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Shimon Bar Yochai

from Three Weeks by Ari Lesser

/

lyrics

It’s Lag BaOmer, so leave your home
Like Rebbi Shimon on Mount Meron
Don’t stay and hide in your cave, go play
With your friends outside it’s a beautiful day
Shoot your bow and arrow up in the sky
Get high on Torah like Bar Yochai
Light your bonfire, pull an all-nighter
On the Yartzeit of the Zohar writer

Shimon bar Yochai was a holy guy
Who was so much wiser than you and I
He was a true believer, an overachiever
From the yeshiva of Rebbi Akiva
The Roman’s came they banned Torah teaching
But Rebbi Akiva kept on preaching
In prison he still taught students until
The Roman’s had him tortured and killed
And it was after this that Rebbi Shimon
Yehuda, and Yossi were discussing Rome
Yehudah said the Romans were sweet
For building bathhouses, bridges, and streets
Yossi sat silently, he heard
Everything that was said but he spoke no word
And Shimon answered and said, “All this
That they made was just for their own interest
They built market places with all those stores
So they could fill them with harlots and whores
Bathhouses just for themselves to wash
And bridges to tax all those who cross
When the Romans heard what the sages debated
They praised Yehudah, had him elevated
They exiled Yossi for just sitting still
And declared that Shimon would have to be killed
So he and his son went to hide away
They stayed in the Beis Midrash each day
His wife would bring them some water and bread
But he feared they would torture her so they fled

It’s Lag BaOmer, so leave your home
Like Rebbi Shimon on Mount Meron
Don’t stay and hide in your cave, go play
With your friends outside it’s a beautiful day
Shoot your bow and arrow up in the sky
Get high on Torah like Bar Yochai
Light your bonfire, pull an all-nighter
On the Yartzeit of the Zohar writer

Shimon and his son had to hide in a cave
Only by a miracle were they saved
A carob tree and a well were created
For them to eat and drink while they waited
They sat naked with the sand up to their necks
To protect their garments from getting wrecked
Only put on clothes when it was time to pray
While they stayed in the cave and studied all day
Twelve years they lived there on their own
And secrets were shown to Rebbi Shimon
The concealed was revealed to Bar Yochai
As clear as that day at Har Sinai
Finally Elijah appeared and said
“The decree is cancelled, the Ceaser’s dead.”
But when they emerged they saw there a man
Plowing and planting seeds in the land
Surprised they cried, “How could he forsake
Eternal life, for this life that’s fake.”
And every place to which they turned
Their eyes, went up in flames and burned
But then a voice from heaven cried
“Have you emerged and come outside
To destroy my world, you can’t behave
Like this, now go back to your cave”
So they returned there, forced to dwell
Twelve month like the wicked stay in hell
Until the voice from heaven said
“Leave your cave.” And so they did

It’s Lag BaOmer, so leave your home
Like Rebbi Shimon on Mount Meron
Don’t stay and hide in your cave, go play
With your friends outside it’s a beautiful day
Shoot your bow and arrow up in the sky
Get high on Torah like Bar Yochai
Light your bonfire, pull an all-nighter
On the Yartzeit of the Zohar writer

Many years went by and Bar Yochai
Was laying in bed about to die
It was Lag BaOmer, the thirty third day
And when the sun set he would pass away
He knew it was his last chance to give
Over all his wisdom while he still lived
And so he began to reveal many more
Secrets of Torah than ever before
His students gathered around his bed
Rebbi Abba wrote every word he said
He was goingg fast if a thing was lost
Future generations would pay the cost
Trying to fit all he had to say
To his students into that single day
Rebbi Abba was writing but the sunlight
Was sinking and there was too much to write
But he kept on teaching and teaching and yet
The sun stood still and refused to set
A burning fire surrounded the house
None could enter none could go out
And when he finished speaking at last
The house was lit by a brilliant flash
As Rebbi Shimon returned his soul
To its Maker, pure, righteous, and whole
And to this day the whole Jewish nation
Is still being nourished by his revelation
Bar Yochai gave us the Zohar
On the eighteenth day in the month of Iyar

It’s Lag BaOmer, so leave your home
Like Rebbi Shimon on Mount Meron
Don’t stay and hide in your cave, go play
With your friends outside it’s a beautiful day
Shoot your bow and arrow up in the sky
Get high on Torah like Bar Yochai
Light your bonfire, pull an all-nighter
On the Yartzeit of the Zohar writer

credits

from Three Weeks, released November 28, 2012

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Ari Lesser image

Ari Lesser Cleveland

Ari Lesser is a singer, songwriter, rapper, and spoken word artist from Cleveland, Ohio. He has performed all over the world, and written hundreds of songs on a wide range of subjects. Ari’s repertoire is expansive, touching on everything from history, to animals, to Star Wars, but now his focus and passion is making music based on the Torah. ... more

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