Mahmoud, the Arab worker at the Ponivez Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, explains in a conversation with the yeshiva's students what the reasons are for mourning during the counting of the Omer. The wars of the "haters" and "terrorists" in the yeshiva are also woven into the explanation.
Here is the conversation:
""Mahmoud, why don't you shave?" one of the guys at the Poniviz yeshiva asks him.
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Mahmoud knows how to explain: "Because of the counting of the Omer.".
What is the counting of the Omer? he was asked.
""I'll tell you the story, what was it? There was once a rabbi, one of the great rabbis, his name was Rabbi Akiva, he had 24,000 students, they were all day long, like today the 'Shuina' do to the 'terrorists'...
""The terrorists study, the haters come and fight, do you understand? And then, when they fight all day and don't study, then God struck them down, 24,000 students died.
""They died from one stroke. Then Rabbi Akiva wrote a book of Talmud, wrote something in it that I don't know what, and then, because of that, they don't listen to music, they don't shave, they don't count the Omer. Because of this story...""
