We celebrate Lag BaOmer because R Shimon Bar Yochai revealed the Zohar. He revealed the penimius of the Torah for the first time allowing the light of Moshiach to finally break through into the world so it is an amazing day. It is held in such high regard in the olamos that a student of the AriZal was punished for crying over the Bais Hamikdash on that day. To intertwine the two, the penimius of the Torah allowed people who disrespected one another to finally realize to the holiness of every single Jew – hence the connection between the students who stopped dying and the Reb Shimon revealing the Zohar Hakadosh.