„He was exalted above all the calculations of the present and the bitt…”

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whose day of commemoration (hilula) is this evening, stands before reality from a place that does not compromise on the truth. He is faithful to what the world is meant to be, and therefore his rejection of evil is also absolute and uncompromising. But the story does not end there. When he comes out of the cave for the first time, this gaze burns the world. He is unable to contain the gap between the supernal truth and life as it is. Only after he returns to the cave, undergoes a further process, and is refined, does he come out again, differently. That same truth remains, but the ability to act within reality changes. He no longer only burns; he also builds. He repairs marketplaces, creates reality, acts within the world without giving up the height from which he sees it. On Lag BaOmer we meet the complete Rashbi. The one who refused to shrink himself according to reality, but also did not remain detached from it. The one who teaches that one can remain faithful to the supernal truth, and at the same time descend into the world, to repair, to build, and to illuminate it from within.