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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sefirat HaOmer and mourning

Sefirat HaOmer. Usually at this time of year the main two things on my mind are how will I remember to count the Omer if I bring in Shabbat before it gets dark (any suggestions welcome), and how will I cope with all these weeks without listening to music (I found myself humming the ring tone of a colleagues cell phone this morning! That is how bad things get during these days). Really the period of counting the Omer is nothing to do with mourning or sadness (unlike the three weeks, which are worse but shorter). It should be a time of happiness counting from physical freedom to the true freedom which is the Torah. However the custom has arisen to observe some semi-mourning customs out of deference to the deaths of 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students (which may well be connected to the Bar Kochba rebellion, but that is another story).

At least this is the reason that the Shulchan Aruch gives (Orach Chaim 493). There is no real Talmudic source for our mourning practices at this time (there were many other tragedies that happened for which we do not mourn), and their deaths actually led to the formation of the Law as we know it today, because Rabbi Akiva went and taught 5 new students, whose works form the basis of all Tanaitic texts.

The Aruch Hashulchan (also 493) gives this reason, but also adds another reason for the mourning, which I suspect is a more accurate basis of the minhag. This is what he says: These days between Pesach and Shavuot have been known to all of Israel for many hundreds of years as days of judgment and mourning. In this short period of time 12,000 pairs of students of Rabbi Akiva died, as the Talmud states in Yevamot 62b. They all died of Askara (a disease of asphyxiation). We also find that most of the tragedies that occurred throughout France and Germany in the centuries that followed were during this time, as we see in the piyutim that were composed for these Shabbatot. They are filled with wailing and mourning. There are also other reasons why these days are days of judgment.

The tragedies in France and Germany probably refer to the first crusade which swept across Europe on route to the Holy Land, and with religious zeal killed Jews whenever they could. The worst of these destructions presumably happened during the time of the Omer.

Also at this time of year, in the Ukraine in the year 1648 Bogdan Chmielnicki led a group of Cossacks and began his campaign against the ruling Polish government. He was ultimately successful in 'liberating' Ukraine from the Polish. The Polish had traditionally been welcoming to Jews and had protected them from the worst of the medieval persecutions. Chmielnicki's war cry was that Poland had sold them all into the hands of the accursed Jews. Therefore in between fighting for freedom, he and his men found time to slaughter Jews. Between the years 1648-9 he and his army massacred between 100,000 and 200,000 Jews. They destroyed entire communities and this was the biggest and most systematic destruction of Jews and Jewish communities from the time of the Romans (and until the time of Hitler).

The resulting confusion and messianic hope led directly to the acceptance of Shabtai Zvi and the resulting split within the Ashkenazi world. There is a sefer called Yavan Metzulah which is a contemporary account of the tragedies. He writes about the Jewish community in the town of Nemirov which was completely destroyed on the 20th of Sivan through the blood thirsty treachery of the Cossacks. You can read or download this 35 page book from hebrewbooks.org here http://www.hebrewbooks.org/9574.

The thing that totally blew my mind is that the murderer Chmielnicki is considered a national hero in Ukraine to this day. A city and a region of the country bear his name! His picture is on the 5 hryvnia banknote! There is a statue of him in the centre of Kyiv the capital! Can you imagine if Germany would give the same honor to Hitler today?

If nothing else, the mourning of the Omer makes me realize how lucky I am to be living when I do and where I do. But we can also use this time to remember the many tragedies that happened to our people over the centuries, which some times seem to be forgotten it the light of the holocaust. Perhaps this is the meaning of the mishna that we read during the Pesach seder that even in the times of the Mashiach we will still remember the exodus from Egypt. So too nowadays (and I write this on the eve of Yom Hashoah) we should remember all the other tragedies that we have suffered and all the communities that were destroyed, and the people who were tortured and killed over the centuries.

May the names of the wicked be erased forever, and may we soon merit to see the final redemption and the true consolation.