Notes from the Underground: Lag baOmer, destiny vs free will

1) The lack of bonfires got me thinking back to when I was a kid and had TV.  I remember WPIX, channel 11, home of the Yankees, would go off air on Xmas and just show a loop of logs burning in a fireplace so that those folks living in their NY apartments or homes without fireplaces could still imagine themselves sitting all cozy around a yuletide fire.  Is there a virtual bonfire l'havdil out there that we can put on our screens in honor of Rashbi?

On second thought, it just wouldn't be the same as this:

No one plays a crowd like R ' Melech.

For some reason Lag baOmer has grown in popularity over the years.  It is hard to see the background in this picture of my wife's uncle, R' Immanuel Shochet a"h, as a very young man (center) speaking at Meiron in 1958, but it does not look like hundreds of thousands were there in those days:

2) Lab BaOmer is hod she'b'hod.  Hod=the midah of Aharon haKohen, oheiv shalom, rodef shalom, oheiv es ha'briyos u'mikarvan la'Torah.  This is why the day is also about R' AKiva, who taught v'ahavta l'reiach kamocha = oheiv shalom is the klal gadol ba'Torah; u'mikarvan laTorah= R' Akiva is the shoresh of Torah she'baal peh.  Those two are ha b'ha talya. 

The day is not really about the bonfire : )

3) Do you drive a car?  I used to have to drive as part of my commute. Link to your article of the day where they crunched the numbers and found: The COVID-19 death risk in people less than 65 years old during the period of fatalities from the epidemic was equivalent to the death risk from driving between 13 and 101 miles per day for 11 countries and 6 states, and was higher (equivalent to the death risk from driving 143-668 miles per day) for 6 other states and the UK... CONCLUSIONS: People less than 65 years old have very small risks of COVID-19 death even in pandemic epicenters and deaths for people less than 65 years without underlying predisposing conditions are remarkably uncommon."  The price we pay by doing a lockdown to protect against that risk is reported in in another study: "The same number of people could die from ‘deaths of despair’ as have already died in the U.S. from coronavirus, new study finds"  Mai chazis d'damei didach who want the lockdown sumak tfei from those dying because of it?

4) The Midrash at the beginning of Emor, commenting on the pasuk "amaros Hashem t'horos," gives a mashal: A politician comes to town and the people love him.  The more they sing his praises, the more promises he makes to them -- when he's elected he will fix the Van Wyck, he will have the subways cleaned up and running on time, there will be a chicken in every pot.  Lo and behold, once he is elected none of what was promised materializes.  Hashem is not like that.  His word is true for eternity.


I could not figure this Midrash out.  What are Chazal trying to teach me?  That Democrats campaign on lies?  I know that.  That Hashem is not a politician and keeps his promises?  I know that too.  Sefas Emes (5640) says an amazing vort.  I've posted many times about the Ohr haChaim in P' VaYeishev (its in other sources too) that speaks about the power of bechira to even thwart hashgacha -- meaning, Hashem built into the teva the power for us to make decisions that change the course of our lives, and barring exceptional zechuyos that warrant a l'maalah-min-ha'teva intervention, we suffer the consequences.  Why am I so disturbed by the lockdown when Hashem sent the virus?  Why don't I just accept His gezira, like I quoted from the Ishbitzer yesterday?  The answer is that, as Alex Berenson puts it, the virus didn't put 30 million people out of work -- our reaction did.  Hashem gives us bechira to do as we please.  If you believe humans will usually choose well, then this is a very uplifting message -- we have a hand in tikun olam and making the world a better place.  I unfortunately am not one of those people that think people generally choose well : )  I am one of the people who believe if you bet on human stupidity, the odds are very much in your favor.  What Chazal are telling us here is that even if that is the case, don't lose faith.  Hashem promises that in the end we will overcome it all, that there will be a geulah, that we will return to Him, and though we may wittingly or unwittingly find ourselves sometimes working against those very outcomes, "amaros Hashem t'horos" and Hashem keeps his promise to make it all happen in spite of us.  The best thing we can do sometimes is to just do out best to get out of the way : )