"We are currently observing the period of Sefirat Ha’omer, when we mourn the tragic deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students. We cannot possibly even imagine how a calamity of this magnitude affected Rabbi Akiva, the pain and distress he must have experienced upon seeing all his students perish in such a short period of time. Remarkably, however, as the Talmud relates, Rabbi Akiva responded to this tragedy by moving to a different city and finding a small handful of gifted students to teach. Rather than wallowing in anguish and giving up on the whole enterprise of Torah, he put this dreadful experience behind him and moved on. Rabbi Akiva refused to let this tragedy crush his spirits. If this yeshiva was ravaged by a plague, then he would just go somewhere else and try it again."
The above text is an excerpt from the daily halacha by Rabbi Eli Mansour. To register to receive a daily email, click here.
A friend of mine just told me that her husband had gone to a Lag Baomer gathering in his shul last night and his Rabbi spoke about why we celebrate during a period when so many of Rabbi Akiva's students perished. Where is the simcha? He answered that Lag Baomer is a joyous occasion because we celebrate that Rabbi Akiva didn't give in to despair, but began to rebuild. When tragedy strikes, we don't give up, but start anew.
I came across a video with inspirational messages. One quote especially relates to the message of Lag Baomer.
"You don’t lose if you get knocked down; You lose if you stay down."
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