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The one-day holiday in the
middle of a solemn period.

It is a kabbalistic tradition to give sons their
first haircut at age 3 on Lag b'Omer.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

The Holiday: Lag b'Omer.

Why It's Observed: Some say Lag b'Omer celebrates the end of the plague
that killed Rabbi Akiva's students.
Kabbalists acknowledge the day because of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, tra-
ditionally regarded as the author of the Zohar, the main book of Kabbalah.
Lag b'Omer marks various important moments in his life: the rabbi's
yahrtzeit (the day he died), the time he was ordained by Rabbi Akiva and
the date when he came out from a cave where he had been hiding from the
Romans.

When It's Observed: This year, Lag b'Omer is observed Friday, May 11.

Why Does The Holiday Fall On This Day? "Lag" is an acronym formed
by the two Hebrew letters that make up the numeral 33. This number
marks the 33rd day of Slirat HaOmer, "the counting of the omen"

When did the counting start? In parshat (Torah portion) Emor (Leviticus,
Chapter 23), God designates the festivals of the Jewish year, including
Pesach. Rabbinical interpretation of verse 9 holds that on the second day of
Pesach, Jewish farmers of Israel were to bring to the Temple in Jerusalem an
offering of an omer of barley flour (about 2.2 liters), along with gifts of
meat, flour and wine. Once this was performed, the people could use the
new grain of the spring harvest.
In verse 15, God commands that the Jews begin counting, starting with
the omer offering and continuing
for 49 days. On the 50th day, they
You've always wondered ... now
were to mark Shavuot.
you know.
After the Temple was destroyed,
Here is your chance to learn
the Jewish people could no longer
all kinds of compelling and
bring sacrifices. Yet they continued
unusual facts about Jewish life
to perform the counting command-
throughout the years. Now You
merit. To this day, Torah-observant
Know introduces you to
Jews count the days between Pesach
famous scholars and infamous
and Shavuot. This is usually within
gangsters,
considers decisions
the daily evening service. A blessing
and
incidents
that continue to
is recited ("Blessed are you, God our
shape the way we live today
Lord, king of the universe, who has
and tells you the story behind
sanctified us with his command-
everything from classic Jewish
ments and has commanded us
texts to Hollywood feuds — all
regarding the counting b of the
on a .single page.
omer"), then the relevant days
It's history, and it's fun; sit
count is announced.
down
and learn a little (best of
The count includes both the day
all, there are no homework
and the week of the omer, as direct-
assignments).
ed by the Torah. Thus, one would
say, "Today is 19 days, which are

5/11

2001

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