Lag B'Omer is considered by some to be the
central day of the Kabbalistic calendar.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER

of preparation to
Shavuot."
He says each com-
munity has the op-
tion to determine
during which 33
days of the Omer
marriages cannot be
performed.
"Everybody
agrees, however,
that on Lag B'Omer
you are permitted to
Many Orthodox Jews bring their 3-year-old sons to
have weddings," Rabbi
Mount Meron on Lag B'Omer for a first haircut.
Bergstein says.
Lubavitchers also
or 49 days between Pesach mark the 33rd day as the yahrtzeit
and Shavuot, Jews count
of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar
the Omer, the centuries-old Yochai, author of the Zohar (the
link between our physical
principal work of Jewish mysti-
liberation — the Exodus from
Egypt — and our spiritual one, re- cism, the Kabbalah). Rabbi bar
Yochai looked at his death as ful-
ceiving the Torah.
filling his mission in this world,
On the holiday on Sunday, May so he told people before he died
25, Detroit's Jewish children may that
the day of his passing should
simulate shooting bows and ar- be celebrated as a happy occasion.
rows while playing in local parks.
Death, for Rabbi bar Yochai,
In Israel, on the night before Lag was
"for him a wedding, the com-
B'Omer, it is customary to light ing to the highest level of human
giant bonfires.
"The study of Torah was pro- experience," Rabbi Bergstein says.
died on his birthday.
hibited [by the Romans] in the He Rabbi
Bergstein's shul, Bais
time following the Bar Kochba re-
Chabad
of
Farmington Hills, is
volt," says Rabbi Chaim Bergstein
hosting
a
barbecue
cookout on Tag
of Bais Chabad of Farmington
B'Omer.
Hills. "So the people who want-
Lag B'Omer is considered to
ed to study Torah would go out to
be the central day of the year in
the field and make like they were
the Kabbalah, Rabbi Bergstein
shooting bows and arrows [but]
says. Many make a pilgrimage
study Torah. They had to engage
to Rabbi bar Yochai's grave on
in ruses. It's customary to go out
in the field and have a picnic of Mt. Meron.
Rabbi Bergstein estimates
some sort in commemoration of
that
between 100,000 and
how we survived during those 200,000
people flock to the site
times," he says.
on.
Lag
B'Omer,
some setting up
The 33rd day (lag in Hebrew)
camp,
and
Sephardim
slaugh-
of the Omer count is celebrated as
ter
sheep
and
goats
there.
a holiday, Lag B'Omer, for two
In the 1930s, a woman
reasons, according to the rabbi.
brought her 3-year-old son to the
Between Pesach and Shavuot
in the early second century, site for his first haircut. ("It is
24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva customary among the Orthodok
died because, says Rabbi Berg- in Israel to take their child's first
haircut in Meron near the grave
stein, they were not respectful to of Rabbi bar Yochai," Rabbi
each other. Each felt his opinion Bergstein says.)
was the right one, and as a result,
But, because of an infectious
strife arose between them.
disease,
the little boy died in the
On the 33rd day, according to
room where the grave is located.
tradition, they stopped dying.
The woman took the little boy
"Only five major students of Rab-
into
the small synagogue and, ac-
bi Akiva's survived," Rabbi Berg-
cording
to Rabbi Bergstein, called
stein says. "They became the
out
to
the
ancient Rabbi bar
teachers of the Mishnah," the.oral
Yochai:
"'I
brought him to you
law.
alive;
I
want
him back alive.' As
This 49-day period is a time of
soon
as
she
said
those words, the
semi-mourning, when no wed-
child
cried.
He
had
been dead for
dings can occur. Different opin-
six
hours.
The
British
doctors who
ions exist as to the times Jews are
examined
the
child
said
it was no
prohibited from having marriages
performed, Rabbi Bergstein says. less than a miracle."
There have also been stories
'The custom in Detroit [for Lubav-
itch] is, we do it until the new of sightings of Rabbi bar Yochai
moon ofIyar, and then we allow at the site, "mingling" with the
people, Rabbi Bergstein says. ❑
weddings during the three days

WZPS PHOTO BY YASHA MAZU R

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