 This is a special evening in the Jewish calendar, and the story begins that the Torah tells us that on the second day of Passover, we were commanded to bring an Omer, which was a measure of barley to the holy temple in Jerusalem, and this was an offering to thank God for the new harvest and the new crops. From the second night of Passover, beginning the second evening of Passover, we were commanded in the Torah to count 49 days, to count each of the days between the beginning of Passover and the next holiday in our calendar, which is the holiday of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, which comes out seven weeks after Passover, and that's the holiday that commemorates the receiving of our holy Torah at Mount Sinai. These 49 days, counting these days, serves as a bridge to connect Passover, the Exodus, with the goal of the Exodus. We were not just freed from Egypt, we were freed to something, and so we count these 49 days to connect Passover with Shavuot. These days are days of anticipation. In the same way we look forward to anything special in life, like a wedding or graduation, we count to the day of receiving the Torah. We're anticipating this amazing day, and also these are 49 days of preparation. We're getting ready for this amazing experience. Now tonight, as soon as nightfall comes, I'm not sure of the exact time. It hasn't happened yet, it's still daylight outside, but with tonight there's going to be a special night in the counting of the 49 days of the Omer, because tonight after nightfall it's going to be the 33rd day of the Omer. In Hebrew, the way we'd express 33 is with the letters Lamed and Gimel, and we pronounce that as log. So tonight after nightfall it's going to be a special day called log ba Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer. Now the 49 days were originally joyous days and joys that were celebratory. Imagine all of the Jewish people getting ready for the receiving of the Torah. But around 2000 years ago, this period of time, these 49 days, became a period of mourning. It became a very sad time in our calendar. How did that happen? Rabbi Akiva was at one point an illiterate shepherd, could not even recite the Hebrew alphabet. And one day when he was with his flocks, he decided to go to a stream to get some water to drink, and he noticed something curious. He sees that there is a rock in the stream, and the rock has a hole that was bored through the rock. It's a very strange sight. And he realizes what happened. He sees that there's been water dripping endlessly, drip after drip after drip on this rock that was able to bore through this cavity. And this realization, this sight, was an epiphany for Rabbi Akiva. He wasn't a rabbi back then, just Akiva, the simple shepherd. And he said to himself, wow, if this rock, which is hard, can be penetrated by water, which is soft, then the Torah, which is as hard as steel, can certainly penetrate my mind. And he said himself to studying Torah, and he studied for decades. He studied for 24 years and became just about the greatest scholar in Jewish history. And during those 24 years of studying, he gathered to himself 24,000 students. Many of these students he ordained. And then tragically, these 24,000 students died in a plague that took place during the Omer period. The plague lasted for 33 days. And on Lagba Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer, the plague stopped and his students no longer were dying. And this is one of the reasons why Lagba Omer is considered to be a festive day. And we don't practice any of the morning practices that we practice during the rest of the Omer period. But I'd like to focus for a minute on another reason why Lagba Omer is so special. You can imagine that after losing 24,000 of his students, Rabbi Akiva would have been very bummed out. He would have been crushed. He would have been discouraged. He probably would be very close to throwing in the towel. Everything he lived for, everything he worked for evaporates. But Rabbi Akiva did not give up. And on the day of Lagba Omer, the day that his students stopped dying, he ordained one of his remaining students, Rabbi Yehuda Ben Bava. And then he took five of his other students and they went down to southern Israel and he began to train them. And it's from these students that the oral Torah, our oral Torah was saved from extinction. And we've been thriving ever since. Lagba Omer marks the day of not giving up. Not giving in to despair and not giving up. 80 years ago, to this year, 80 years ago, a program of genocide was launched against our people in Europe. And tragically, 6 million of our brothers and sisters and parents perished in the Holocaust in the Shoah. This could have led to total resignation and despair among our people. The degree of tragedy is incomparable. And yet we did not give up. Three years after the end of the Holocaust, we fought a war of independence and we regained our ancient homeland. And we built it into the most incredible nation in the history of the world. We never give up. That's the message of Lagba Omer. Unfortunately our challenges have not ceased. And there are still people who seek our destruction and the end of our holy state.