The Shulchan Aruch lays down:(Siman 493):’It is customary not to wed a woman between Pesach and Shavuot, until Lag Ba’omer; because in that period the disciples of Rabbi Akiva perished.’
The Gemara elucidates:(Yeb’ 62:): Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of pupils.. and all died in the one period, because they did not give honor one to the other, and the world was bereft of Torah, until Rabbi Akiva came to the rabbis of the north, and taught it to them: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua - and they were the ones who established Torah, at that time.
It was said that they all died from Pesach to Shavuot, and there are those who say: it was said, that it was Rabbi Chiya bar Abin who said: They all died a bad death: said Rabbi Nachman: It was Ascara - which appears in the throat, and deprives the person of the ability to speak, which is the essence of man’s life.
The obvious question this raises - in my humble opinion - is:
Why does Hashem’s decree to punish transgressors, cause us to adopt some of the ways of mourners?
Does the Torah not say: (Ha’azinu 32:4) ’The Rock’ - Hashem - ‘perfect is His work, for all His paths are justice, a G-d of faith, without iniquity, righteous and fair to all’?!
How, then, can His judgement on transgressors - whose iniquity is spelled out - be the cause of mourning - the more so, when it is in a matter between-man-and man, which we know is deemed more severe, than transgressions between-man-and-God?
Before attempting to answer this existential question, let us take note of the wondrous statement in the Yerushalmi (Chagiga 1:7) הלוואי: 'would that they had left Me’ said Hashem’, and had not left My Torah ‘ - because the Torah has the power to bring people back to Hashem, and to His ways.
Rabbi Elazar Shlezinger comments - on our parsha -: To understand why these students did not honor one another, was assuredly not because of their own baseness of character, but rather, because of their greatness, which made them incapable of overlooking any faults - as they perceived - in others, and made that other person unworthy of being honored- and, alas, they too were so adjudged Above, measure-for-measure.
The way of true Torah is to honor every person for every good attribute that can be found in him, and to see only the good in every person - as Rabbi Elimelech prayed:’To see only the virtues in our fellow men, and not their faults’ - as love covers all transgressions - how much more so, in people who are great in Torah and in good deeds.
This should have led them to overlook completely any faults in their fellow students - and the fact that Hashem seemingly did not take into account the pain of Rabbi Akiva at the loss of his students, may be attributed as faulting him, for not penetrating the depths of their hearts, to discern the real cause of their failure to honor one another.
That Heaven did not fear the loss of the Torah of the students - and of the world being bereft of Torah, could have been, because of their zealotry, they were not worthy to be leaders of their generation, as they burned-up the whole world with their eyes, for any transgression, and therefore their Torah brought their loss - which is why their death was decreed, and their Torah lost - not only to their generation, but till the end of time - this to teach us the critical lesson to see only the good in others - and that, then, measure-for-measure, we too will merit to be so seen, from Above.
Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl adds:’As we say in our daily prayers:’Give us our lot in the Torah’ - the failure of these talmidim of Rabbi Akiva to honor one another- especially in this period leading to the Torah being given to all the people - was because, by not honoring the parts of the Torah of every other person, their own Torah was lacking these parts they disrespected in others- unlike the prayer of Rabbi Nechunia:’May my fellows not falter in their Torah studies - and may I not rejoice in their failure - as their success, is essential to my success, to the Torah Temima- the complete Torah.’
Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky brings a midrash, to cast light, on the fate of Rabbi Akiva’s students, and to assist us in answering the question we raised.
Elucidates the Rav: The Midrash on the words in the passage המלאך הגואל אותי: ‘The angel who redeemed me’, concludes with the words: וידגו לרוב בקרב הארץ:’May they proliferate abundantly, like fish within the land’.
Expounds the Midrash: Fish, though they live in water, when even a drop of rain falls from above, reach for it as if they had not drunk a drop of water in their lives; so too, Israel, though they grow in the sea of Torah, when they hear a new word of Torah, drink it as if they had never heard a word of Torah, in their lives.
Had the pupils of Rabbi Akiva honored the Torah as they should have, each one would have had respect and honored the Torah of his fellow students - as, though they were in the sea of Torah of the great Rabbi Akiva, they - like the fish - should have drunk in every word of Torah, from their fellow students.
They were therefore measure-for-measure, punished by [the disease called] ascara.
We can now answer the existentialist question we posed at the outset: Why are we mourning the decree that Hashem deemed was merited for the transgression of Rabbi Akiva’s pupils - the answer being that, that is not what is being mourned in the period ending on Lag Ba’Omer - what is being mourned is the lost Torah of these twenty-four thousand sages, whose improper behavior, led to it all being lost for eternity.
A parting gem from the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Simcha Zissel Broida: The duty to honor Torah scholars, is the foundation on which the whole of the Torah rests - and, in its absence - as in the case of the pupils of Rabbi Akiva - the Torah is likely to be forgotten, and none of it left רחמנא לצלן.
How awesome this is, concludes the Rav, that not only that they all died in the one period, but that nothing remains of their Torah in the whole of Shas - not one saying or chiddush - from the twenty-four thousand pupils, even though they undoubtedly received Torah from Rabbi Akiva, and innovated many chiddushim in the years that they learned from him - as our sugya concluded: after they died, the world was bereft of Torah.
לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.