| שנים עשר מי יודע 1) Where is Kever רשב“י located? According to ר’ מנחם החברוני (13th century) רשב”י is buried in Kfar Chananya *(15 km. south of Meron) 2) What day in the עומר was רשב“י niftar? According to the חיד”א, there is no מקור anywhere that רשב”י was niftar on Lag Baomer**. 3) Who wrote the Zohar? According to the יעב”ץ, (The Chasam Sofer seems to agree) it was R. Moishe d’Leon (not רשב”י) 4) What day did the Talmidei R. Akiva stop dying? According to many Poskim, they still died on Lag Baomer but stopped on the 34th day of the עומר. 5) How many Talmidim of R. Akiva died between
Pesach & Shavuos? The גמרא (Yevamos 62) says 12,000 pairs of Talmidim.The מדרש says it was only 300 Talmidim. 6) How did they die? The גמרא says they all died of a disease called Askera. According to Harav Hagaon Y. Henkin zt”l and others, the גמרא uses Askera as a code for getting killed fighting the Romans. 7) How can you bring Nachas to רשב“י (guaranteed)? The שואל ומשיב 5 – 39 writes “If you distribute the money to עניי ארץ ישראל instead of spending it to go to his Kever etc., he guarantees רשב”י will have much more Nachas Ruach. 8) Why do we celebrate Lag Baomer? According to the Chasam Sofer, the קצת שמחה has nothing to do with רשב”י but because it’s the Sefirah of הוד שבהוד*** and to commemorate the first day the מן came down in the מדבר. 9) Why you should not celebrate ל“ג בעומר with
dancing & music in חוץ לארץ? According to the מנחת אלעזר ח”ד:ס because it is only a Minhag Eretz Yisroel Celebrating in Chutz Laaretz is onsidered strange & haughty כזרות יחשב וכיוהרא 10) Why the מנחת אלעזר waited till the morning to
travel to Meron? When the מנחת אלעזר was in Eretz Yisrael during ל“ג בעומר he spent the night in צפת not willing to celebrate in Meron together with the Zionists. 11) Why is it forbidden to dance in front of a fire? The תוספתא (Shabbos 7:1) says clapping hands or dancing in front of a fire is אסור because of דרכי אמורי. 12) Years ago they had women dancing in Meron on Lag Baomer לכבוד התנא רשב“י *R. Binyomin Todelo mentions being at the Kever of Hillel & Shammai but no mention of Rashbi
**The first to mention Yahrzeit of Rashbi on Lag Baomer is the Sefer “Chemdas Hayamim” (controversial Sefer)
*** Kabbalah | 