Traditional Customs and Folklore of Lag BaOmer No specific liturgy exists for Lag BaOmer. Special Synagogue Readings for Lag BaOmer
Lag BaOmer offers Jews a respite in the middle of mourning, a glimmer of hope during an otherwise somber liturgical period. All of these prohibitions and signs of mourning, however, are lifted on Lag BaOmer, because the plague was lifted from Rabbi Akiva’s students that day.” 5 Also in the synagogue, among Ashkenazi Jews… piyyutim or poems in memory of local pogroms are read…. Among stricter Jewish people, wearing new clothes or cutting one’s fingernails is also prohibited. “Activities such as haircuts and weddings are routinely suspended except on Lag BaOmer. The Omer is both a period of anticipation and of mourning.ĭavid Brickner and Rich Robinson write in Christ in the Pentecost: Observant Jews must count out each day of the Omer and make sure not to miss a single one for this reason Jews have historically crafted Omer counters of great intricacy and delicacy. Prohibitions of mourning are observed during the counting of the Omer. 4 The association of Lag BaOmer with Rabbi Akiva’s disciples lies behind one of the holiday’s nicknames, “The Scholars’ Festival.” How Lag BaOmer Is Observed Many Jews who observe Lag BaOmer spend the day commemorating Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, a student of Rabbi Akiva who is associated with the Kabbalah and was once thought to be the author of the Zohar. Lag BaOmer has acquired additional meanings and associations. Jewish tradition states that the plague struck because Akiva’s disciples did not honor each other sufficiently-a good call for us to strive for humility. 2 The plague began at the start of the Omer and was suspended on the 33rd day, Lag BaOmer. The Talmud states that 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, the noted rabbi of the second century A.D., fell victim to a deadly plague.This seems more plausible than the previous explanation. The custom arose after the destruction of the Temple to mourn its loss and the loss of many rituals for which the Temple was required.But since trust in God was paramount in times of uncertainty, this explanation seems unsatisfactory. Mourning was a way to express the anxiousness over the growing season, when crops were vulnerable to extreme weather.In Christ in the Feast of the Pentecost, David Brickner and Rich Robinson identify several possible explanations for Omer’s status as a period of mourning: However, the mourning prohibitions of the Omer (see below) are temporarily suspended on Lag BaOmer, a minor celebratory holiday.
Despite these joyous origins, in Jewish tradition the “counting of the Omer” is a liturgical period of mourning, in some ways comparable to the Christian season of Lent. The Omer period is so called because the grain is being readied for the feast of Shavuot, the Festival of Firstfruits-in other words, it’s a time of preparation. “Lag BaOmer” is thus the 33rd day of this period.Īs one scholar puts it, Lag BaOmer “is a day of festivity in search of a reason.” 1 Like many a Jewish holiday, it confounds attempts to discern a clear raison d’être and origin story. The “Omer,” literally a “sheaf” of grain, is the name given to the 49-day period that falls between Passover and Shavuot. “Lag” is the number 33 in Hebrew letters, which are often used to represent numerals.