Question Of The Week:

Name the eifector of the cult
film that launched the career of
Dennis Hopper, and featured a
young unknown named Ralph
Waite (late' John Walton on The

Waltons)?

GALd

'S:9,32/c 1

110S1.910e

Elizabeth Applebaum
Appletree Editor

Above:
At Shirnon Bar
Yohai's tomb,
a father and
son enjoy
Lag b'Omer.

S

mall and big children,
who eagerly anticipate
asking the Four Questions
and finding the afikomen, count
the days until Pesach (Passover)
begins.
Those who do not relish the
taste of matzoh may count the
days until real pasta (not that hor-
rid kosher-for-Passover stuF that
tries — pathetically — to pass as
noodles) again appears on the
dinner table.
But why are many people
counting the days after the holi-
day?
It all has to do with the omer.
The period between Passover
and Shavuot is called S'firat
Ha-Omer, or "the counting of
the omer."
Like most details of Jewish
ritual, the omer has its origins
in the Torah. In Parshat Emor
(Leviticus, Chapter 23), God

iiecoi

.104

DGAASLIV

Left:
One kabbalistic
tradition is to
give a 3-year-
old boy his first
haircut on
Lag b'Omer.

designates the festivals of the
Jewish year, including Passover.
According to the rabbinical
interpretation of verse 9, on

the second day of Passover
Jewish farmers in Israel were
obligated to bring to the Tem-
ple in Jerusalem an offering of

an omer of barley flour (about
2.2 liters), along with gifts of
meat, flour and wine. Once
this ritual was performed, the

4/30
1999

Detroit Jewish News

77