveloped him right in front of me, and that f…
