On Saturday evening, May 13, (on the Jewish calendar at this time, the 18th day of the Jewish month of the Iyar will begin already), Jews will begin to celebrate the holiday of Lag BaOmer.

"Lag" are two Jewish letters "lamed" and "gimel", whose gematria (the sum of numerical values) is 33, that is, Lag Bo-Oymer translates as "the 33rd day of counting the omer". On this day, fun is held in memory of two things.

First, in this ended the epidemic, which claimed the lives of 24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was the greatest legislator, the head of the generation, and therefore his disciples were people who made up the intellectual elite of the people. In addition to the epidemic, Romans also raged in Eretz Yisrael, destroying all who did not want to back away from the religion of the fathers and trained others. In those years, knowledge was passed from teacher to student verbally (moreover, the Oral Torah was forbidden to write down) and their total death threatened to oblivion and loss of the most important layers of information. Considering this, our sorrow for the dead and joy over the end of the epidemic becomes understandable.

By the way, the five surviving disciples of Rabbi Akiva wrote the first books on the Kabbalah and began the recording of the Talmud (this is the same Oral Torah, which it was decided to write down, because there was a real danger of its destruction and oblivion.

The second reason for joy is the departure on this day from the world of the greatest Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (incidentally, one of the five surviving disciples of Rabbi Akiva). Rabbi Shimon wrote the book "Zohar" - the first and main work on the Kabbalah and in general enjoyed (and now enjoys) great authority in our people.

On the part of joy on the day of the death of such a great righteous looks a little out of place, but this was his desire. On the day of his departure from this world, Rabbi Shimon gathered his disciples and announced that today he was passing away. But since today he reached the highest level in his studies and knowledge of the world (and he lived for 120 years and comprehended oh as much), then he, Rabbi Shimon, orders the disciples every year on this day to organize celebrations and light fires. So, rejoicing in this day, we are only fulfilling the request of a very good person and rejoice at his successes in work and study.

In Israel, it is customary to go to Mount Meron (next to Safed), where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is buried and light huge bonfires there, and also sing-dance and have fun in the best of health. Those who do not go to Mount Meron light fires in another place (if only the firefighters did not mind) and also rejoice. There is also a tradition to organize festive children's parades these days and hold archery competitions among children, in memory of the raging wars with the Romans in those years.

In Odessa, on the morning of the 33rd day, Jews usually go to nature (due to the lack of mountains - usually closer to the seashore), where they light a fire and have fun, have fun (baked potatoes, "fire water" for those who are not driving And t. And t. ), But this year, due to weather conditions, everything will also be, but slightly differently (see. E-mail).

Omer - a measure of volume. The Torah gives the command to count 49 days (seven full weeks) between Pesach and Shavuot, and since the beginning of the count coincides with the day when the first fruits of the new harvest were sacrificed in the Temple (the size of the offering was about 1.1 liters) , Then these days were called the "count of the Omer". According to Jewish law in the evening (or, in extreme cases, in the morning), the Jew should say the following words: "Today is the first (seventh, twenty-ninth and t. ) Omer counting day ».

If more than seven days have passed, then add "twenty-fourth day or three weeks and three days counting the omer". Since every Jew has to independently consider the omer, the question "What day is today the Omer? "It is customary to answer:" Yesterday was such a day, "so that the questioner himself calculated what day it was today.

In this regard, to answer the days of the counting of the Omer "yesterday's data" even have a Jewish anecdote:.

The husband asks his wife: "What do we have for dinner today? "- Yesterday was a schnitzel with potatoes.