From Wildfires to Wisdom:

What Rabbi Akiva, Rebbe Shimon, & a World on Fire Teach Us About Resilience and Renewal

Young adults gather around a warm bonfire, reflecting on the teachings of Rabbi Akiva.

Just two weeks ago, in 30 short hours, wildfires tore through 2400 acres of Jerusalem’s rolling hills, burning vast swaths of land to a crisp.  Shortly prior, uncontrollable flames uprooted over 3,000 residents from their New Jersey homes and transformed 18,000 Californian homes into rubble.

"That’s it!" the firefighter in me commands, "No more fires.  Enough!" he bellows, "The dangers are too great - extinguish all the flames."

It seems silly, but you say it every day.  Another failed date breaks my heart - I’m done with dating, I can’t do this.  One more shouting match with the ones I love - enough, let’s get out of this toxic mess.  Again, I’m embarrassed to be me - a failure, too loud, so awkward, nothing to say, no friends - that’s it, I’ve got to extinguish these funny flames, it’s time to be like everyone else.

Lag Ba’Omer marks the convergence of two mysterious events: First, relief from the plague that ravaged Rabbi Akiva’s students, whose fire for learning brought them to baseless hatred.  Second, the passing of Rabbi Akiva’s greatest remaining disciple, Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai, author of the Zohar (the day of passing is the traditional day of life commemoration).  We all know the story of Rebbe Shimon: hiding from the Romans in a cave for 13 years, he departs only to find that the dangers from without are now buried within, as his fiery eyes that burned up his surroundings in judgment.  He returns to the cave for another six years.

Nu, so what would you do if you were Rabbi Akiva or Rebbe Shimon?  If my firefighter defense mechanisms were in charge: זהו, that’s it - no more fire, no more Torah, no more striving for redemption, no more seeking to reveal life’s deepest secrets.  These flames are too dangerous.

But they chose otherwise. Rabbi Akiva began again—with just five students—and from that small spark, Torah flourished anew. This new path of Torah was ushered in by Rebbe Shimon, who emerged from the cave a second time not to destroy, but to heal, to uplift, and to illuminate. He revealed the Torah’s mystical pathways into the soul, nurturing our inner flame to shine bright but not consume. 

This Lag Ba’Omer, let’s remind ourselves and the world: don’t give up on your fire. Lag Ba’Omer, הוד שבהוד, draws down a powerful energy of guided illumination, awakening a deep inner knowing that my flame can find its wick and all of our fires can be harnessed to shine together in gentle, loving warmth, taking us from Wildfires to Wisdom.