Lag ba-Omer (לַ״ג בָּעֹמֶר)
The major exception to the semi-mourning during the Sefirah period is Lag ba-Omer, the 33rd day (ל = 30, ג = 3) of the counting of the Omer. According to talmudic and midrashic sources, during the period between Passover and Shavuot 24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva died of a terrible plague (Yev. 62b). This may refer to the overwhelming defeat suffered by the forces of Bar Kokhba, whom Akiva strongly supported in the unsuccessful rebellion against the Romans. Tradition maintains that the plague ceased on Lag ba-Omer, possibly an allusion to the brief recapture of
Jerusalem that is said to have occurred on this date.
The kabbalists considered Lag ba-Omer as commemorating either the rabbinic ordination (by Akiva) of Shimon bar Yochai, the reputed author of the mystical Zohar, or the anniversary of his death. Believing that many of the broken Fragments of Creation were finally reunited upon bar Yochai’s death, kabbalists and Hasidim in Israel hold a festive celebration (hillula) on Lag ba-Omer at the sage’s grave in the
village of
Meron, near Safed. Thousands gather there to study mystical texts and to sing and dance around large bonfires. (The Romans had banned the bonfires used by Jews to signal the new lunar months, but Bar Kokhba reinstituted this practice during his rebellion.) Because cutting one’s hair is prohibited during the semi-mourning Omer period, on Lag ba-Omer it became customary for three-year-old boys to have their first haircut.The scores of weddings performed on this day add to the festive character of this semiholiday. It is customary to eat foods made from carob (see page 679) on Lag ba-Omer, because the fruit of a carob tree sustained bar Yochai and his son during the 12 years they hid from the Romans in a cave. According to the Chatam Sofer, Lag ba-Omer was also celebrated because it was the day when manna began to fall in the wilderness.5Another tradition associated with Lag ba-Omer is children playing with bows and arrows. According to legend, the rainbow, which symbolizes peace and has a Hebrew name (keshet) that also means the bow of an archer, did not appear during the lifetime of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, because he was such a saintly man. Others associate the bow with the Bar Kokhba revolt, maintaining that Rabbi Akiva’s students actually died fighting the Romans (and not from the plague).[1]
Yev. Yevamot (Talmud)
5 Ckatam Sofer is a major halakhic work of Moses Sofer (1762–1839), the leading figure of Hungarian ultra-Orthodoxy; see www.torah.org/advanced/haaros/lag.htm; accessed November 2003.
[1]Eisenberg, Ronald L.: The JPS Guide to Jewish Traditions. 1st ed.
Philadelphia : The Jewish Publication Society, 2004, S. 294
