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A Time to Mourn; A Time to Dance

Mourning During the Omer

Throughout history, the period of the Omer has been fraught with

German Jews Being Burned

tragedy for the Jewish People. It is told that some 1,900 years ago, all 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died during the Omer because they failed to give each other enough respect. Exactly 900 years ago, whole Jewish communities were obliterated in Germany during the First Crusade.

Men, women and children were slaughtered, and Torah scholars burned alive. 350 years ago, Ukrainian peasants under the leadership of a petty aristocrat called Bogdan Chmielnicki, aided by Dneiper Cossacks and Tartars from the Crimea, unleashed a terrible massacre. In the synagogue in Nemirov, the Cossacks used ritual knives to slaughter the inhabitants and 6,000 men, women and children were butchered.

In remembrance of Rabbi Akiva's students and the other tragedies, it is the custom to abstain from certain things that bring joy to the heart: Weddings are not held during the Omer period and we refrain from cutting our hair as is the custom of a mourner.

Dancing Around the Lag Ba'Omer Fire

Lag Ba'Omer: From Darkness to Light

On the 33rd day of the Omer (Lag Ba'Omer), it is told, the plague ceased and Rabbi Akiva's students stopped dying. Therefore, the rabbis lifted the observances of mourning on that day. But how did it become a day of out-and-out rejoicing?

When all 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students had died, the world was desolate. There were no pupils to go out and teach and disseminate the light of Torah and the Torah had been forgotten. Rabbi Akiva traveled to the rabbis of the South to teach them. On Lag Ba'Omer, he started instructing these rabbis, his last five disciples. And from that day, the world began to brighten from these five points of light. To commemorate this event, in the Land of Israel we light bonfires to symbolize the great light that the Torah represents.

Hidden and Revealed Light

One of those last five disciples of Rabbi Akiva was the great Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. His departure from this world also occurred on Lag Ba'Omer. On the day of Rabbi Shimon's passing, a great light was revealed to his students when he uncovered many of the hidden secrets of the Torah. These were allegedly written down in the Zohar (lit. 'shining').

Why the bonfires? If the Torah is represented by light, the Hidden, or esoteric Torah, may be seen as being even more intense light. Preparing the Clothing to be Burned

Fire represents the conversion of the material into energy. This process is analagous to the Kabbalistic concept of "releasing the sparks of holiness" inherent in the material world. According to Judaism, the material world is full of spiritual potential, waiting to be released. It is fitting that the holiday which celebrates a revelation of the hidden aspect of the Torah is marked by fire.

There is even a custom in some circles to burn clothing, which is, in general, something Judaism frowns upon as needlessly wasteful. On Lag Ba'Omer, the message overrides the "normal" set of values. It tells us that all material objects are simply reflections of spiritual reality.

The bonfires of Lag Ba'Omer symbolize the light of the hidden wisdom that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai revealed on that day. Today, the most ecstatic celebrating takes place in Meron, the site at which he is allegedly buried.

Learn more about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
Meron: Mystics and Merchants

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Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair of Ohr Somayach Institutions contributed to this article.