Chabad lights up Lag B’Omer for 5Ts

This past Sunday, on April 28, Chabad of Five Towns held their 18th annual Lag B’Omer celebration in the Andrew J. Parise Park (formerly Cedarhurst Park). It was open to the entire community, all ages were invited and encouraged to attend. It is estimated that 800- 1,000 people participated in the festivities. There was a bonfire that was carefully monitored by volunteers from the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department. There was a BBQ, but for those who preferred a light dairy snack, there was ice cream also being sold. Some activities that were provided were a children’s obstacle course as well as a petting zoo and archery. This year was the first year that they had giant video games. The Amazing Skyriders Trampoline was like watching an acrobatic trampoline performer. It was a fun and entertaining evening for those who participated.

What is Lag B’Omer about, and why is it celebrated? Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz from Ohr Somayach and Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller explained that two major occurrences took place on this day. One is that Rabbi Akiva’s students stopped dying on this day, the other is that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai revealed the Zohar to his students on this day, before he died.

Rabbi Akiva had twenty-four thousand students who did not treat each other with the proper respect and dignity and were therefore not worthy of teaching Torah to the next generation; all 24,000 died. On the thirty-third day of the omer though, they stopped dying. According to Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, the word kavod means honor, but comes from the same root as heavy. It is important to realize that each person is special and should be treated properly. After Rabbi Akiva lost all his students, instead of giving up to despair, he decided to begin again and to teach new students. He taught another five students, one of whom was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai passed away on Lag B’Omer. On the day that he died, he taught the Zohar to his students. As Rabbi Breitowitz explains, that means that this then was a day of great revelation of Torah secrets that were brought into the earth, and that is a great cause for celebration. Rabbi Zalman Wolowik the Rabbi of Chabad for Five Towns, commented that “in essence on Lag B’Omer, we are celebrating the life and legacy of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. He was a great sage of the Talmud and author of the Zohar, which infused Torah and Judaism with fire, life and zest. Therefore we strive to share this legacy with the entire community.”

Rabbi Breitowitz connects these two events explaining that when we realize the value of each person and have our devotion to Hakodesh Baruch Hu, then we are worthy of standing at Har Sinai. We start counting the omer from Pesach, which is when we gained physical freedom. We stop counting the omer on Shavuot, which is when we received the Torah and made a commitment to listen to Hashem. By linking the two, we are admitting that freedom without the Divine Law is worthless and destructive.

Furthermore, he says that during sefirah (the counting of the days from the Omer offering in the Temple on the second day of Passover) the korban (offering, sacrifice) that is brought is with barley, which is known as animal feed. On Shavuot however, we bring a korban of wheat, which is human food. As Rabbi Breitowtz says “On Pesach we go from animal freedom to human dignity and liberty.”