Rabbi Akiva's Students and the Omer

B"H

It is customarily to refrain from listening to music during the Omer period. At least not until Lag Ba'Omer (the 33. day of the Omer). Not only music is avoided but also cutting ones hair and weddings.

Lag Ba'Omer was the day when Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai passed away. He was a student of the famous Tanna Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef.
We are always told that the time of the Omer period is a time of mourning and that's why we have to avoid listening to music or celebrating weddings. The Talmud Tractate Yevamot 62b teaches that during this time, 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died in a plague. Our Mefarshim refer to the death of the students as a G - dly punishment because the students spoke Lashon HaRah (idle talk) about each other. Each of them wanted to be the best and most respected person and didn't see the other ones anymore.

Historians, however, make a completely different statement. The students didn't die in a plague but died in the war with the Romans. This version seems to be more realistic and I totally agree with it. Rabbi Akiva falsely saw the Meschiach in Bar Kochba and supported him in the war against the Romans. He even let his students fight for Bar Kochba and many of them fell.

There is no doubt that the time of the Omer is a mourning period but unfortunately, many people might stress the wrong reason for it.