A Bad Case of the Festschrifts

Did I just hear you say festschrift? If so, STEP AWAY from that book. This is your final warning! For all you regular folk, I am sure I need not remind you the meaning of this malevolent word. To eliminate confusion, a festschrift, is quite simply a book written as tribute to a respected person.

Now why would I be using such potty language as festschrift here on such a respectable venue? I'll tell why. I am here to cry out and save your precious souls from engaging in what clearly must be the work of the devil himself. Let me digress and tell you how this all came about.

I had found the words of the Lord through his modern day prophet or as he is humbly known- Chief Rabbi of the UK R. Jonathan Sacks. I might add that his youtube videos are quite profound and deeply rewarding- so seek and ye shall find the Lords wisdom in his work. I bought R. Sack's Covenant and Conversation which gives Torah for the weekly portion. Three thumbs up. Then I chanced upon a book called Radical Responsibility which had his picture on the cover so I swiped it up only later to realize the folly of my simple ways.

When I began the introduction, I was hexed by the 8-fold mentioning of that accursed word 'festschrift'. Being the responsible reader that I am I looked up the word and realized that R. Sacks did not write this but some other brainiacs from the academia world decided to get their highfalutin philosophical mumbo jumbo printed on the back of R. Sacks. Say it with me kids:WASTE- OF- TIME. There was one good article that unfolded in R. Sacksien style of sensitive reading of the texts to uncover deep truths and meaning (Regarding the story of Achan in the book of Joshua relating to collective responsibility but that's for another time).

Just after completing the book, my father-in-law gave me a book to read. Now I'm-a-gonna give you but one guess which word was in the very first sentence of that book and if you say 'festschrift' I'm-a-gonna knock you between your schrifty eyes but you would be right.

But have I learned my lesson? NO! I read the whole damn thing cramping the whole way. Eliminate me now. There were a few worthy articles but as a whole it should've been relegated to the world of doctoral dissertations and academic research. I need stuff that so inspires me that I would actually want to share it with my wife, my kids, and the one who really has got my backside- my proctologist.

So as per my doctors orders, if you don't want a pain in the ass, flush that festschrift right outta your system.

Now You Sefira, Now You Don't

I have always been dissatisfied with the reasons given for the period of sefira being one of mourning. 12,000 pairs of R. Akiva students died somehow just doesn't seem to cut it. There are many cases of plagues, death and destruction. And the reason for their deaths is even more perplexing - that they didn't honor each other enough. Now that hardly seems like a case deserving of divine capital punishment. Now if you like to justify that logic see this link.

However, if this rational seems somewhat disconcerting see this link to the best understanding I have ever heard. It's an address by Rabbi Sacks for Yom Hazikaron/Yom Haatzmaut that explains sefira from a historical perspective. It is absolutely worth your 15 minutes of time. I can't believe I have lived this long and never had such a basic understanding. (Way to go, yeshiva ed). Sorry there will be no spoiler here- listen to it!

Ok enough time has past so I'll give a condensed answer here:

Igeret Shreera Gaan says they died not of plague but shmadah- persecution.
Gemara often refers to unbearable tragedy and terrible occurrences by alluding obliquely (and always conscious of Roman censors). In Yevamot 62B The death of the students are really referring to crushing of bar kochba rebellion by Hadrian. This was the worst tragedy ever up to that time- even worse than destruction of temples. Roman historian Dodio(?) says 580,000 Jews were killed directly and 985 cities, villages destroyed. This was a holocaust. The mourning during this period is an oblique mourning for that holocaust.

Lesson Jews learned was that twice (great rebellion in 66 leading to temple destruction 70 and 135 bar kochba)- when faced with insurmountable superior force it doesn't pay to fight and lead our people to destruction. Armed resistance lead to disaster. Baba Kama gemara says from day evil (Hadrian) govt arose, by rights they should decree no Jew get married and have children. So much was the despair.

The lose of 12000 pairs of students represent the devastation and almost destruction of Judaism and our people. We mourn their holocaust at this time.