#lag b'omer

[maimonidesnutz]

Cancelling plans is ok. Staying home to cook is ok. Hiding from the Romans in a cave for 12 years is ok. Taking off your clothes and covering yourself in sand to preserve them for Torah study is ok. Smiting people with your eyes for forsaking eternal life is ok. Do what you need to cope.

#jumblr #shimon bar yochai #Shabbat 33b-34a #talmud #lag b'omer

[torais-life]

Ver "Watch Live : Lag Ba’omer in Meron 2023 | שידור חי מאתרא קדישא מירון - ל"ג בעומר תשפ"ג" en YouTube

#jumblr #lag b'omer #rabbi shimon #jews and judaism #mount meron

[queer-talmid]

Me: *expresses horror at something Apple Watches do

My boss: Lag B'Omer is coming up, you can come out of your cave

#present tense #jewish stuff #lag b'omer #this is just to say

[dianaraven]

Yeah, we can get a charcoal grill lit 🤤😊

#after an hour #food cw #food tw #lag bomer #happy lag b'omer #ל“ג בעומר #we had a dessert of marshmallows too 👌 #and yall cant see me... i look like a cartoon bomb blew up in my face

[unbidden-yidden]

Jewish Song of the Day #40: Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

Comments:

Okay so this one is a little tricky to explain the context of, because it requires a certain baseline of existing knowledge, but I'm gonna try.

So this is a Lag b'Omer song, for reasons I will get to momentarily.

Lag b'Omer is the 33rd day in the counting cycle of the Omer - the 49 days between the second day of Passover (Pesach) and the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people by Hashem from Mt. Sinai.

Lag b'Omer is celebrated for a couple of reasons:

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who lived in the second century of the Common Era, was the first to publicly teach the mystical dimension of the Torah known as the Kabbalah, and is the author of the classic text of Kabbalah, the Zohar. On the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon instructed his disciples to mark the date as “the day of my joy.” The chassidic masters explain that the final day of a righteous person’s earthly life marks the point at which all their deeds, teachings and work achieve their culminating perfection and the zenith of their impact upon our lives. So each Lag BaOmer, we celebrate Rabbi Shimon’s life and the revelation of the esoteric soul of Torah. Lag BaOmer also commemorates another joyous event. The Talmud relates that in the weeks between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot, a plague raged among the disciples of the great sage Rabbi Akiva (teacher of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai), “because they did not act respectfully towards each other.” These weeks are therefore observed as a period of mourning, with various joyous activities proscribed by law and custom. On Lag BaOmer the deaths ceased. Thus, Lag BaOmer also carries the theme of loving and respecting one’s fellow (ahavat Yisrael).

(Source: Chabad - read more about it here)

Because of this, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is associated with the day, and therefore this song exists.

It is also worth noting that the first 32 days of the Omer (also referred to as the sephira) traditional Jews observe a number of mourning customs, including restrictions on music. I typically observe some level of this, so JSOTD might go on hiatus for that month, or at a minimum, might switch to a capella music only. I might also switch to doing a "Jewish Teaching of the Day" instead. Please let me know what y'all think in the notes. There is also another similar three week period during the summer months of Tammuz and Av where mourning customs are observed. I will likely do the same thing during both.

The Omer doesn’t occur until early May, but I figured I'd give a heads-up while I am talking about this anyway.

Enjoy the song and let me know your thoughts!

#jumblr #jewish music #Jewish Song of the Day

[istodayajewishholiday]

22 April 2023 - 1 Iyyar 5783

Yes, today is Rosh Chodesh Iyyar, the first of the month of Iyyar! Today is also Shabbat! Shabbat shalom! Today is Day 16 of the Counting of the Omer. Tonight: Count 17.

Holidays to anticipate in Iyyar:

Minor Holidays:

Pesach Sheini on 14 Iyyar (May 4-5) Lag B'Omer on 18 Iyyar (May 8-9)

#judaism #jumblr

[spacelazarwolf]

Positivity post: Me (ftm gnc convert) and my wife (nontransitioning nb trans woman) got married on lag b'omer. It was my conservative synagogues first gay marriage and the responses ranged from regular congratulations to "good! It's finally time this happened!"

mazel tov!!!!!!!!!

#ask avishai

[scoutpologist]

you asked for religious hcs. personally I am average and sane about catholic quackity and jewish wilbur. yet another reason they are So Fucked Up i think.

YOU UNDERSTAND ME MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD OH MY GOD

cquackity is so catholic like he's so so so catholic he's catholicism core embodied. he gives the vibes of a character who doesn't actually like catholicism and would have never chosen it of his own volition but it's what he was raised with and it sort of ingrained itself in his psyche in some weird way and now he's just. inherently catholic about some things and has a complex about being happy lol. i don't think he practices much besides some traditions that he just can't let go of.

and i am NOT normal about jewish cwilbur oh my god it's one of my favorite headcanons but i'm shy about it bc it's so personal to me ksjdhgksjdf. did you know that he died two days before rosh hashanah 2020 did you know that. something about that drives me insane like he didn't stay to see the sunrise of the new year. he didn't STAY. if only he had stayed. he closed the year out terrified and alone and miserable. was that his way of atoning for the wrongdoings of the year? was that his fucked up way of making teshuvah??? with his death was he begging people to leave him in the past?

and there's a lesson there for cwilbur at least about what teshuvah and forgiveness and repentance actually ARE and it's not about hurting yourself. it's about making the world better, it's about being a better person, it's not about guilt but about moving forward and how you can move forward.

when he was revived it was right before lag b'omer might i fucking ADD. he was alive to see a day, albeit a minor holiday, so built around victory and celebration and FIRE. his fire was reignited. he was alive to see hope in the middle of a period of mourning. I'M GOING CRAZY.

i just cannot stop thinking about jewish cwilbur it drives me crazy he's so. he's SO. i love him so much i never want to shut up about him in my entire life he's everything to me

(also this goes really well with my ctommy catholic headcanon as well because they very obviously care for and love each other but there's very much a Disparity between them and the way they view the world that would be really interesting to explore on a religious level)

(also this would either make wilbur's mom (and/or dad in some communities) jewish or mean he converted. and i love both of those. i'm partial to conversion headcanon tbh particularly <3)

(if no one stops me i will make them all jewish do not test me)

#ask #Anonymous

[now-that-i-saw-you]

ranking Jewish holidays/important days (with explanations)

Passover

matzah with chocolate <3 I love the Haggadah. AND THE SONGS Echad Mi Yodea is quite literally the best song ever. Plus I used to get a two weeks vacation from school during Passover.

Hanukkah

SUFGANYOT and singing :D my birthday usually falls on Hanukkah

Shavuot

C H E E S E and wearing white

Purim

Great story! my family usually dress up together (last year we did Snow White and the Seven Dwarves). I stopped wearing costumes outside the family events, but seeing other people's costumes is still nice. Making Misolach manot for school was so fun.

Rosh Hashanah

Apples with honey and pomegranates!! Celebrating the beginning of a new year so that feels symbolic and nice and sentimental.

Lag B'omer

I only like this because my friend and I used to meet every year at my place and make cholcate fondue.

Sukkot

We don't really celebrate this anymore but I have fond childhood memories from this holiday.

Tu B'shevat

T R E E S

Yom Kippur

I hate being told not to eat and I apologise for nothing...but I like that my siblings are home and I like watching them play board games. Plus it's so quiet.

Simchat Torah

I just remember wearing white for elementary school and it felt like An Event.

Tu B'av

I don't have a partner to celebrate this with.

#yeah I ignored some #jumblr

[magnetothemagnificent]

I actually love how the rainbow became the symbol for LGBTQ liberation.

Gilbert Baker may not have known this when he (a gentile) made the first rainbow flag, but the word for "rainbow" in Hebrew is "קשת"- Keshet.

Keshet is also the Hebrew word for "bow", the weapon.

The rainbow is a symbol of a truce, of Hashem promising to never destroy humanity again. But the arrow- it's a far more complicated symbol.

First- it's a symbol of war. It's a weapon, a long-distance weapon, one of the deadliest in ancient times.

Second- it's a symbol of loyalty. When David and Yonatan devised the code Yonatan would use to inform David if he was safe or not, they decided on using arrows.

Third- it's a symbol of respect. According to Chassidic teachings, pulling back the quiver symbolizes pulling back on one's ego, in order to go further.

On Lag B'Omer, a highly mystical Jewish holiday, it is customary to shoot with a bow and arrow.

I love that the Keshet has become a symbol of LGBTQ liberation, because we strive for peace and reconciliation, but are prepared to defend ourselves, as if with a bow and arrow. We are both a rainbow and a weapon.

#judaism #lgbt jews #jewish identity #lgbt pride #hebrew #rainbow

[shiraglassman]

Lag b'Omer with the framily 🔥

#lag baomer #jewish #jumblr #marshmallows #campfire #florida #friendship #found family #framily

[girlactionfigure]

[News Story] 10:15am A Successful Operation - Lessons Learned Another time can talk about Israel’s current policy on Gaza, what’s right and wrong about it, but for now I want to focus on what we accomplished and what we exposed in this round of fighting in Operation Shield and Arrow. Speaking of which, I first want to point this out from 2 Melachim 19:32, as people were wondering why they didn't call it Operation Bow and Arrow, since it started on Lag B'Omer. "Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city: He shall not shoot an  arrow  at it, Or advance upon it with a  shield, Or pile up a siege mound against it." That happened to be the Perek Yomi on the day the campaign started, in Project 929 – so either someone’s been learning their Tanach, or God has a funny sense of humor, or both. The most obvious accomplishment was the successful policy/strategy change of returning to targeted assassinations of senior terrorists – but this time with reduced concern for collateral damage relative to the increased value of the target and the threat to Israel. It can’t be overstated how important a change in both strategy and policy this is. With the Biden administration exerting so little influence in the Middle East these days and Biden’s ongoing boycott of Netanyahu, that might have been what allowed this to happen and caused a permanent loosening of the reins. Perhaps this is a next step towards being prepared to indiscriminately carpet bomb the enemy in response to them attempting to carpet bomb us. One can hope. While Islamic Jihad found itself in the position of having no choice but to replace their senior commanders every few hours in the midst of a war – or surrender, Israel sent an unequivocal message to Hamas that they’re going to have to start living in bunkers by themselves, like Hassan Nasrallah does, and even that won’t save them. We proved that Israel can find their terrorist leaders, no matter where they’re hiding. Like whack-a-mole, we might have to wait a bit, but we’ll get them. You can bet they’re scared. We exposed another Hamas weakness. Hamas was pushing hard for Islamic Jihad (who take orders from Iran) to accept the ceasefire. Why? Because Gaza was running out of fuel for their generators. And Hamas, when not in a war that they initiate, is now concerned about maintaining order and control on a day-to-day basis, and that includes keeping the electricity running. More confirmed leverage to us during conflict and non-conflict periods. Israel recently sold the David’s Sling anti-missile system to Finland for $345 million USD. David’s Sling has now been combat-tested and proved to be successful in real-world conditions. It’s value just jumped, and we have Iran and Islamic Jihad to thank for that. Some problems with Iron Dome were discovered and fixed.  Unfortunately, an elderly woman was killed when a (regular) rocket got through from the many hundreds of rockets shot at us, and a Gazan man working in Israel was killed by shrapnel from an Islamic Jihad rocket. It is clear we need the Iron Beam laser system up and running already for when the big war happens. And even the IAF pilots, which you have to admit, not everyone was 100% sure we could still trust and rely on, came through in the end. And that was also an important message sent to our enemies who definitely thought our pilots couldn’t be relied on anymore. We presumably learned more about the Iranian missiles they shot at us. While there was much criticism about letting Aviv Gefen run a live concert with tens of thousands of people in Tel Aviv while missiles were being launched at Tel Aviv… let’s face it, Israel was able to permit a live concert in Tel Aviv with tens of thousands of participants while rockets were literally being launched at Tel Aviv. Think about that for a moment and what that means. The last question is, are there lessons here for our upcoming battle with Hamas? In some ways it will just be a matter of scale when it comes to the number of missiles and their range. Though in other ways, Hamas is more serious, and they surely have other tactics and strategies in place that Islamic Jihad doesn’t – including underwater units which we didn’t see at all in this operation, drones, terror tunnels, fire balloons, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, tank-traps, other stuff we can’t predict, and most seriously, a more established terror network in Judea and Samaria, so we would find ourselves simultaneously fighting on a second front. But on that last point, while it wasn’t discussed that much, the IDF was simultaneously running successful operations in Judea and Samaria during this operation and killed a number of terrorists there too, so our side clearly recognizes the linkage and has been preparing for it.

The Muqata

#Israel #Operation Shield and Arrow #Lessons Learned

[jewish-song-of-the-day]

Announcement: I have started queueing posts to reboot daily in order for Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Because the original started on a Wednesday and I'd like for at least the Shabbos themed ones to still be synced to the actual week. Obviously seasonal ones will be off-cycle until we catch up during the Sefirah.

All posts will be reruns here until we have caught up during the Sefirah, which starts on April 24th, 2024 (2nd day of Pesach).

At that time, Jewish Song of the Day will go on hiatus on @unbidden-yidden and will continue to cycle through the rest until we are fully caught up here.

Update: I may have to adjust this because I'd really like to add some seasonal songs for Pesach, Omer, Lag b'Omer, Shavuot, etc.

#Jewish Song of the Day #jumblr #not a music post

[bisexualamy]

like the folks following me likely already know this but the absolute ridiculousness of arguing that the judaism jesus practiced is remotely similar to modern day judaism (yes even orthodox judaism, which in itself is not a monolith) is incredibly ignorant. the statement itself betrays the speaker's profound lack of understanding of judaism.

i said it in the tags but the entire talmud as we know it today was complied centuries after jesus's birth. even tracking the origins of all the commentaries in the talmud and its various versions and shows the earliest related manuscripts a couple hundred years after jesus's birth. to discuss 21st century judaism without the talmud is like discussing modern day christianity and cutting off after the resurrection. this is one of rabbinical judaism's most important texts and an integral part of religious study. it's profoundly shaped jewish tradition and practice, and has done so for literally centuries.

this is only one example though it is one of the most glaring it's definitely not the only one. (the two immediate examples coming to mind are many passover seder traditions that are now standard practice came about after the split between xtainity and judaism, and some minor holidays literally didn't exist until centuries later the only one coming to mind rn is lag b'omer but i think that just bc i like bonfires).

anyway judeo-christian values is a useless phrase. christians stop using jews as pawns for political clout challenge.

#ren speaks #jewish blogging

[eretzyisrael]

Lag Ba Omer

The Counting of the Omer:

According to the Torah (Lev. 23:15), we are obligated to count the 49 days between Passover and Shavu'ot, this is the Counting of the Omer. The counting is intended to remind us of the link between Passover, which commemorates the Exodus, and Shavu'ot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah and helps us remember that liberation from slavery was not complete until we received the Torah. The Omer is a semi-mourning period in which we spiritually cleanse ourselves in preparation for receiving the Torah and haircuts, shaving, listening to instrumental music, or conducting weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing are forbidden.

Lag B'Omer:

Lag is a transliteration of the Hebrew letters לג that represent the number 33. Lag B’Omer is the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer.

On Lag B’Omer, Jews all throughout the world commemorate three events:

1. The cessation of the plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students

2. The end of the Bar Kochba rebellion against Roman occupation of Judea

3. The death of an incredible Torah Sage, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (thought to be the author of the Zohar).

Jewish spirituality, Jewish history and the fight for sovereignty in the Jewish homeland blend into one on Lag B’Omer.

Rabbi Akiva was an ardent supporter of Shimon Bar Kochba, who in 132 C.E. led a ferocious but unsuccessful revolt against Roman rule in Judea. Many of Rabbi Akiva’s students backed the revolt and were killed along with thousands of Judeans when it failed. The Talmudic rabbis, still suffering under Roman rule and cautious about referring openly to past rebellions, may have been hinting at those deaths when they spoke of a plague among Akiva’s students.

Tradition says that, on the date of his death, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai revealed the deepest secrets of the Kabbalah and thus Lag B’Omer became a day of celebration of the great light (i.e., wisdom) that Bar Yochai brought into the world.

Lag B’Omer is commemorated by bonfires and children playing with bow and arrows. Religious tradition says that this is to celebrate the life of Shimon Bar Yochai, the light he brought into the world and celebrate the end of the plague that impacted our nation so greatly. Zionist tradition says that the bonfires are in memory of the rebels who used fire signals to announce the beginning of the rebellion against the Roman occupiers.

No matter which aspect you focus on regarding Lag B’Omer, this holiday is a reminder of the fires of the Jewish spirit that reside in us all.

Forest Rain Marcia

#Lag Ba Omer #Judaism #Jewish

[istodayajewishholiday]

21 April 2023 - 30 Nisan 5783

Yes, today (and tomorrow) is Rosh Chodesh Iyyar, the beginning of the month of Iyyar! Shabbat begins at sundown. Today is Day 15 of the Counting of the Omer. Tonight: Count 16.

Holidays to anticipate in Iyyar:

Minor Holidays:

Pesach Sheini on 14 Iyyar (May 4-5) Lag B'Omer on 18 Iyyar (May 8-9)

#judaism #jumblr