Forty-nine days of counting
From the second day of Passover to the festival of Shavuot, forty-nine days are counted — the Omer count. It is a time of spiritual preparation and, by tradition, days of semi-mourning.
The Talmud relates that in these weeks, in the days of Rabbi Akiva, thousands of his students died — “because they did not show respect to one another.” In their memory, joy is refrained from during the Omer. Lag BaOmer is the day the plague ceased.
What happened on this day
- The Omer countForty-nine days between the Exodus and the giving of the Torah; a time of preparation and semi-mourning.
- Akiva’s studentsBy tradition, twenty-four thousand of Rabbi Akiva’s students died of a plague in these weeks — for a lack of mutual respect.
- The 33rd dayOn the thirty-third day of the count the dying stopped. So the mourning is broken, and the day becomes joyful.
- New studentsRabbi Akiva did not despair: he began again with five students, and through them the Torah lived on. One of them was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
- RashbiBy tradition, Lag BaOmer is also the day of the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who asked that it be marked as a day of joy.
“Love your neighbor” — anew
Rabbi Akiva himself taught that the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” is a great principle of the Torah. The lesson of his students’ death is bitter: even the great in learning must keep respect for one another.
And so Lag BaOmer is not only a festival of fire but a day about human dignity: that the light of the Torah does not shine where there is no respect between people.
The light of the Torah
The bonfire’s flame is an image of the light that flares up when people turn to one another again.
Three lessons of the festival
Unity
A people is strong when its parts respect one another; division extinguishes even great wisdom.
Respect
The lesson of Akiva’s students: knowledge without respect for one’s neighbor does not save.
Light
The secrets of the Torah revealed by Rashbi are the very light for which the fires are kindled.