Related Blog Posts on Lag BaOmer

April Showers, May Flowers, and Searching for Hope Amid the Pandemic

Rabbi Michael L. Feshbach

We see everything around us through a coronavirus-colored lens these days, searching the past for clues about what is to come. This month, I'm using the rhyme about April showers and May flowers as an occasion for hope, seeing every holiday in May as part of this unfolding pandemic.

When Jewish Cemeteries Rock: My Moroccan Lag BaOmer Adventure

Aron Hirt-Manheimer

I had always thought of Jewish cemeteries as solemn places – but that was before going to a hilloula (festivity) 30 years ago in the Moroccan town of Ouazzane on Lag BaOmer, the Jewish holiday that falls on the 33rd day between Pesach and Shavuot.

Lag BaOmer, the 33rd Day of the Counting of the Omer

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser
Tonight begins the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, four weeks and five days. It is the day of the divine quality of hod within hod, humility within humility. This is Lag BaOmer, a minor holiday that recalls the end of a plague among the students of Rabbi Akiva.

A Math Formula Can "Carry a Charge of Love"

Rabbi Anne Perry

Judaism is filled with ritualized counting. From the seven ordered days of creation, to the repetition of forty throughout the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), to God's exhortation to Abraham to "count the stars, if you can count them…" Currently, we are in the midst of counting the Omer, the days from Passover to Shavuot.

Lag BaOmer: Little Sleep, Lots of Smoke

Micha’el and Nechama Namal

Lag BaOmer was completely off our radar when we lived in the United States. We never had any real exposure to it until we made Aliyah, and now its approach is easily recognizable by kids walking down the street, schlepping huge pieces of wood, old furniture, sticks, and anything else that burns.