And you shall count for yourself, from the day after the day of rest. From that day, you shall bring the omer as a wave offering for seven weeks; they shall be complete. (Chapter 23:15)

There’s a story told by Rabbi Zachariah Wallerstein. A king is holding a contest – the winner gets to marry the wise and beautiful princess. The contest is a race to the top of a high castle. It begins at midnight and the racers have until sunrise to reach the top. First one to the top wins.

Before midnight, hundreds of men line up for the start of the race. After an hour, a quarter of the men give up. After another hour, another quarter of the men give up. As the hours go by and daybreak gets closer, more and more men give up until there are two guys left. They are only about halfway up the castle and there’s about 10 minutes before sunrise. One of the men says, “I’m not going any further. This whole thing must be a joke. There’s no way a person can make it to the top by sunrise. I bet the king is just looking to see who is foolish enough to stay in the race until sunrise and will laugh at him.” The other man decides that he is not quitting. The king is a kind person and wouldn’t do something like that. It becomes only a minute before sunrise. Suddenly, in front of the final racer that is left appears an elevator. He steps in and it brings him to the top of the castle seconds before the sun comes up. He won!

As many of us know, there is a mitzvah to count every day of the Omer from Pesach to Shavuos, but if a person misses count one day, he does not continue saying the blessing before counting on the remaining nights. He should continue to count though. By Lag B’Omer (which occurred during this week), there are numerous people who unfortunately have missed a day. They give up and they feel that since they no longer say the blessing, they stop counting. This is incorrect though. A person should still continue to count. We don’t ever give up just because we missed a day.

Twenty-four thousand great, wise students of Rabi Akiva passed away during the Omer. On Lag B’Omer they did not die. Lag B’Omer is a celebration. There are numerous reasons why we celebrate on Lag B’Omer but one is because Rabi Akiva did not give up. Despite having all of the students of his yeshiva passing away, he did not quit. He moved to a new place and opened a new, small yeshiva of five students. The Oral Torah was passed down through these five students. If Rabi Akiva gave up, there would be no Oral Torah today. Judaism probably would not exist. The whole world would be much different, if the world even would exist at all. Because Rabi Akiva did not give up, we are celebrating on Lag B’Omer. Despite having a terrible tragedy occur, he continued.

The lesson is never give up.

Good Shabbos
-y.e.s.
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