Bonfires and a Cave
Nonfiction article for children 8-12 about the Jewish holiday of Lag b'Omer and the great Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai
In the spring in Israel, children start collecting scraps of wood. Old pallets, broken chairs, dried branches, and other discarded wooden things are put aside. They are saved for bonfires that will be lit on the 18th of the Hebrew month of Iyar or Lag b’Omer.
The Omer begins on the second day of Passover and continues for a total of 49 days. These seven weeks are a very important time. The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt, but after God sent ten terrible plagues to the Egyptians, the Pharaoh told the Jews to leave right away. That day became the first day of Passover. Seven weeks later, the Jewish people received the Torah—the Law of God—directly from God at Mt. Sinai. Ever since then, Jews have counted those days and celebrated receiving the Torah at the holiday of Shavuot on the 50th day after Passover.
When the Jewish people received the Torah, they accepted all the laws of the Torah. This meant God gave them a special job: to bring holiness into this world. God’s commandments showed them what to do to fulfill this job. Many Jews still do this today. For example, we make food holy by following the kosher laws and by the blessings we say before and after we eat. We make money holy by being aware of and following God’s laws about it: things like being honest in business, never stealing, and donating it to help other people.
Changing from being a slave to someone with a holy mission was not easy. The Jews were slaves for 210 years, and just seven weeks after freedom they were given a new job with new laws to follow. If you ever tried to stop a habit like biting your nails, or wanted to stop getting angry with your little brother, you know that change is hard. The 49 days of the Omer leading up to the Shavuot holiday is a special time to focus on changing bad habits and becoming a better person.
At first, this doesn’t seem like it has much to do with bonfires. But bonfires bring light, and so did an amazing book called the Zohar.
Roman Rule and Torah
Long ago the Romans ruled what is now Israel. The emperor, Hadrian, wanted to destroy Judaism. One way was to kill any Jews caught teaching or studying the Torah.
The Jews did not like this. Then as now, they liked their holy mission. In spite of the Roman laws, people kept studying and teaching Torah. The Romans killed many people for these so-called crimes.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai continued teaching Torah. When he learned that the Romans planned to kill him, he hid in a cave with his son, Rabbi Elazar. During the 12 years they lived in the cave, Rabbi Shimon wrote a book called the Zohar, or Radiance, which means light that shines from something that is not a lamp or a fire. The ideas in the Zohar have brought spiritual light into the world.
What is in the Zohar?
The Zohar is mystical. That means it is related to hidden meanings, magic, or things of the spirit. These are things that are hard to explain or understand. The Zohar explained and brought these things to light. Knowing them makes life richer and brighter.
Mystical information is dangerous for young and inexperienced people, the way it would be dangerous for a 16-year-old with a brand-new driver’s license to drive an 18-wheeler across the USA. For this reason, for over 1,000 years after it was written, the Zohar was only taught to older Torah scholars.
The Torah and Talmud[i] teach what God wants us to do. The Zohar explains why we do them: what these actions do in the World of Truth—the world after this one.[ii] For example, when we say blessings before and after eating we make the plants or animals from which the food was made holy. The blessings give the animals and plants purpose in living and purpose in being made into food.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s Life in the Cave
During the years he was writing the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son lived on carob, a fruit that grew on a tree right outside the cave. (Today carob powder is sometimes used instead of chocolate.) They drank water from a stream that ran through the cave.
After twelve years, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai learned that Emperor Hadrian had died. At last he could stop hiding. But he had become very holy, and he forgot how difficult life could be for regular people. He was critical of the people outside who were just living normal lives, and his bad thoughts killed them. So God sent him back into the cave for another year. This time, when he came out, he saw the goodness in every person. After many more years of teaching, he died on Lag b’Omer.[iii]
Information in the Zohar can be like a flashlight that helps you find your way in the dark: it can help people find ways to solve problems in their lives. It also explains things in the Torah and things about life that were not understood before. In these ways, the Zohar helps people grow in their thoughts and behaviors. All this prepares us to receive the Torah on Shavuot. Because the information in the Zohar lights up people’s lives, we light bonfires in Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s memory on Lag b’Omer.
Lag b’Omer in Our Age
Usually on Lag b’Omer, groups like schools, synagogues, and clubs build big bonfires. They light them after the evening prayers. Many people put potatoes wrapped in foil under the wood, and the heat of the fire cooks them. Sometimes the group will have a big picnic or barbecue, music, and maybe even treats like cotton candy. It is a fun family evening.
In the town of Meron in Israel, where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is buried, there is usually a huge celebration. Thousands of people come from all over the world to remember this great man. Even though it is on the day of his death, people focus on his life and the light that his Zohar brought into the world.
This year 2024 (5784 in the Jewish counting) there is a big war in Israel, so no one felt like making a big celebration. Meron is on top of a mountain that also has an army base on it. The town has been targeted by many rockets and missiles sent from Hezbollah, the enemy across the border just 18 miles away. There aren’t enough shelters for thousands of visitors, so no public celebration was allowed there this year.
Instead of big public celebrations, this year families had small fires in their yards, in firepits on the balconies of their apartments, or even on the driveways of their apartment buildings. But even in wartime, people remembered and celebrated Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who and wrote his amazing work, the Zohar, bringing spiritual light, the light of God, into our world.
For Parents, Teachers, and Others
The stories of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, explanations of the Zohar, and the details of the Omer could make a big book. In this brief article I limited myself to parts I thought might be most interesting to children raised in liberal Jewish homes and non-Jewish children. Here are some resources for anyone who wants to look deeper into these topics.
[i] The Talmud is a large set of books that explains the Torah and how it applies to life.
[ii] What Christians call Heaven
[iii] Jewish commemoration of the day someone dies is explained in the For parents, teachers and others section following my story, Hotdogs and Memories.por