The tradition of the Lag ba-omer festival, which is celebrated on the 33rd day of Omer, dates back to the existence of the Jerusalem Temple. The word «omer» in Hebrew means sheaf, and omer — is a measure of loose bodies, which in ancient times was considered a sufficient amount of grain for one person per day.
On the second day of Passover it was supposed to bring a gift to the Temple, namely a — sheaf of barley from the new harvest. This was the first omer. The next morning they offered God a prayer for the harvest. We started counting down « days of Omer». Only 49 days, from Passover to Shavuot, according to the number of days from the Exodus from Egypt — to receiving the Torah. Each day has its own ordinal number.
On the fiftieth day, the second omer — sheaf of wheat from the new harvest was brought to the Temple. According to the Torah, the time between the first omer and the second is associated with a large number of restrictions. It is called a period of trepidation and hope, since during these seven weeks the fate of the entire year — is decided whether it will be fruitful or not. And only on the thirty-third day of the omer countdown, on Lag Ba-omer, many restrictions are lifted, a kind of «break» is arranged in the worries of seven weeks.
Lag ba-omer is surrounded by many lore. One of them is — this legend about the disciples of Rabbi Akiva, who during the time of Emperor Hadrian, under pain of death, continued to study the Torah. When going to their secret meetings, they often dressed as hunters and took bows and arrows with them to deceive the vigilance of the Roman guards.
The Talmud tells that Rabbi Akiva had 24 thousand disciples, and that all but five of them died of an epidemic between Passover and Shavuot as punishment for disrespectful treatment of each other. The pestilence lasted thirty-three days. Therefore, during this period, in the first 33 days of the count of the Omer between Passover and Shavuot, Jews around the world observe a number of mourning customs: they do not cut their hair, do not hold cheerful feasts and wedding ceremonies. It is generally accepted that it was on Lag Ba-omer that the pestilence stopped, and therefore on this day mourning customs are abolished everywhere.
Some sources give a different interpretation of the meaning of this date. Jews rebelled against the Roman occupiers more than once. One such rebellion was led by Bar Kokhba. It is believed that most of the volunteers who fought in his army were students of Rabbi Akiva. The superiority of Rome was undeniable, the rebels suffered a number of heavy defeats and were defeated. However, it was in Lag ba-omer that Bar-Kohba managed to win a major victory. His soldiers celebrated the occasion joyfully, and their triumph of Lag Ba-omer is commemorated to this day.
There is another explanation for the tradition of celebrating Lag ba-omer. One of Rabbi Akiva's best students was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi). He was among the five students who survived the epidemic and was also active in the Bar Kokhba Rebellion. Rashbi is believed to have died at Lag ba-omer. In memory of him, a tradition developed to visit his grave on the day of Lag Ba-omer (buried on Mount Miron near the city of Safed). During his death, a visible column of fire rose above his body, and therefore the custom arose during the Lag Ba-omer holiday of burning fires. In Israel, tens of thousands of fires are lit this evening.
In Lag Ba-omer, schoolchildren go out into nature in whole classes, accompanied by teachers. The boys prepare the bow and arrows and then have archery competitions and fun relay races. This tradition is dedicated to the memory of the participants in the Bar Kokhba uprising, who bravely fought with the Roman enslavers for the freedom of Israel.
Since 2004, another holiday has been celebrated on this day — Day of the Miluimnik — reservist of the Israel Defense Forces. Miluim — is a military training camp for which reservists are called up annually, for a period of about a month.