Counting the Omer: Wednesday Night, 25 May 2016/18 Iyar 5776

Today is Day Five of Week Five of the Omer.  That is Thirty-three Days of the Omer.  The Theme continues to be Happiness.

          With the sunset today began the minor festival of LaG Ba-Omer. ‘LaG’ stands for the number 33:  Lamed equals 30, and Gimel equals 3.  It occurs on the 18^th day of the month of Iyar.

          On the 18^th of Iyar, according to tradition, Rabbi Shim’on bar Yochai, a scholar of the second century and a disciple of Rabbi Akiva, revealed the Zohar, the Book of Splendour, which is the most important book of Jewish mysticism.  In Israel, thousands make a pilgrimage to the gravesite of bar Yochai, which is on Mount Meiron, in northern Israel just opposite the mystics’ city of Tzefat (Safed).

          There is also a tradition, according to Meiri, a 13^th century sage, that a plague struck Rabbi Akiva’s students during the period of the Omer.  24,000 were killed.  The cause of the plague was that the students ‘were disrespecting one another.’  Meiri writes that the plague stopped on the 33^rd day of the Omer.  For this reason, given the importance of Akiva among the sages, many Jews observe the first 32 days of the Omer as a period of mourning.  On the 33^rd day, LaG Ba-Omer, the mourning ends.  It is permissible to celebrate and party, to drink to excess, to marry, and to get a haircut.

          Outside of Israel and very traditional communities, Lag Ba-Omer tends to pass largely unnoticed.  We always celebrate it by having a barbeque and a relaxed evening with friends, as we did this evening.