In honor of the Yartzit of Rav Shimon on Lag B'omer, a very interesting Gomorra in Shabbos, which gives a little history of why Rav Shimon ended up in a cave. So since we have some time, I'll tell you the Gomorra. I am quoting from Shabbos 33b.

Rav Yehuda, Rav Yossi and Rav Shimon were sitting. And there was a man named Yehuda Ben Gerim (the son of converts) was sitting by them. Rav Yehuda said, and I praphrase, " How great is what the Roman nation has instituted. They made marketplaces, they made bridges, they made Jacuzzis." Good in other words, he was praising the Government. Rav Yossi didn't say anything. He sat quiet. Rav Shimon Bar Yochai was a man of truth. He hit the nail on the head. He said, "Whatever they made, they made for their own benefit. They made marketplaces- to put prostitutes there. They made bathhouses- to have pleasure. Why did they build bridges? To collect the toll either way."

Yehuda Ben Gerim went and told the Roman Government what they said. Yehuda who said good about the government, he deserves a promotion. Yossi who didn't say anything about the Government, he kept quiet. We should exile him to Tzippori. Shimon who spoke derogatory about the Government, Shimon deserves to be killed. OK So Shimon knew that his fate was sealed. He and his son ran away. First they went to a Beis HaMedrash. Every day Shimon's wife, would bring him bread and water. When the politcal pressure started getting a little stronger, the Gomorra says, Rav Shimon said to his Son Rav Elozor Ben Shimon' Noshim Daiton Kalos. Rashi explains this as women are easily persuadable. Maybe they are going to torture my wife, your Mother and she is going to tell them where we are.

So the two of them ran away into a cave. In other words it was do or die. Says the Gomorra, a miracle happened and a carob tree came into being. Says the Marasha, what is the significance of a carob tree? Answers the Marasha- It was a miracle inside a miracle, because the nature of a carob tree is that it doesn't bear fruit for 70 years. And this tree right away bore fruit. Miracle one. And they had food right away. Not only did they have carob, they had a spring of water.

They were in sand up to their necks in the cave, and when they had to Daven they would cover themselves, and they stayed like that for 12 years. For 12 years they lived in a cave and all they ate was carobs and water. carobs for breakfast, carobs for lunch carobs for supper.

Came Eliyahu Hanovi who was going to tell Rav Shimon that the Caesar had died. Because when a Caesar dies, his decrees are annulled. So after 12 years, they finally get told. All of a sudden they go out and they see a farmer who is plowing and planting. I mean what do you do? If you want food to grow, you have to plow and plant and there is no other way. So the first reaction of the Ravs was,after spending 12 years in a cave, Rav Shimon says they leave the world of eternity for the world of time. The world of an hour, a minute a second- in other words what are they doing? Why are they plowing and planting? They don't have better things to do with their life?

Scene 2

Rav Shimon and his son are walking and the Gomorra continues that wherever they walk as soon as they look at something, it gets burnt right away. They looked-fire. They look here, they look there-fire, fire everywhere. Continues the Gomorra. After the burnt this thing and that thing. I don't know if they burnt the New York Trade Center or the Federal office building in Oklahoma but whatever they burnt, they burnt! Comes out a heavenly voice and says to them Did you go out of the cave to destroy my world? Go back into your cave. They sat in the cave another year. Why a year? Because a Rosha (Wicked man) sits in Gehenom for a year.

That is why you say Kaddish for less than a year. We hope that the person wasn't considered a Rosha. but lets leave alone Kaddish for now.

After an additional year in the cave, they go out and wherever Rav Elozor would look, he would (by Rav Elozor who was the son of Rav Shimon) start to destroy. His eyes were very good eyes! Except after Rav Shimon had spent another year in the cave, Rav Shimon could cure the burnt object. He could look at it and return it to its original form.

Rav Shimon said, It would be enough for the world for just me and you to learn Torah. Do you hear what Rav Shimon tells his son? Me and you are enough for the world to exist. Before we continue we need to ask a very simple question. Rav Shimon spends 12 years in a cave, with his son Rav Elozor, and they come out after 12 years everything they look at burns. How was going into the cave for another year going to help. If they spend another year in the cave they will burn even more!! 12 years in a cave, everything you look at is burning, you go another year in the cave you will burn twice as much or whatever the ratio is. What is the Pshat? And another thing, a person could think that they are on a much higher level than Rav Shimon. We walk in the street, nothing burns. Come on for anything, we may be burning for walking in the street. But that we have the ability to burn, that I've never seen. They just looked, they didn't need any matches to burn the world.

But Al Kol Panim (nevertheless), so a person thinks that we are on such a high level, we are at peace with the world. I mean we walk in Manhattan and nothing happens to us. We should send Rav Shimon to Manhattan. A good piece of advice-You want Rav Shimon to get back into living in this world, ship him out to Manhattan for a year. Between me and you, ship him there for a week, you don't need a year. Let him frequent the 30's, 40's, etc. You people out of New York send them to Piccadilly, send them to Dizengoff. There is a lot going on why do you send him back into the cave? If you want a person to understand what this world is all about, go live in the world. The teretz is Poshut. If Rav Shimon would go to Manhattan, he wouldn't be Rav Shimon anymore. The reason why Rav Shimon was Rav Shimon was because he didn't go to Manhattan. But Al Kol Panim, we think we are on a high level. We don't know what Torah is. If we knew what Torah was, a person would understand the Power of Torah. A person could learn to understand that Torah is fire. The reason why going back into the cave helped Rav Shimon understand, because man's job in this physical world is to emulate HaKodush Borucho. Just like G-d has mercy and compassion, so must man. Rav Shimon learned after his extra year of study, just as G-d puts up with all the habit's of man, a torah scholar has to understand the weakness of man. That is what Rav Shimon learned in year thirteen.

The Gomorra says in Hagigah (15a)' I don't know if you people have ever heard of Acher? He is one of the only sages, that went off the path. Acher was a big Talmid Chochum to say the least. Anyway, he still went off the path. More than that, the Gomorra says that when we Pasken Halacha, we never hold like Rav Meir. Whenever the Sage Rav Meir would argue with somebody says the Gomorra, The Holocho is never like him. Why? Because the Chochomim (the Sages) couldn't get to the bottom of what Rav Meir said. They couldn't understand him fully. I'll ask anybody here, who was Rav Meir's Rebbe? Rav Acher! So this Acher character who went off the track his disciple is Rav Meir. Maybe another time we will speak about Acher. Where Acher is? Does he have a share in the World to Come? Where he's holding? The topic tonight isn't Acher so we won't tell you about Acher. But I'll tell you what happened at Archer's Bris.

At the circumcision of Acher, Tosfos brings over here on Hagigah (15a). A very interesting story. His father was one of the famous people of Yerushaliyim and when a famous person in Yerushaliyim makes a Bris, all the big Rabbis come down. So, everybody comes down, and everyone is talking. The doctors with the doctors and the lawyers with the lawyers. This group with that group, everybody sticking to his own. So it says, Rav Elozor and Rav Yehoshua were together and what did Rav Elozor and Rav Yehoshua say? I am reading here from the Tosfos (15a) These people are eating and drinking and singing and clapping and dancing. They are doing their thing, let's do our thing! What could Rav Elozor and Rav Yehoshua do? They started learning. They opened up a Gomorra and started learning Torah. Says the Tosfos, a fire came down from Heaven and surrounded them. Imagine, your sitting at a party, you see two Torah Sages all of a sudden, they are engulfed in fire and they are talking like nothing, back and forth and you can't figure out what's going on? So the Tosfos continues, the father of Acher came to them and said, Did you come here to burn my house? What's going on, this isn't right! I am making a Bris for my son, not only do you want to burn the house but everyone inside it as well. They said back to him Chas V Shalom rather we were learning Torah and from Torah we went to the Nevim (Prophets) and from the Nevim to the Kesuvim (Writings). They continued, We were as happy with the words of Torah as when it was given at Sinai. Wasn't Torah, revelation given in fire? Said Acher's father, If the power of Torah is so big, then if Acher lives, I'm going to send him to Yeshiva. We are not here to speak about Acher so we will leave him alone, but from here you see what Torah is. The essence of Torah is fire.

We told you once the Gomorra in Sukkah. It says over there about Yonason Ben Uziel. That when he would be learning, if a bird would fly over his head that it would disintegrate because the essence of Torah is fire. If a person learns Torah right, he should burn everything. If it is Rav Shimon Bar Yochai.. If it is Rav Yonason Ben Uziel. It is the Tosfos that brings the Gomorra in Hagigah with Rav Elozor and Rav Yehoshua. The essence of Torah is fire. That is what Torah is. We don't understand what Torah is.

Now after they (Rav Shimon and his Son) already know what Torah is (fire), G-d sends them back to the cave for a year so that they will then understand what Torah really is and that not everybody could totally dedicate himself day and night in Torah. But the whole thing is, that when G-d created the world, the purpose of the world is that a person should sit and should get as close to Hashem through Torah The Derech Hashem by Rav Moshe Chaim Luzatto says, the thing that brings a person closest to Hashem is learning Torah. Torah is the biggest MeKarev (instrument to bringing closeness to G-d). If a person ants to get close to Hashem, it's impossible to do it without Torah.

Then the Gomorra then says Rav Pinchos Ben Yoir sees Rav Shimon after the 13 years in the cave. The Gomorra explains that before, when Rav Shimon would ask a question, Rav Pinchos would give 12 answers. After Rav Shimon came out of the Cave, after 13 years. When Rav Pinchos would ask a Kasha, Rav Shimon would give him 24 answers. You hear what the cave did for him? When you learn Torah the way your supposed to learn Torah, when you dedicate your life to Torah, it's going to cause a metamorphus in the person himself because that is what Torah is. Especially if all you eat is Carobs and water.

Rav. Shimon said that the Torah was only given to people that ate the Mana. When Bnei Yisroel ate the Manna, they didn't need to go to the bathroom, it was pure spiritual food. What spiritual food means, maybe another time. Rav Shimon knew how does a person acquire Torah? Only if he eats spiritual food. If you eat physical foods, yeah OK you can become great but to become a Rav Shimon, to look and burn, that you can't become great, eating Bagels and Lox and Hagendas. That's not going to make anybody a Rav Shimon.

Tostos in Kesubos (104a) quotes the Medrash. It says before a person prays that torah goes into his system, he shoudl pray that delicable delacies don't go into his system. Rabbi Yehudah HaNassi had the finest foods in the winter and in the summer. Without going into details now of what he had, it says that his table didn't lack any goods. The Gomorra says that when Rav Yehuda HaNasi died, he lifted up his ten fingers and said Ribono Shel Olam (Master of the World) It is known and revealed to you, that I toiled with my ten fingers and I didn't even have the pleasure of my smallest pinkie. So first of all, A person has to understand why he picked up his hands? What the hands mean? What the fingers mean? The Vilna Gaon explains: The most physical, the most gashmi part of a persons body are his hands. Most of the physical things a person does is with his hands. and Gashmi of Gashmi are his fingers. As physical as his hands are, his fingers are even more Gashmi, even more materialistic. So Rav Yehuda HaNasi picks up his ten fingers and says I didn't enjoy anything from this world and then he makes a prayer that when he leaves the world, he should have an easy time-an easy Day of Judgment. With that we can understand Rav Shimon.

Why do you make fires on Lag Bomer. Because fire IS Torah. You don't play with water, you play with fire on Lag Bomer. Before a person prays that he understands the RaMBaM. Before he prays that he understands whatever it is he is working on, whether it's a Halocho, a RaMBaM a Shulchan Oruch whatever it is you have to pray that junk foods don't go into your system. Why did Hashem make for Rav Shimon a Carob tree, The simplest food water. Why? You can't live without water.

With that we can understand a very interesting Gomorra. It says in Bava Metziah (59b) There is a Machloykes. When does a certain type of oven become susceptible to uncleanness? With out details, they are irrelevant here. Rab Eliezer says if the law (about the oven) is like me, make this particilar carob tree bear testimony that the Halocho is like me. The Carob tree got up and took a walk. I don't know how far it walked, it got uprooted. The Chochomim weren't impressed that the carob tree took a walk and some said that it walked 100 Ama and some people say it went 400 Ama. If we would see something like that happen, if we would have a discrepancy with someone and a tree would go 200 feet or 800 feet, pretty impressive, We would concede defeat! I don't see people making trees go 1 inch and here it went a few hundred feet. The Chochomim weren't impressed. They said you can't bring a proof from a carob tree. You can make a tree move as much as you like, we don't care. You could send the Carob to the moon. The Sages don't give up. So Rav Elazar says, let the well,the spring prove that I am right. So the well went backwards. The sages weren't impressed, that the well went backwards. You can't bring a proof from water. Rav Eliezar doesn't give up. I mean this person has powers and the Sages don't concede defeat. Rav Eliezar says, if the Halocho is like me, let the walls of the House of Study prove that the Halocho is like me. All of a sudden the Beis HaMedrash starts to fall. I don't know if you people ever made it to Pisa, but there is something in Pisa which leans a little bit. All of a sudden the Beis HaMedrash is on an angle.I don't know if it was 45 degrees or whatever, it's not a mathematics class here. Rav Yehoshua was taken aback. He saw the Beis HaMedrash is ready to fall and he starts screaming and in the honor of Rav Yehoshua the walls didn't fall but the walls didn't become straight either. The Gomorra concludes, at least this part of the story the Bes Midrash stayed on a certain angle. Rav Elozor is getting desperate. He wants to pull out his Ace in the hole. If the Holocho is like me let's have a Heavenly voice. So comes out a heavenly voice. And the Bas Kol said not only is the Holocho like Rav Elozer over here. The Gomorra says that the Holocho is like him in Kol HaTorah Kula, everywhere the Holocho is like Rav Elozor. Comes along Rav Yehoshua, he's not impressed. Imagine if we were to hear a heavenly voice-We would think Wow. Never the less Rav Yehoshua stands on his feet and says - Torah is not in heaven. I am not impressed. Bring me 50 heavenly voices or bring me 50 other proofs. Make the World Trade Center stand upside down. I am not impressed. What does that mean? Torah is not in Heaven? Rav Yirmiya said that the Torah was already given from Har Sinai and what does the Torah teach? We don't listen to a Bas Kol(a heavenly voice), because it is written in the Torah to go after the Majority. I don't care if you make a Beis Medrash lean. I don't care if you make the waters go backwards, I don't care if you uproot a tree or bring me a Heavenly voice. The Torah is on earth and the Torah says you go after the majority. Rav Eliezer you are a minority opinion, I don't agree with you, finish!

Rav Noson meets Eliyohu Hanovi. What's Hashem doing now? Every person always wants to know what Hashem does. Here is one instance where we will tell you what Hashem was doing at the point in time. He says Hashem was laughing. He said My children were victorious over me, If anyone wants to read the rest, its a whole Sugya in Bava Metziah (59b)

Torah Blessings,
Y. Bertram

bertram@ohr.israel.net