Living Torah Archives

Cantor Moshe Teleshevsky leads the crowd at a Lag B’omer rally in a rendition of the classical Jewish Niggun, Sheyiboneh.

Rabbi Avraham HaLevi, a disciple of the Arizal, had the custom of reciting Nachem, a prayer of mourning for Jerusalem, every single day.

The Talmud states: “Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai's sole occupation was Torah.” Rabbi Shimon was involved with other matters as well, but what was his “occupation”? How was he raised, how did he raise his students — and how does he raise each one of us who wish to learn from him? That a Jew’s occupation is Torah.

The Rebbe participates in the 1983 Lag B’omer parade.

The Talmud tells us that 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died because “they did not treat one another with respect.” But the plague ended on Lag BaOmer, which means they had remedied their actions and began to treat each other with the appropriate level of esteem.

"May it be Your will, L-rd our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that the Holy Temple be speedily rebuilt in our days, and grant us our portion in Your Torah."

Judaism demands ethics of all ages; children as well as adults. The demands are much greater than the not cheating or lying; we must refrain from even approaching a seller to underbid or somehow get an item that another child or person wants. It would be frustrating and spiteful if it were done to us, therefore we should not do it to another.