Monday, April 30, 2018

lag ba'omer hod sheb'hod


Lag Ba'omer Segulos by Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi:

1. Tehillim 67 (7 times) - It's a psalm of Hod and gratitude

2. It's a day of joy and happiness (always falls out on the same day as Purim)- you cannot be sad today!

3. Ask for children "who will be exactly like Rabbi Shimon"

4. Ask for a home.

5.  Chida: Light 17 candles (gematria tov/good) - from Lag Ba'omer to Shavuous there are 17 days and we ask Hashem for good days, days during which we earn receiving the Torah."

6. Rabbi Yehonasan Eybeschutz : Lag Ba'omer is when you should repent from the biggest transgression of your life, and Rabbi Shimon will intercede on your behalf in heaven.


From Rav Schwartz: see Bilvavi.net:


There is a minhag on this day to light bonfires. We don’t just light small fires like for Shabbos and Yom Tov. We light big fires – bonfires, which are called lehavah.

This shows us that we need to have a big “fire”, a lehavah, in our hearts for Hashem. If a person has this inner fire, he is connected to Lag Ba’Omer. If a person is just lighting physical bonfires but his soul is cold inside, he has nothing to do with Lag Ba’Omer.

“The house of Yaakov will be a fire, and the house of Yosef will be a big flame.” This is the inner layer of a Jew’s soul, the burning desire for Hashem. At first there is a small fire, and then it becomes a huge flame, a lehavah. When a person’s inner fire for Hashem gets big, it is then that he can integrate with Hashem.

In other words, bonfires on this day are not just superficial actions we do. It really reminds us of our innermost point of the soul, which is a great fiery desire for Hashem......

The yahrtzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai falls out within “seven days of Pesach Sheini” (just like there are seven days of the first Pesach, so is there a concept that there are seven days of the second Pesach), and it reveals a heavenly light: that Hashem is found even amidst our state of impurity. When a person is aware that Hashem is found even in the lowest place where he has fallen, he doesn’t need his “hands” to lift himself up.


If a person thinks that Hashem is Heaven while he is only on earth, and that he must ascend to Heaven – he needs his “hands” to lift himself upwards. But when a person is clear that Hashem is found in any place, even when he has fallen low, he arrives at a point of clarity in which he sees how Hashem is there at any place, time or situation. No impurity will be able to get him to have any doubts.