Normally, a tzaddik‘s passing would call for fasting and mourning. But the venerated R’ Shimon Bar Yochai had explicitly conveyed that the day of his petirah be observed as a Yom Tov, a holiday – to rejoice in commemoration of the day the world was suffused with the brilliant light of the holy Zohar and the sun gave forth its radiance beyond its daily allotment.
R’ Shimon Bar Yochai’s neshama emanates from the same root as Moshe Rabbeinu‘s – thus Lag B’Omer and the fourth day of the following Sukkos (Moshe’s Ushpiz) always fall on the same day of the week. Lag B’Omer and Moshe share the same numerical value of 345.
Other righteous souls whose yahrtzeits fall on the days in Iyar: R’ Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi, the Chacham Tzvi and R’ Shmelke of Nikolsburg (1 Iyar); R’ Yeshaya’la Kerestir (3 Iyar); Eli HaKohen Gadol and sons, R’ Yitzchak Alfazi, the RiF, R’ Yitzchak Isaac Yehuda Yechiel M’Komarna, R’ Dovid (Twersky) of Tolna and R’ Hillel Lichtenstein of Kalamei (10 Iyar); R’ Naftali Tzvi of Ropshitz ben Menachem Mendel (11 Iyar); R’ Meir Baal HaNess (14 Iyar); R’ Yechezkel Landau, the Noda B’Yehuda (17 Iyar); R’ Shimon bar Yochai and R’ Moshe Isserles, the Rema (18 Iyar); R’ Meir ben Baruch, the Maharam M’Rottenberg and R’ Menachem Mendel of Rimanov (19 Iyar); R’ Mordechai of Chernobyl (20 Iyar); R’ Chaim of Kosov (25 Iyar); R’ Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal (26 Iyar); Shmuel HaNavi son of Chana (28 Iyar) and R’ Meir’l of Premishlan (29 Iyar).
Rav Naftali Zvi Ropshitz was born on the same day the Baal Shem Tov was nistalek, lending credence to the saying of our Sages, “The sun rises and the sun sets…” (Yoma 38).
The Ropshitzer was renowned for his chachma and his aptitude for conveying penetrating insights succinctly. He once observed a young man rushing into shul past noon, quickly donning his Tallis and hastily davening. Rav Naftali approached him and told him about another young man who would arrive home each morning at 11:00 am from davening, where he was routinely served breakfast by his wife.
On one morning his wife atypically excused herself, informing her spouse that he would need to wait a while. The man sat down and waited and waited. One hour turned to two, then three, and so on. Every now and then, the wife would yell to her husband from the kitchen where she busied herself that she was not yet ready.
The day turned into night before the wife finally made an appearance and presented her famished husband with the same breakfast cereal he had each morning.
“That’s it – after all the waiting?” he asked incredulously. “I thought for sure you were preparing an elaborate and luscious dish such as roasted duck – for which the long wait would have been worthwhile. This standard breakfast fare you could’ve just as well served me in the morning on time.”
Concluded the Ropshitzer, “For such a hurried davening you need yet arrive at such a late hour?”
