During the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, Jews count the Omer (Sefirat HaOmer). Lag Baomer is celebrated thirty-three days following the first day of Passover, on the thirty-third day of the Omer. Lag Baomer is the only joyful day during the entire sad time of Sefirah; on this day, sadness is forbidden. Lag Baomer is the day that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai died. So why is it a day of celebration? Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was a great sage who lived during the Roman conquest of...(more)

During the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, Jews count the Omer (Sefirat HaOmer). Lag Baomer is celebrated thirty-three days following the first day of Passover, on the thirty-third day of the Omer. Lag Baomer is the only joyful day during the entire sad time of Sefirah; on this day, sadness is forbidden. Lag Baomer is the day that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai died. So why is it a day of celebration? Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was a great sage who lived during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. He was one of Rabbi Akiva's five students who, despite terrible persecutions, ensured that the Torah would not be forgotten. When the Romans outlawed the study of Torah, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai spoke out against them. The Romans thus pronounced a death sentence against Rabbi Shimon, who was forced to go into hiding. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son Elazar fled to a cave in the northern region of Israel. There they remained for 12 years involved in nothing but Torah study, until Elijah the prophet came to the cave and announced that the Caesar had died and that the decree against Rabbi Shimon was lifted. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was the greatest Torah teacher of his generation. When he reached the final day of his life, he called together his students and spent the entire day revealing the deepest mystical secrets of Torah. Rabbi Abba, a student assigned with the job of transcribing Rabbi Shimon's words, reported that as Rabbi Shimon was revealing these mystical secrets, he was bathed in light and fire. Why light and fire? Because Torah is compared to fire. Just as fire has the ability to convert physical matter into energy, so too Torah shows us how to transform the material world into a transcendent energy. In fact Rabbi Shimon's Kabbalistic work, "The Zohar," literally means "shining light." The reason Lag Baomer is a celebration is because, after having been convicted of a capital crime by the Romans, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai should have died well before his time. But through tremendous self-sacrifice and a series of miracles, Rabbi Shimon was able to live out a full life. The climax of his great life was the revelation of the Torah's greatest inner secrets (contained in "the Zohar"). All this is cause for celebration. To celebrate Lag BaOmer, Jews light bonfires to commemorate the great fire that surrounded Rabbi Shimon. adapted from www.aish.com/omerLagBOmer/omerLagBOmerDefault/Lag_BOmer_.asp The videos classes below on Lag Baomer are taught by Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller and Mrs. Shira Smiles. (less)