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Lag b'Omer

Thirty-Three
And Counting

A holiday of weddings and haircuts.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

he Holiday. Lag b'Omer,
the 33rd day of the count-
ing of the Omer, which this
year is on Tuesday, April 30.
What Does It Mean?: Lag is actually
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 omer."
When did the counting start?
In Parshat Emor (Leviticus, Chapter
23), God designates the festivals of the
Jewish year, including Pesach
(Passover). 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 were to
mark Shavuot.
After the Temple was destroyed, the
Jewish people could no longer bring
sacrifices. Yet they continued to per-
form the counting commandment.
To this day, Torah-observant Jews
count the days between Pesach and
Shavuot. This is usually within the daily
evening service. A blessing is recited:
"Blessed are you, God our Lord, King of
the universe, who has sanctified us with
His commandments and has command-
ed us regarding the counting of the
omer." Then the relevant day's count is
announced. The count includes both the
day and the week of the omer, as direct-
ed by the Torah. Thus, one would say, -
"Today is 19 days, which are two weeks
and five days of the omer.”

Why We Celebrate: Lag b'Omer has
rather mysterious origins. In fact, Jews
are of very different opinions as to
exactly why the holiday is observed.
Some say it celebrates the end of the

plague that killed Rabbi Akiva's students.
Kabbalists observe the day because of
Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, traditionally
regarded 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.

How We Celebrate: Lag b'Omer is
enhanced by the many weddings that
take place, and by parents giving
their 3-year-old sons their first hair-
cuts (another kabbalistic tradition)
along with hosting a party to cele-
brate the event.
In Israel, thousands of Jews gather
in the northern Israeli town of Meron
for prayer and festivity at the tomb of
Shimon Bar Yohai. Others go to the
tomb of another ancient sage,
Shimon Ha-Tzadik, in Jerusalem.
For unknown reasons, some light
great bonfires and children play with
bows and arrows on Lag b'Omer. They
also commemorate Bar Kokhba and
his rebellion against the Roman occu-
pation of Israel (132-135 C.E.). Why
Bar Kokhba is associated with Lag
b'Omer is a matter of scholarly debate.

A Bit Of History: Despite this holi-
day, this time is associated with a
number of painful events in Jewish
history.
During the first 33 days of the
Omer, 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's stu-
dents died in a plague because, the
Talmud says, they did not treat each
other with respect.
Later, there were a series of mas-
sacres of Jewish communities in the
Rhineland during the Crusades in
1096 and 1146 and then during the
Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49.
Consequently, Torah-observant
Jews to this day refrain from haircuts
(some men also do not shave), do not
have weddings and other celebrations,
and do not play or listen to live
music during the period. 11]

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