In the current issue of the Yated Ne'eman (USA) newspaper (p.59), we learn about Lag Baomer in a protypical Litvishe yeshiva.
R' Yitzchok Hisiger reports that someone once asked the legendary R. Leib Malin z"l what Lag Baomer was like in the famed Mir Yeshiva of old. R. Leib's response was וואס מיינסט דו? מען האט געציילט ספירה (What do you mean? We counted sefirah). The writer goes on to say that that was it, otherwise the yeshiva's sedarim went on as usual.
Paragraphs of commentary follow. Rav Yitzchok Sorotzkin shlit"a comments that it is ironic that some use the day to slack off in Torah, the opposite of what it stands for, in view of R. Shimon ben Yochai's maximalist reading of the words of the posuk that לא ימוש ספר התורה הזה מפיך (see ברכות לה ע"ב).
So the next time someone tries to convince you that you need to go to Meron, dance around a fire, or engage in some other foreign thing to be "yotzei" Lag Baomer, remember R. Leib, and let them take a hike.
Wishing you a good day from virtual Lita.
Is this article from the Yated available online?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so.
DeleteMy Chavrusa from my time in BMG, Avrohom Dovid Paretzky, once asked Rav Shmuel Berenbaum what they used to do in the Mir Yeshiva in Europe on Lag B'Omer and he answered, "they shaved."
ReplyDelete