This coming Sunday, May 18, known in Hebrew as Lag B'Omer, the thirty-third day of the omer (1), is the anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest sages and spiritual giants in Jewish history, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon, who lived in Israel under Roman occupation around 165 CE (approximately one hundred years after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.), was an extraordinary scholar (2) and author of the Zohar, the most basic Kabbalistic work. He was responsible for revealing to the world the wisdom of the Kabbalah, initiating a new era in the...
