Lag B'Omer: Holiday of Synthesis
Finding the Happy Medium Between Hyper-Politicization and Quietism
Today is Lag B'Omer, a folkloric Jewish holiday that celebrates two things: 1) the life of Shimon Bar Yochai, purported author of my namesake, the Zohar 2) the abatement of a plague that killed 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva. How do these two relate to one another?
Rabbi Akiva and Shimon Bar Yochai both opposed Rome. Rabbi Akiva opposed Rome by backing t…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to What Is Called Thinking? to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.