21 facts about Lag Baomer

21 facts (and/or fiction) about Lag Baomer  1) According to ר' מנחם החברוני (13th century) רשב"י is buried in Kfar Chananya (15 km. south of Meron) 2) According to the חיד"א, there is no מקור anywhere that רשב"י was niftar on Lag Baomer 3) The first mention of רשב"י Yahrzeit on ל:ג בעומר is the controversial ספר חמדת הימים 4) According to the יעב"ץ, (The Chasam Sofer seems to agree)  R. Moishe d'Leon (not רשב"י), wrote the זהר 5) According to many Poskim, the תלמידי ר' עקיבא still died on ל"ג בעומר but stopped on the 34th day of the עומר. 6)  The מדרש says it was only 300 Talmidim who died. The גמרא (Yevamos 62) says 12,000 pairs of Talmidim died. 7) The גמרא says they all died of a disease called אסכרה.  According to Harav Hagaon Y. Henkin zt"l and others, the גמרא uses אסכרה as a code for getting killed fighting the Romans. 8) The שואל ומשיב  5 - 39  writes, "If you distribute the  money to עניי ארץ ישראל instead of spending it to go to his  קבר etc., he guarantees רשב"י will have  much more נחת רוח. 9) According to the Chasam Sofer,ל"ג בעומר celebration has nothing to do with רשב"י  10) According to the Chasam Sofer, the only ל"ג בעומר celebration is קצת שמחה of not saying תחנון 11) According to the   מנחת אלעזר ח"ד:ס.the ל"ג בעומר celebration is strictly a מנהג ארץ ישראל Celebrating in חוץ לארץ is onsidered strange & haughty כזרות יחשב וכיוהרא  12) When the מנחת אלעזר was in Eretz Yisrael during ל"ג בעומר he spent the night in צפת, not willing to celebrate in Meron together with the Zionists.             13) The תוספתא (Shabbos 7:1) says clapping hands or  dancing in front of a fire is אסור because of דרכי אמורי.  14) In the ספרים of the previous generations, they only mention of מרבים בנרות (festive) and not the הדלקה 15)  Years ago, they had women dancing in Meron on Lag Baomer לכבוד התנא רשב"י 16) Originally, the pilgrimage to Meron for the first 350 years was done on פסח שני and not on ל"ג בעומר  17) Originally, the celebration was held at the cave of בית שמאי & בית הלל at a later date it was changed to רשב"י  18) Originally, it was only Muslim women who burned their clothes לכבוד רשב"י. The Yidden later adopted this controversial Minhag. 19) It's not the lighting of the fire that's done לכבוד רשב"י It's the burning of the expensive clothes that is done לכבוד רשב"י  20)  The Chasam Sofer in the פתיחה to סדר נזיקין writes, the Yeshiva started learning מס' בבא קמא on Lag Baomer. גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך stands for the 3 בבות & their 30 פרקים  21) Rav Elyashiv Zt"l said that דעת תורה is not to travel to Meron on ל"ג בעומר