Lag B'Omer & The VA Tech Massacre

כ"ט בניסן תשס"ז

Amazingly, a thread of connection exists between the Virginia Tech massacre and Lag B'Omer.

Lag B'Omer marks the 33rd day of the Omer, when R' Akiva's students stopped dying. The 32 days prior to Lag B'Omer are a time of judgment. Historically, following the time of judgment, when the students stopped dying, R' Akiva began building up a new student body from only 5 students who survived the dying time. 24,000 students of R' Akiva died.

There were 32 deaths, 33 deaths including the shooter, at VA Tech. One of those 32-33 deaths was an Israeli professor, Livui Librescu, a shoah survivor, who died protecting his students during the dying time - unlike R' Akiva, whose students died while he survived the dying time. The number of deaths ends at 33 - like Lag B'Omer.

Perhaps Livui Librescu, in some manner, is the tikun of R' Akiva. Thousands of Akiva's students died. Livui's students lived - all of them. Professor Librescu rescued all his students.

Tonight, Tuesday evening, April 17, we count fifteen days, which is two weeks and one day of the Omer.

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