Lee Diamond – Bar Kochba : Hero or Traitor?
On Lag Ba Omer every Israeli kid becomes religious. Everywhere in the country bonfires blaze on every hilltop and field. For days before Erev lag Ba Oner kids find and drag anything that will burn in their bonfire.
Smoke fills the air. Pollution invades our nostrils.
Homes close their windows to protect against the smoke and smell of this ” religious secular joy.”
Children sing and play by the light of the fires burning in their faces.
Why ?
It’s Lag BaOmer !
But why Fires ?
Because of Shimon Bar Kochba!
Why fires in his name ?
To remember the revolution that he started by setting fires from mountain to mountain to announce the revolution!
BUT the revolution caused countless deaths to the Jewish people.
BUT untold numbers of villages were destroyed by the Romans as a reprisal for this “glorious” revolution!
Some even were fooled into believing that he was the Messiah. Even Rabbi Akiba allowed himself to be fooled.
Three short years of victory and thousands of deaths and so much destruction .
Two thousands of years of loss ! Of wolves roaming freely on the Temple Mount as it lay in ruins. Of failure if extremism!
Is this the hero that we glorify?
Is this the Messiah?
Are these fires, fires of heroism ?
Or the flames of destruction and extremism. And maybe our own terrorism ?
Why Akiba ? Why?
Why Israel? Why?
Let’s light the flames to announce PEACE! From hilltop to hilltop! From Israel to the Diaspora. From Jew to Jew . From Israeli to Palestinian! From extremism to compromise .
Let’s “feel the burn” of a bright future
