Neither the mourning period nor the festival of Lag BaOmer is mentioned in the Bible. Although they do not know its origin, Jews use the occasion to celebrate.
Lag BaOmer is a Jewish festival of joy. Its exact origins are shrouded in mystery. Nevertheless, Jews enjoy celebrating it, preferably with bonfires. These bonfires are reminiscent of the signal fires used in ancient times from Jerusalem to announce the new moon or other important events. The festival begins this Wednesday evening.
Lag BaOmer interrupts a period of mourning on the 33rd day. The name means "33rd in the Omer." It does not use the Hebrew word for 33, but rather the combination of letters that also represent numbers: Lamed (30) and Gimel (3), abbreviated "LaG." According to the Jewish calendar, it is the 18th day of the month of Iyar, which this year falls on May 19th.
The Omer period begins after Passover and ends 49 days later with the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot. The Hebrew word "Omer" means "sheaf," but it can also refer to a unit of measurement. This unit was approximately 3.6 liters and measured the barley from the first harvest.
Biblical background
Leviticus 23:9–14 provides an explanation of the sheaves of firstfruits: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and gather in the harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave it as a wave offering before the Lord, that it may be acceptable to you. The priest shall do this on the day after the Sabbath. (…) You shall not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh grain from the new harvest until the day you present it to your God. This shall be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations, wherever you live.’”
Verses 15 and 16 continue: “From the day after the Sabbath you presented the sheaf as a wave offering, count seven full weeks. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then offer a new grain offering to the Lord.”
The seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot are considered a period of mourning. During this time, observant Jews do not celebrate weddings, cut their hair, or trim their beards. The 33rd day of the Omer interrupts the mourning period. Therefore, many Jews marry on this date.
The Bible does not mention a period of mourning, but only a time between two specific victims. The Babylonian Talmud contains a statement on this (Tractate Yebamot 62b): “It is said that Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of students… and they all died within a period of time because they did not show respect to one another… It is taught that they all died between Passover and Weeks.” Rabbi Akiva himself was killed by the Romans in 135 CE. He is still considered an important scholar today – also because he defied the Roman prohibition against studying the Torah.
Attempts to explain the festival of joy
Regarding the question of why the mourning period is interrupted on the 33rd day, Rabbi Menachem Hame'iri wrote in the 13th century: "And the blessed scholars added that dying ceased on the 33rd Omer. And therefore, it is customary not to mourn on this day."
However, this is not the only explanation for the festival of joy. Followers of Kabbalah connect the interruption with Rabbi Akiva's student, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. He hid in a cave for 13 years to study the holy scriptures undetected by the Romans. He is credited with the composition of a major Kabbalistic work, the Zohar. The 33rd Omer is the anniversary of his death. The fact that this is celebrated as a mystical festival of joy can be attributed primarily to his assumed authorship of the Zohar.
Bar Jochai's tomb is located on Mount Meron near Safed in northern Galilee. There, on Lag BaOmer, three-year-old sons of the ultra-Orthodox traditionally receive their first haircut, though their side curls are left uncut. From probably the mid-16th century onward, large bonfires were lit on the mountain. This custom is known as "Hillula.".
Last year's celebrations on Mount Meron ended tragically: 45 people died in a stampede. The cause of the tragedy is the subject of a government investigation.
Further explanations for the festival
According to another tradition, there was already a holiday on the 33rd day of the Omer period before the Jewish revolts against the Romans. This holiday commemorated the rescue of Noah and his family from the ark. However, the original reason was forgotten. Another explanation is that on that day, God began providing his people Israel with manna during their wanderings in the desert.
