Hidden Light - Shimon Bar Yochai: Zohar
The Zohar was composed by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. It is the most central of Jewish Kabbalah texts. Zohar literally means radiance or splendour. Its extended meaning is enlightenment. The Zohar mystically explains the inner meaning of Torah and motivates those who study it to live a Torah true life and bring themselves closer to God. Topics discussed in the Zohar include God, the Sefirot, the Shekhina, the soul, the good and evil inclination, humanity, sin, death, mystical prayer, and the repairing of the universe. Lag B'Omer is the day on which Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai revealed some of the most deepest teachings of the Zohar, and it is the day on which he died.
The teachings in the Zohar are like fire. For the Zohar teaches that everything we see as materiality in the physical world also has a spiritual dimension that can also be seen. But the eyes that see it are not our physical eyes. When a person is able to get a hint at the spiritual dimension in what is seen, the depth of holiness of that which is all around is is sensed. And it brings the person to another level of consciousness, another level of appreciation of what God has created.
Rabbi Doniel Baron teaches
Lag B'Omer invites us to look deeper and to hear the ever-present broadcast throughout creation. The flames of Lag B'Omer call to us and whisper that there is more to every person and every object than meets the eye, that one should never give up even if a situation looks hopeless. Look beyond the superficial and acknowledge deeper realms of existence; embrace worlds that we cannot see or touch, but which are every bit as real as the one in which we live.
On Lag B'Omer we light bonfires. We dance in ecstatic dancing. We study the Zohar and other mystical writings in honor of the memory of the luminary of Jewish mysticism, Shimon Bar Yochai.
We explore the smallest area table containing ELSs of the three key words: Shimon, BarYochai, and Zohar. We show two tables. The first one arises from a search where the expected number of ELSs is set to 20. The probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table better than the one produced by the Torah text is 78.5/1,000. The second one arises from a search where the expected number of ELSs is set to 60. The probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table better than the one produced by the Torah text is 43.5/1,000. This is an example of redundant encoding.
Rabbi Glazerson also explored these terms in the context of the key word Lag B'Omer, where Lag B'Omer is spelled fully with a ו. He also uses the short spelling for Yochai, without the א. The table he found is interesting. In the middle of the table are ELSs, one within the other of the key words: Reveal and The Lights. The table is shown below.
