In Parshas Emor, we read about bringing the Omer offering, and “counting the Omer.” The Omer was brought on the second day of Passover, the first offering of new grain. In fact, in the land of Israel the new grain cannot be used until the day the Omer would be brought, and some opinions apply this outside Israel as well. Then, we count, as the holiday of Shavuos is always fifty days after Passover, rather than on a particular day of the month. Although on our modern calendar Shavuos is always on the sixth of Sivan, it could have ranged from the fifth to the seventh when the new month was determined by witness testimony.

During this period, however, a great tragedy happened, as 24,000 students of the great Rebbe Akiva passed away during this period of time. It was a massive plague, but our rabbis identified a spiritual, rather than physical, cause: these students did not give each other the honor and respect due to other scholars.

It is incredible to contemplate: they didn’t break out in fights or steal from each other, they simply didn’t show proper respect. And this, because of their spiritual greatness, was regarded as such a severe defect that they were all lost to us.

Rebbe Akiva remains one of the leading teachers in Jewish history. After this tragedy, he trained five new scholars who brought his teaching forward, encompassing the majority of the Oral Law that we know today. So the loss to us of those 24,000 lost scholars is incalculable. And that is why there are customs of mourning observed even today during this time.

We cannot merely go through the motions of mourning their loss, we have to consider what that loss means to us. And we must consider each person and the respect due to them, and strive to conduct ourselves accordingly. That is how we can honor their memory, by making the world a better place with better relationships, one person at a time.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Yaakov Menken