JERUSALEM – Lag B’Omer is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated on the 33rd day of the period of Omer which is the 49-day verbal counting of the days between Passover and Shavuot. The counting period has its origins in the biblical command of the Omer offering (or sheaf offerings of freshly harvested grain).
That offering occurs on Passover, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan which is considered the first month of the Hebrew year following a lunar calendar. Since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, these offerings are no longer performed, but the counting until Shavuot is still honored.
Shavuot marked the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel. It is the only major Jewish holiday with no specific calendar date detailed in the Torah. Instead, it is marked by the 49-day inter-feast period and the ritual counting.
In the Western Gregorian calendar, the feast began yesterday evening on sunset May 8, 2023.
Some Christians honor the end of the period also. Shavuot coincides with the Pentecost, the 50th day after Easter commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles of Jesus.
The northern slope of Mount Meron (Har Meron), Israel [Photo Credit: Lior Golgher • ליאור גולגר] – CCA-SA 3.0]
The period of Omer is attested in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. “Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee; from the time the sickle is first put to the standing corn shalt thou begin to number seven weeks” (Deuteronomy 16:9-12). Leviticus 23: 9-21 describes the ritual “When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf (omer) of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you; on the morrow after the day of rest the priest shall wave it.”
The period of Omer anticipates the giving of the Torah and highlights human vulnerabilities in terms of our dependence on nature.
Lag B’Omer is also a period of semi-mourning. The Talmud describes the death of 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva from a plague possibly as punishment for failing to honor one another properly. However, other sources identify the period as honoring Jews who died from persecution during the Crusades, pogroms, and blood libels. Since the mid-Twentieth Century, Yom HaShoah which memorializes the Holocaust, is observed in the period of Omer. This year Yom HaShoah was on April 17, 2023.
For many Lag B’Omer is a minor religious holiday. It is a day for outdoor activities, such as lighting bonfires, picnicking, and playing games. The bonfires are believed to symbolize the light of the Torah. Children often play with bows and arrows, which is a possible reminder of the war battles of Rabbi Akiva’s students.
In Israel, it is customary to plant trees on Lag B’Omer. This is a symbol of hope and renewal.
It is also an auspicious day for weddings. It is the only day during the Omer when weddings are permitted. And during the Middle Ages, it was called “Scholar’s Day” and celebrated with a day away from books in athletic activities.
In the Kabbalistic tradition, the period of Omer is considered to be a time for inner spiritual growth. It is a period to strengthen one’s good characteristics, focusing on one of them each day through meditation, activities, and intention.
This all sounds suspiciously Pagan to some, and there is a movement afoot to expose and eliminate any pagan connection to the rituals observed during the period of Omer. There are even worries that Jews are becoming Pagans.
Similar to the movements in other faiths there is a renewed call from some members of the Jewish faith with a need to purge any remnants of paganism from it.
The Kabbalistic Tree of Life with the names of the Sephiroth and paths in Hebrew. Public Domain
But for the Ultra-Orthodox Haredi community, observances of Lag B’Omer include a pilgrimage to Mount Meron and the lighting of bonfires at a tomb. The pilgrimage and the associated bonfire at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, a Second-century sage and mystic who wrote the Zohar, the foundational work of the Kabbalah, are at the center of the controversy because of, what some believe, is a connection to pagan practice.
Critics suggest that a verse in Psalms Chapter 121 describes the pilgrimage to Mount Heron. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: from whence shall my help come?” To critics of the event, this line summarized the transition between ancient Levantine paganism and the Jewish faith.
The pilgrimage brings hundreds of thousands of celebrants including many in the Haredi tradition. This year around 200,000 Haredi Jews were expected to go to Meron on Monday night. Two years ago, the pilgrimage ended in disaster with 45 individuals dying in a crowd crush. This year, 8,000 security personnel are expected to secure both the town and the tomb and emergency services will operate on site.
Hundreds of buses are scheduled. Despite the numbers, only 50,000 individuals will be wearing the orange wristbands that permit entry on Mount Heron. Worshippers had to purchase admission from the Transportation Ministry and no private vehicles will be allowed. There will still be a communal bonfire at Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai’s gravesite.
But the Haredi practice of honoring the Rabbi is not the issue. The issue is the dismissive commentary against it that requires a meaningful look by the pagan community and its “worship of sensation” as one critic wrote.
One commentator wrote for the Jerusalem Post that “THE EMBARRASSING truth is that the Mount Meron feast is not part of the Jewish faith, not to mention Jewish law. Invented by Galilean Kabbalists in the 16th century, this holiday is not mentioned in the Mishna and Talmud.” Noting that the Zohar was likely written by others, he adds “Historians and philologists think the voluminous work was written more than 1,000 years after his time – but that kind of reality check is often ineffective in the face of the pagan urge.”
Noting the Jewish avoidance of idolatry and mausoleums as well as the Hellenization of Judaism, he added: “The same pagan spirit is what makes so many people replace the Jewish journey to God and His laws with a journey to the bricks above a dead man’s bones, the bricks on which they sprinkle oil and throw candles, seeking this way not the meaning of life but the spirit of death.” Others joined in social media denouncing the pilgrimage as “un-Jewish” and the rituals as pagan practices.
Research on Judaism in the Roman world has noted that “many Jews were completely comfortable living among pagans and being influenced by pagan customs and ways of thought, while others were far more sectarian and separatist.” Nevertheless, recent events and writing are showing uncomfortable tensions emerging in some quarters that parallel those in other faiths vilifying Paganism as contamination requiring a solution.
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