Flames on Lag BaOmer
by Esther Newman-Cohen
Title
Flames on Lag BaOmer
Artist
Esther Newman-Cohen
Medium
Photograph - Unaltered Photograph
Description
Lag BaOmer, also Lag B'Omer, is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar.
The origins of Lag BaOmer as a minor festival are unclear. The date is mentioned explicitly for the first time in the 13th century by the Talmudist Meiri in his gloss to Yevamot 62b. The Talmudic passage states that during the time of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century, 24,000 of his students died from a divinely-sent plague during the counting of the Omer. The Talmud goes on to say that this was because they did not show proper respect to one another. Meiri named Lag BaOmer as the day when, "according to a tradition of the geonim", the "plague" ended.
After the death of Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students, he was left with only five students, among them Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The latter went on to become the greatest teacher of Torah in his generation, and is purported to have authored the Zohar, a landmark text of Jewish mysticism.
There are several well-known customs and practices on Lag BaOmer, including the lighting of bonfires and pilgrimages to the tomb of Bar Yochai in the northern Israeli town of Meron. In Israel both religious and non-religious Jewish children look forward to Lag BaOmer and start collecting wood to burn a week before. They then make enormous bonfires all over the country. This photo was taken near my home in Mevaseret Zion, May, 2014.
Uploaded
July 9th, 2014
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