Sunday was the 33rd Day of the Counting of the Omer. It is a special day where mourning practices are set aside. It makes the yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Bar Yochai was one of the five remaining disciples of Rabbi Akiva after the 24,000 students died. There is a strong tradition that he is the author of the Zohar, one of the greatest Jewish mystical works.

The day is marked with picnics and bonfires, as one of my congregants pointed out, almost like a giant yahrzeit candle for a Torah scholar. In Israel some people make pilgrimidges to Shimon bar Yochai’s grave in the northern Israeli town of Meron. One of the most interesting custom in the Orthodox community is not cutting a young boy’s hair until his third birthday or until Lag B’Omer of that year.  Also in Israel, children would play (?) with bows and arrows based on a comment in the mid rash that the rainbow, the sign that G-d would never destroy the world by a flood was not seen during Bar Yochai’s lifetime.

At Congregation Kneseth Israel this year, my third grade students did not play with bows and arrows, but we did play the Israeli beach game Kadima. We all enjoyed a bon fire in our Weber grill and we roasted marshmellows, Then we sang every Israeli song we know. I doubt that our students will forget the year we celebrated Lag B’Omer.

Later that day the congregation hosted a walking tour, the Hidden Treasures of Historic Holy Hill, together with six other congregations and the Elgin Historical Society, to allow people to visit a variety of houses of worship. In the kabbalistic counting system, Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the omer is the fifth day of the fifth week or Hod b’Hod, splendor in splendor. I saw details that I hadn’t seen before. Beautiful stained glass windows that look unassuming from outside but refract the light beautifully on the inside. Huge rose windows that remind me of a rainbow or a kaleidoscope. A stained glass window in the Methodist Church that has a Torah in it to represent the Hebrew Scriptures. A peace pole in front of the United Church of Christ congregation. These were some of the hidden treasures I noticed. More importantly, I was reminded of the idea of hiddur hamitzvah, beautification of the commandment. In each congregation there was visible “pride of place” and attempts to make the worship space beautiful.

It was a great day for the city of Elgin, for each of the congregations participating and for Congregation Kneseth Israel on the celebration of the 120th anniversary. We generated a lot of good press and even better a lot of good will in the community. May we like Bar Yochai go from strength to strength, light to light, splendor to splendor.