Shabbat Gathering: Lag Ba’Omer: It’s a mystery, but it’s joyful… whatever it is.

Dear Chevra, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 963 5113 1550
Password: 1989
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

I checked. Last year, when I described counting the Omer, I spent a brief paragraph about Lag Ba’Omer. This year, we’re going to take a deeper dive.

Lag Ba’Omer is a celebration.

Lag Ba’Omer falls on the 33rd day of the Omer. This year, Lag Ba’Omer was last Tuesday. There are about 50 days of the Omer, so Lag Ba’Omer falls around the middle. The Omer are days of mourning except for Lag Ba’Omer which is a day of celebration. Why? Well… there’s an explanation for that. Actually, there are at least four different explanations for celebrating the 33rd day of the Omer.

Reason #1
Rabbi Akiva, one of the rock stars of Talmud, had thousands of students. Not all the students treated each other respectfully and as a result, G!d sent down a plague that killed most of the students and the plague ended on the 33rd day of the Omer.

Reason #2
Rabbi Akiva supported a military leader, Bar Kochba. (Bar Kochba is an actual historic figure from around 132 ce.) Bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans and it was fierce. It was also a fiasco and left thousands of Jews dead. Some believe that Lag Ba’Omer marks the midpoint of the battle when the Jews temporarily had the upper hand.

Reason #3
Some believe that Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai, a student of Rabbi Akiva died on Lag Ba’Omer. What makes Rabbi Simeon’s death notable? Rabbi Simeon fought in the Bar Kochba rebellion and survived. Eventhough the Jews lost, Rabbi Simeon, and his son Eleazar, continued to defy the Romans and eventually had to hide out in a cave to save their lives. After twelve years, Rabbi Simeon and Eleazar came out of the cave and saw farmers and carpenters and shepherds and all sorts of people in all sorts of professions all going about their business. This made Rabbi Simeon violently mad. He had expected that everyone would be studying Torah. Rabbi Simeon’s eyes turned into death rays and started setting fire to everything he saw. G!d sent Rabbi Simeon and Eleazar back into the cave where they spent another year working on their anger management skills. And so we remember his merit with Lag Ba'Omer.

Reason #4
Manna first appeared to the Israelites on Lag Ba’Omer.

How do we observe Lag Ba’Omer?

As there are several possible reasons to observe Lag Ba’Omer, so there are several ways we celebrate Lag Ba’Omer:

Bonfires
Bonfires might represent the fire sparked by Rabbi Simeon’s death ray vision.

Weddings
Weddings are forbidden while we are counting the Omer except for Lag Ba’Omer.

Three-year-old boys get their first haircuts
Some ultra-orthodox families believe that, just like they don’t eat fruit from trees until those trees are three-years-old, parents shouldn’t cut a boy’s hair until he is three-years-old. Why Lag Ba’Omer is the day this tradition is observed, I do not know.

Shooting bows and arrows
Again, the source for this custom is vague, but it might have something to do with the Bar Kochba insurrection.

So often, Torah feels like a multiple choice test where there isn’t just one answer. On the one hand, this can be frustrating for those of us who want a single, right answer. On the other hand, this can be reassuring to those of us who value ambiguity and situations where the “truth” isn’t plain to see. Lag Ba’Omer is a poster child for the latter. Lag Ba’Omer could be this or it could be that and it’s up to us to decide if it’s anything at all.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!

All my love,
brian.

PS

There are lots of teachings — in the Torah, Talmud, and from great rabbis — about how contacting the dead is banned in Jewish tradition. And yet… there are LOTS of stories of Jews reaching out to the dearly departed. It makes me think: If something is banned, then it’s gotta be happening. If something is prohibited, then it’s gotta be possible.