Beit Midrash

  • Shabbat and Holidays
  • Sefirat Haomer
קטגוריה משנית
To dedicate this lesson
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The Shulchan Aruch says that though the Omer should really be a happy time, as it was in Biblical days, it is now the practice not to conduct weddings between Pesach & Shavuot until Lag B’Omer, because that is when the students of Rabbi Akiva died (others observe the 33 days between Rosh Chodesh Iyar & 3 days before Shavuot, with the exception of Lag B’Omer). The source for this is the Gemara Yebamot 62 which says that 12,000 pairs of students (chavrutot?) died of askara (croup, or choking) because they did not treat other with respect. The Gemara does not mention the semi-mourning practices, & some (e.g. Aruch HaShulchan) say these practices only began in the time of the Geonim, in response to the bloody Crusades which decimated Jewish communities along the Rhine during this same Pesach-Shavuot time period. Some historians suggest the students may have been part of Rabbi Akiva & Bar Kochba’s ill-fated rebellion against Rome, & this is what led to their deaths.
את המידע הדפסתי באמצעות אתר yeshiva.org.il