Lag Ba'Omer Holiday - ל"ג בעומר

In many religions and traditions the motif of fire and light plays an important and central role.

The Diwali feast in India, the celebration of the Chinese and Taiwanese lanterns, Christmas with all the ornamental lights not to mention, also festivals. The Lights Festival in Lyon, Sweden and other places.

The religion of Islam says that the birth of the Prophet Muhammad was accompanied by light and holiness, and not only this, but that Muhammad's arrival led to the cancellation of the dark customs that existed during the period of Al-Jahiliyya (ignorance and ignorance of God).

The source of light according to Islam can come as a symbol of olive oil inflammation.
As in the Qur'an, Sura 24 says: "God is the light of heaven and earth, its light is likened to an alcove with a lamp, and the lamp is made of glass, and the glass is like a shining star. It is lit (in the name of) a blessed tree, an olive tree ..." , Is the translation of Uri Rubin, 2005 Tel Aviv University Press.
It is really universal that the light symbolizes in all of them the victory of light over darkness, the good over evil, the joy over sorrow, the pure over the impure, the triumph of wisdom over the ignorance, the hope over despair, the spirit over matter, and more...

Light symbolized almost everything that is good in the world.
Probably this is the reason our ancestors worshiped the sun and the moon in ancient times because they brought the light. Today we more understand the real importance the sun light because it is the source of all energy on our planet, without that we couldn’t survive.

And what is in Judaism?

The motif of the light is even stronger and appears a lot, the eternal fire that lit the Temple, the Menorah, Chanukah, the candles of holidays and Shabbat also Lag Ba’Omer our subject in the title.

Lag Ba'Omer is part of the story of light that I wanted to tell a little bit about this day.

So why celebrate Lag Ba'Omer?

Lag Ba’Omer is the 33 (of 49) day of the Omer days, days that are counted from the first day of Passover until Shavuot when the Torah was given.
According to tradition, this period is very difficult because bad things have happened in the past during it. Therefore mourning practices are also being implemented.
As they say that during the Omer day, an epidemic disease broke out among the students of Rabbi Akiva for not respecting each other and in Lag Ba’Omer it has stopped they have changed their behavior toward each other. This is also the day the famous student of Rabbi Akiva , who is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai passed away. However, fortunately upon his death he has left his legacy to his pupils who received a lot from his knowledge and secret wisdom and the joy is for that, because he was credited with writing the Book of Zohar, the book of Jewish Kabbalah.

How Lag Ba'Omer is celebrated ?

One of the main habbits is by the light of bonfires as did people in antiquity in order to transmit information from place to place, also as a symbol to that during the rule of the Romans in Israel land, the Jews lit bonfires to ignite the fire of their revolt against the darkness days.
The end of the matter, it is impossible without light and life without fire belongs to prehistory. Therefore, we have good reasons to glorify light/fire events.

Nevertheless, we must be careful also not to exaggerate because the fire has another side which could be unpleasant like burning people and forests and polluting the air.
It could kill when it is not used wisely, so if you do celebrate the Lag Ba'Omer stay safe and respect the environment so it will be really a great happening…

May God Bless All Of You !

All photos are from Pixabay