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April 15, 1963

A Full House (1963)

Lag Baomer India
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The Rest of the World (1966)

The semi-holiday of Lag Ba-Omer, which we celebrate tomorrow, is traditionally associated with one of the most luminous figures in Jewish history: R. Simeon bar Yohai, distinguished disciple of R. Akiva. The reason for this connection is threefold: Lag Ba-Omer is the day on which R. Simeon was married. Furthermore, it is the day on which he risked his life, defying the tyrannical edicts of Rome, and accepted semikhah (his ordination). Finally, R. Simeon bar Yohai died on Lag Ba-Omer. Another opinion adds a fourth reason for the relationship between this Tanna and the festival of Lag Ba-Omer: this is the day that R. Simeon emerged from his cave.It is in reference to this fourth reason that I propose to emphasize the marvelous tale told in the Talmud concerning R. Simeon’s famous sojourn in the cave. This story, if properly understood, contains within itself a judgment on our lives in 1966 that is so incisive, so powerful, so relevant, that we cannot and dare not ignore it. For the essence of the story of R. Simeon bar Yohai is the question of how loyal, observant, and God-fearing Jews ought to orient themselves to the rest of the world.Let us first analyze our own predicament and then see what insights we can derive from the incident of the cave and R. Simeon.Ever since the Emancipation, religious Jewry has suffered a constant attrition. This deterioration in numbers and intensity has been most noticeable the past ten or twenty years. How ought we act to it? Several tendencies are noticeable.The first is the way of despair. One contemplates the unfavorable circumstances of our lives, and merely posts an obituary notice. But nothing is done: one goes about the old ways without any change. Thus, this past week, the head of one of the most influential agencies in the American Jewish community declared that in his view, Judaism will probably not survive in this country. He concluded that we are in deep trouble, and that the crisis is bound to be resolved in the wrong wa…
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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…
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A Previous Engagement (1964)

One of the most significant phrases in modern life is: “I have a previous engagement.” Countless people have been saved from tedious meetings, wearisome conventions, and boring speeches by that pleasant, precious, and most effective device, “I have a previous engagement.” It is the kind of disclaimer and escape that is never a complete untruth and allows both parties to retreat gracefully and graciously from what otherwise might be an embarrassing encounter. Yet that same phrase is no doubt the most overworked and abused excuse in the lexicon of our times. Who knows how many worthy endeavors have been frustrated and lofty enterprises undermined because people lamely pleaded: “I have a previous engagement.” It is painful to the point of being tragic when this phrase is bandied about by Jews as a means of avoiding their Judaism; when it is misused by those of our co-religionists who wish thereby to circumvent the moral and spiritual obligations that Torah places upon all of us. We stifle our own spirits when, with an air of injured innocence, we dismiss Torah and mitzvot by waving the magic wand, “I am so sorry, I have a previous engagement.”The teaching of Shavuot is, in a manner of speaking, that no Jew may accept a previous engagement before coming to Torah; or, better, that Torah constitutes the “previous engagement” of every Jew! This primacy of Torah, this acceptance of it as our prime commitment and first allegiance, is of the essence of our faith. It is not enough to love Judaism, to support it, even to practice it. It must be our primary allegiance, our priority, our precommitment.The famed Rabbi of Gur, in his “Sefat Emet,” saw a reflection of this teaching in the very name we give this holiday. The name Shavuot stands for “weeks,” because the holiday always falls seven weeks after Passover. But, by a slight change of one vowel, the Rabbi of Gur reads not “Shavuot” (weeks), but “Shevuot” (oaths). It is a festival when we recall an ancient shevuah, an ancien…
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