A Torah for Lag B'Omer: Open My Eyes That I May See Wonders in Your Torah

 Lag B'Omer is celebrated this year on Thursday, May 7th

Rabbi Avraham Arieh Trugman, Director, Ohr Chadash: New Horizons in Jewish Experience for Huff post Religion

According to the wisdom of arranging the letters of Hebrew words in various ways, in order to extract multiple layers of meaning, the letters of the word Lag (as in Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer) when reversed, spell gal. The root word gal has many meanings, one of which is "to open" or "reveal." This meaning is expressed in the verse: "Open (gal) my eyes that I may see wonders in your Torah" (Psalms 119:18). This verse clearly relates to Lag B'Omer, the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. In the Zohar he and his students reveal sublime and lofty secrets of the inner dimensions of Torah.

Paradoxically, the words in Hebrew for exile (galut) and redemption (geulah) are both derived from the root gal. The fact that both words share the same root points to the intrinsic, cyclic connection of exile and redemption, as it has accompanied human kind and especially the Jewish people throughout its history. It is stated in the Zohar that on the merit of learning its teachings, the Jewish people will go out of exile. Learning the inner dimensions of Torah will create a critic mass of light and spiritual energy sufficient to turn exile (galut) into redemption (geulah).

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