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KOSHER DELIGHT - YOUR JEWISH ONLINE MAGAZINE!
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LAG BA'OMER |
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Lag BaOmer Message
Bar Kochba and Ben-Gurion: FROM INSPIRATION
TO ACTION
Dear Friends,
Military victories led by Shimon Bar Kochba gave the
People of Israel nearly 3 years of national
independence during 132-135 CE
(Common Era);
we celebrate that Great Hebrew Revolt on Lag BaOmer
(May 26 this year),
but it also led to the worst massacres of Jews in
ancient times, and the Exile of most of our People
from almost all of our ancestral Land of Israel. Bar
Kochba's war began in the hills of Judea and carried
so far afield as Beit She'an in Lower Galilee. It
cost Rome and its Empire the utter destruction of 2
complete Legions of the 12 eventually sent to crush
the rebellious Jews, a lavish expedition of huge
numbers of troops led by Julius Severus, the best
Roman general of the time, summoned from faraway
Britannia.
That brief flicker of freedom won from Rome inspired
the Fathers of the Jewish Nation in modern times.
The Father of the Third Jewish Commonwealth,
Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion,
adopted his Hebrew family name from one of Bar
Kochba's generals. The tenacity, decisive action,
and total commitment to achieving independence from
the oppressive yoke of Rome inspired the just
struggle of Zionist leaders to restore Jewish
national life in our old-new Land of Zion and
Jerusalem. They focused on the spirit ofBar
Kochba's struggle rather than its tragic
results; in 1947-49 it was the only way to fight
the battle the whole world saw as hopeless, the War
and that led to Israel's 68th Independence Day we
celebrated on May 12. Ben Gurion's refusal to
accept the logic of military realities gave
the Jewish People its best and most profound
achievement in 1800 years since Bar Kochba: national
redemption in the State of Israel. That's probably
what Ben Gurion meant when he famously said:
"Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a
realist." Without that inspiration, without that
faith in the Destiny of our People, we would today
not have had our State.
May the light of our glorious Lag BaOmer bonfires
illuminate our present and the bright promise of our
future; may we kindle and sustain the spirit of our
long national continuity in this festival!
Lag BaOmer Sameach!
Chazak ve'Ematz!
RABBI CARLOS A. TAPIERO
Deputy Director-General & Director of Education
Maccabi World Union
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KOSHER DELIGHT MAGAZINE
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