Why bonfire on lag bomer

Weddings are held, as Lag B'Omer is considered an auspicious day to get married; in observant communities three-year-old boys have their first haircut known as an upsherin ; and people come together to sing, dance and hold parties and in some places street parades, including a huge one in New York. Lag B'Omer celebrations are particularly associated with bonfires, said to have a mystical significance.

A big one is lit at the tomb of Shimon Bar Yochai. So many take place across Israel that councils have taken to issuing restrictions and the fire service has one of its busiest nights of the year. Chaotic scenes at festival site. Image source, AFP. The preceding period of mourning transitions into celebrations, including: bonfires, weddings, first haircuts, shooting bows and arrows, and other festive events, such as visiting the resting place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

This video on Lag BaOmer explains the story. The Sefira count begins on the second night of Passover. Jews outside of Israel integrate counting the first night of the Omer into the second seder. There are forty-nine days between the second night of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. The day after the seventh week of your counting will make fifty days, and you shall present a new meal offering to God.

The word Omer literally means sheaf, and, as you can see from the verse, refers to the offering of grain brought on the second day of Passover. Agriculturally, the Omer period tracks the harvest from the beginning of the early barley harvest to the end of the later wheat harvest.

Likewise, it also significantly tracks the blossoming of the Jewish people from the exodus from Egypt to the giving of the Torah on Har Sinai.

Since Lag BaOmer is a minor Jewish holiday , work and day-to-day activity is still permissible. That said, Jewish communities around the world celebrate Lag BaOmer with many distinct and special traditions. Chief among these is the lighting of bonfires, which makes Lag BaOmer an especially exciting and beloved holiday for most Jewish children. There is a slight difference in these two names. Some argue in favor of Lag BaOmer because the numerical value of the Hebrew letters of Lag BaOmer is equivalent to the numerical value of the name Moshe.

There is a tradition that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was a reincarnation of Moshe Rabbeinu, and so it is considered fitting that the name Lag BaOmer hints at this connection. In fact, Lag BaOmer is not mentioned in Rabbinic literature until the 13th century, although the tradition itself is obviously much older.

The first reference to Lag BaOmer is made by the Meiri, a preeminent medieval scholar, in his commentary on the Talmud Bavli, Yevamot 62b. This section of the Talmud relates a tragic story about Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest Jewish leaders of his time. Rabbi Akiva, the Talmud tells us, had 24, students who died from a terrible plague all in one year during the Omer period. This plague was sent by God to punish the students for not showing each other proper respect.

Why the bonfire? It isn't about cooking; it's that fire symbolizes the light that is wisdom, spread by the great rabbi bar Yochai. Children were and still are given bows and arrows to play with. This is likely due to influence of non-Jewish neighbors, but is explained by a midrash, which claims that, during the lifetime of Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, no rainbows appeared. Thus, since the Hebrew word for rainbow and bow are one and the same — keshet — playing with bow and arrows is seen as a way of celebrating the life of the great sage.

This Meronite mode of celebrating Lag Ba'omer slowly spread from Safed to the rest of the Holy Land during the 17th century. In the 18th century it began to be practiced among Sephardi communities and later that century among Hasidic Jews in Eastern Europe.

In the 19th century, Nachman Krochmal and other Jewish scholars began to hypothesize that the Talmudic verse concerning the death of the 24, students of Rabbi Akiva was a veiled reference to their death in battle, as part of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans — CE and not a mysterious plague. An explanation that is not too dubious considering the fact that Rabbi Akiva and Bar Kochba were contemporaries and that the former supported the latter.

This interpretation was adopted by the Zionist movement in the 20th century. Elon Gilad May. Get email notification for articles from Elon Gilad Follow.