Today is the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer. Each letter in Judaism represents a number so Lamed is 30 and Gimel is 3, hence 33, pronounced Lag. It has been 33 days since the second night of Passover. We are continuing our journey toward Sinai.
Before we explain Lag B’omer, a couple of words about Omer. Omer is this period that we are in between Passover and Shavuot. 50 days. The Greek word is Pentecost. Omer is a grain offering. Back in the day it was barley. At CKI, following my teacher Rabbi Everett Gendler, z’l we plant some grain, this year it is rye at Sukkot and begin cutting little bits at Passover. By Shavuot, it is fully headed out as grain. No, not enough to make rye bread or bourbon, but here we do harvest it and feed it to some local cows. It makes the connection that this is an agricultural tradition.
The Omer period one of counting, helps us fulfill the idea of “Teach us to number our days that we may find a heart of wisdom.” Many have the tradition of studying Pirke Avot, one chapter each week. Others have a more mystical bent and each day has a theme. Today is Hod shel Hod, Humility of Humility. Some study each of these days’ themes with a meditation on the mystical seferiot. I particularly like Rabbi Simon Jacobson’s version. However, Rabbi Jill Hammer, Rabbi Karyn Kedar and others all have books that are helpful with the counting. Some take on a project during Omer. It is a focused period of semi-mourning. Some don’t attend instrumental music concerts during this time. Some don’t get a hair cut during the omer. Weddings are traditionally forbidden.
And some say Lag B’omer interrupts the mourning. So what is Lag B’omer. Like much of Judaism it is shrouded in some mystery.
Perhaps it was the day that manna fell in the wilderness for the first time.
Perhaps, following Talmudic teaching, there was a plague that killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students because they did not treat one another with respect. (Yevamot 62b) According to a medieval tradition, the plague miraculously stopped on Lag B’omer. (We might want to think about that as our own pandemic is coming to an end and restrictions are lifted both by the World Health Organization and the CDC. Can we return to a life of mutual respect? I certainly hope so!)
Perhaps, it has to do with the Bar Kochba Rebellion. Rabbi Akiva was an ardent supporter of Simon bar Kaseva, known as Simon Bar Kochba, who is 132 CE led an unsuccessful revolt against the Roman empire in Judea. Akiva not only supported him and hoped for a political victory but thought that Bar Kochba might in fact be the Messiah. Lag B’omer might have marked a pause in the fighting or a military victory.
Perhaps, Lag B’omer centers around one of Rabbi Akiva’s discipiles, Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, who may have died on Lag B’omer. He continued to defy Roman rule after the Bar Kochba revolt was defeated and therefore, he and his son had to flee. They took refuge in a cave for 12 years, where a miraculous well and a carob tree sustained them, They spent their days studying and praying. When they finally emerged they were ill-equipped to take on practical life and demeaned those who were “of the world,” instead of only engaged in Torah study. (Shabbat 33) God then insisted (how did that work) that they go back into the cave for another year to learn to be more practical in his approach to Torah and spirituality.
Perhaps Simeon bar Yochai is the author of the Zohar, the mystical work of Kabbalah. (Scholars attribute it to Moses de Leon, a 13th century Spanish Kabbalist). Noneltheless, in Israel, people (men mostly I think) make a pilgrimage to his tomb in Meron near Tzafat. Several years ago, there were so many that there was a tragic disaster with 45 men and boys killed and 150 injured when the scaffolding collapsed. Another reason to observe too many yahzeits on Lag B’omer.
Customs today remain: picnics, bonfires, archery to remind us of AKiva and his students, teacher appreciation (this is teacher appreciation week, how cool is that?) and for some cutting the heir of a 3 year old boy for the first time in a ceremony called upsheran.
You will find me lighting a tire, saying thank you to teachers and eating a s’more. And please, please be kind so that our plague too can end.