Lag BaOmer: Historical Mistake

I've heard may gush about Lag Ba'Omer, its mystical power, how hundreds of thousands flock to the grave of R' Shimon Bar Yochai, give "chai rottel", etc.

Personally, I think the hoopla surrounding the day has reached pagan dimensions, with ads around Israel screaming, "give chai rottel and you'll receive salvation."

I blogged before how the origins are most probably based on historical mistakes, here, here and here.

Tonight, my wife commented on how people are michalel shabbat to collect firewood on Shabbat, so they can burn it for the "bonfire mitzva" tonight...and how the Rabbanut is considering pushing off Lag BaOmer bonfires when it falls out on a Saturday night.

I think we should do away with most of it anyway.

JoeSettler adds:

Watch a live feed from Meron here.

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Lag BaOmer: targetting Obama and DovBear

Updated Disclaimer (see below)

Despite the heartfelt plea from Emuna Elon not to burn effigies of President Obama on Lag BaOmer, apparently there are reports that her call will go unheeded by fringe lunatics.

Shame on them.

That's seriously immature behavior and accomplishes nothing, if not a Chilul Hashem.

Apparently, Obama's not the only target this year.

Sent to me from Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet, the following pictures have been circling the web over the past few hours.






In several locations (reportedly in Ramat Beit Shemesh and Har Meron), people were observed burning copies of "DovBear on the Parsha".

Truly Sick.

Update: Since the language of this posting was obviously not clear enough for everyone, I guess I will have to clearly "SPELL IT OUT".

This blog does not condone the burning of books, full stop.

Burning the book of a JBlogosphere member is even worse. While I thought the comment "Truly Sick" was obvious enough to express my disgust with the burning of the "DovBear on the Parsha" book, reviewed and endorsed here by Rabbi E. Fink, and available for purchase here for only $20.99 (ships in 3-5 business days), apparently, it was not enough.

For the record, The Muqata does not endorse this book, nor was this advertisement paid for by anyone (I know I didn't receive any money for it)

If you think that publishing these photos means actually advocating the burning of books, I suggest you find a good psychotherapist.

Good Day.

The Muqata Management


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Fascinating new discovery in Ir David

A Guest Post by Lurker.

The excavators in Ir David have uncovered a Roman mansion that was destroyed by the massive earthquake that hit Jerusalem in 363 CE. The JPOST reports:

A "magnificent" two-story Roman mansion of more than 1,000 square meters has been discovered by archeologists in the City of David Archeological Park outside the capital's Old City, the Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.

Previously, archeologist believed 3rd century Roman ruins extended only to the edge of the Ottoman Old City walls. The discovery of the mansion within the Givati parking lot, outside the walls and adjacent to the City of David, however, suggests Roman construction may have stretched to the bottom of the Silwan Valley, Dr. Doron Ben-Ami, the excavation's director, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

"This discovery was very surprising," Ben-Ami said. "We didn't expect to find any Roman building remains within the City of David. We were astonished at how huge the structure is. So far we uncovered 1,000 square meters and the structure still extends beyond the limits of the excavation area."

The find has already revolutionized historians' understanding of Roman settlement in Jerusalem, he said.

"The prevailing supposition among scholars that the City of David hill remained outside the area of Roman settlement at the time of Aelia Capitolina is no longer valid," said Ben-Ami.

The opulence of the building is apparent in its size and in artifacts recovered throughout the structures, the Antiquities Authority said in a statement.

"In the center of it was a large open courtyard surrounded by columns," reads the statement. "The building rose to a height of two stories and was covered with tile roofs... Excavators deduced that some of the walls of the rooms were treated with plaster and decorated with colorful paintings."

Also found within the structure were a marble figurine in the image of a boxer and a gold earring inlaid with precious stones.

The building most likely met its end during a massive earthquake that shook Jerusalem in 363 CE, Ben-Ami said.

This was the earthquake that marked the end of the Roman-sponsored plans to build the Third Temple, and which was apparently responsible for the institution of the fast day that we now know as Lag B'Omer.

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Lag BaOmer: From the Archives

A Lag BaOmer round up of posts from the Muqata archives.

Thesis Post: Is Lag BaOmer based on a mistake?

The Kannoim attack the thesis.

Two week later: Sorry, didn't mean it.

The 33 Thousand Dollar Lag BaOmer bonfire.

PSA for Lag Ba'Omer

Last but not least: A word to the wise. Make sure you close your windows this evening. The smoke from Lag BaOmer bonfires gets everywhere!











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Lag Ba'Omer Bonfire = 33 Thousand Dollars

It's not even Pesach, and already kids around Israel are searching for scrap (and not so scrap) wood for the national bonfire night of Lag BaOmer.

YNET reports (in Hebrew) of 5 girls, aged 12, who were already on the hunt for bonfire scrap wood, when they came upon an old wooden closet on Petach Tikva's Salant Street.

Bingo!

Instead of just hauling it to their wood stash, they decided to open it up first and they found in it $33,000 in cash! (Don't forget the gematria of "Lag" Ba'Omer is 33, so if you're going to find a cash cow, it's the right number)

The fair-minded girls split the cash between them and went home. One of the girl's parents heard about the "find," collected all the cash, and brought it to the police.

The police questioned the girls of the location where they found the wooden closet, and located the closet's owner. Apparently, while cleaning for Passover, the closet's owner decided to get rid of the closet, not knowing her mother had left the cash there (she didn't even know of the cash's existence!)

Moral of the story:

1. Cleaning for Pesach is totally out of control. It's NOT Spring Cleaning, but cleaning for bread!

2. Don't throw out usable furniture; you never know when it might be usable. Best to put things like this in your attic (I'm so going to get killed for writing this)

3. If you do decide to throw out furniture, ask first on your local neighborhood email list if anyone wants it/can use it.

4. Before you throw anything out, always check for $33,000 in cash hidden away in it.

5. Petach Tikva kids start collecting wood for Lag BaOmer waaaay too early. They should be helping their parents clean for Pesach.

Note: The wooden closet pictured above is for representative purposes only -- it was not the actual wooden closet found containing $33,000. Other Limitations may apply.



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Mad Rantings of Jameel: Targetting Parsha Sheets

Last year, the big talk of the town for Lag Ba'Omer (yes, I'm still counting with a bracha...is RenReb?) was the hypothesis that the holiday is a sham. The scholar who challenged tradition was humiliated, scorned by many, and was forced to retract his hypothesis, apologize, and he's never been heard from again.

Wondering what to write about Lag BaOmer this year, I found myself in a quandary. Its a great holiday to blog about. One of my all time favorite tiyulim took place Lag BaOmer back when I was learning in yeshiva...I could scan in those pictures and post them, show you the route of the tiyul, explain why it was one of the greatest tiyulim of all time...

I could fast-forward to the present time, and explain why my kids go insane over Lag BaOmer every year (more than most Israeli kids), and what an amazing time they have.

In the meantime, I want to share a weekly rant of mine and show it's connection to Lag BaOmer as well.

I don't know what it's like in the USA, but here in Israel, entering shul on Erev Shabbat drives me insane.

It's not because I'm perpetually late to shul on Friday evening (don't forget to Vote for Shifra's "18 minutes before Shabbat" Best Humor Post at the JIB awards over here...or for my Elvis the Drug dealer post). It has nothing to do with needing to explain every single week to my 3 year old that the candy man only gives out candy on shabbat morning in shul and not Friday night.

Rather, it's the sight of the 57 different flavors, colors and variety of Parashat HaShavua sheets on tables in the shul.

I simply, can not stand them.

What started out as a nice idea 22 years ago, has ballooned into an insane custom that results in the cutting down of thousands of trees, a huge waste of paper, and worst of all, I can't get my older kids to concentrate of Friday night davening, because they would rather sit and read these sheets and look at the ads...than daven.

I am not alone.

Besides the Friday Night mayhem in shul, comes the endless bickering...

"Where's the YESHA parasha sheet?"
"Where's Kolech" (the feminist page)?
"You read Kolech? You are SO pathetic."
"Where's the Kach and Kahana Chai pages?"
"I'll swap you a Sephardi one for that full color cruise brochure"
"You read that?!"
"Who let this dreck into shul?"
"I'm going to burn all of these after shabbat"
"Where are the Torah Tidbits -- why are they gone already?"
"Which ones are for kids? Why is there nothing for kids this week?"
"Are there any left with the pull-out Hamsa poster?"
"Is that the normal Chabad one or the crazy messianics one?"

It never ends. Apparently, Lag Ba'Omer at Har Meiron is even worse than Friday nights at my shul, and tons of parasha sheets get distributed, and then dumped everywhere, littering the mountainside.

Which led to the creation of...(and I'm not kidding, this sheet was in shul this past Friday night...)

The Va'ad Halacha for Inyanei Geniza!

You know something is serious in Israel, if there's a "Va'ad" for it (an "organization").

My MDA/Hatzala cellular walkie-talkie has a Stamp on it -- certified to have no connection to the outlawed "internet," and formally approved "Kosher" by the Va'ad of Rabbis for Kosher Communications.

Is Hot Chanie walking around Meah Shearim in a too tight skirt? The Va'ad for tzniut (modesty) will chase her out of the neighborhood faster than you can say, "Hot Chanie didn't win a JIB award." (See Shifra's Hot Chanie Field Guide...she needs only 800 more page views to hit 100,000!!)

So whats this new Va'ad about? Geniza.

(Quick Wikipedia definition: A genizah or genizaHebrew: גניזה "storage"; plural: genizot) is the store-room or depository in a synagogue, usually specifically for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics that were stored there before they could receive a proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings containing the name of God (even personal letters and legal contracts could open with an invocation of God). In practice, genizot also contained writings of a secular nature, with or without the customary opening invocation, and also contained writings in other languages that use the Hebrew alphabet (Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Ladino, Yiddish).

So because tons and tons of pages with G-d's name on it are being dumped everywhere, this Va'ad has decided to outlaw ALL PARSHA SHEETS this coming Lag BaOmer at Har Meiron!


Now if only we could outlaw all parasha sheets in shul, I'd be a much happier camper. (This may sound rather grinchy of me...but I can rant, right?)

A Happy Lag BaOmer to all....though I still need to post a bit later with more endorsements for the JIBs and the best posts.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

PSA for Lag BaOmer

Every year, dozens of kids in Israel get hurt from Lag BaOmer-bonfire related injuries.

Parents! Please remind your kids of the following important points:

Every Bonfire should have a bucket of water close-by.

* Distance burn victims from fires -- if an area is on fire, smother it with a blanket.
* Keep the airway of a burn victim open.
* Wash the burned area on a victim with lots of lukewarm water, the more the better.
* Try to calm the burn victim
* CALL Magen David Adom: 101
* Give as much information to the ambulance crew when they arrive
* DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE BURNED CLOTHES FROM THE VICTIM.
* DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PUT ANY CREAMS/OINTMENTS ON THE BURN. Running water on the burn is the best treatment you can provide.









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