Celebrating a haircut?

By Rabbi Yosef Levin |  Do you celebrate getting a haircut?  I guess on some level it is a nice event, especially during the pandemic, but it’s not exactly a celebration.  Nevertheless tomorrow, this Friday, having a haircut is part of a celebration.  This is because beginning on Pesach, we were forbidden from having haircuts during the period known as “Sefirat Haomer,” the counting of the Omer.  We count 49 days from Pesach to Shavuot, recreating what our ancestors did when they left Egypt in anticipation of the Receiving of the Torah at Sinai.  Many years later, a great calamity befell the 24,000 students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva, and they all died during this period.  They stopped dying on the 33rd day of the Omer.  This day, known as Lag Baomer (the Hebrew letters lamed gimel have the numerical value of 33), therefore is celebrated as a holiday after the preceding period of mourning, and one of the expressions of the end of mourning is that we are permitted to have haircuts.  Other manifestations of the holiday include marriages resuming, allowing listening to music, saying the blessing of Shehecheyanu, not saying tachanun (parts of the prayers omitted on special days), and holding parties and celebrations.  (Point of interest:  Chabad custom is to not have haircuts until the day before Shavuot.)

This day of Lag Baomer is also considered a very joyous day because it is the Yahrzeit – anniversary of passing – of the great sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who revealed the deep secrets of Torah in the book of Zohar.  You can read about him here.  There is a lot written about him and why we celebrate the day he passed away.  I want to focus, however, on the other reason for the Lag Baomer celebration that I mentioned above, and that is written in the Code of Jewish Law, the end of the plague that took the lives of all of Rabbi Akiva’s students.  It does seem a little strange that to this day we celebrate an event that was the end of a plague because there was nobody left to die.  History records that all 24,000 students died as a consequence of them not respecting one another, so why are we celebrating the day that they had all gone?  (There is a fascinating commentary from the Rebbe on what it means that Rabbi Akiva’s students did not treat each other with respect, you can read it here.)

I saw a wonderful commentary by Rabbi Shneur Ashkenazi of Israel.  He says that the celebration is actually about Rabbi Akiva’s response to the tragedy.  Immediately after the plague, Rabbi Akiva gathered five new students whom he taught and guided, and these great sages ensured the perpetuation of Torah.  One of them was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.  Let’s imagine what Rabbi Akiva experienced at that time.  He had gone from being completely ignorant of Torah to becoming the greatest Jewish sage and leader of his time, and built up a following of 24,000 students.  The Temple had been destroyed and Torah study decimated, and Rabbi Akiva was building a new future, to ensure the continuity of Jewish life.  This dream was destroyed in a matter of weeks.  About 750 students per day died.  Who would be able to stand such a devastating event?  How is it possible to continue to survive in the face of such a calamity? 

Rabbi Akiva moved forward.  I am sure that he deeply mourned his students and the loss of his life-work, but he didn’t let it stop him.  He immediately found new students who dedicated themselves to him and his teachings, and who in fact were responsible for keeping Torah and Jewish scholarship alive.  Rabbi Akiva is quoted in the Talmud as often saying: “Whatever Hashem does is for the good.”  At the time of his greatest test, Rabbi Akiva lived up to his statement.  He did not succumb to despair, rather he moved forward and rebuilt, in the most successful way.

So Lag Baomer is a great celebration of resilience and faith.  Lag Baomer teaches us to always focus on our goal, and to recognize that no matter what comes our way, including pandemics, we have the ability to overcome the darkness and create great light.  As the world gets closer to redemption, this is a great lesson to remember - keep our eyes on the goal of a better world and  we will get there.