Shimon bar Yochai and Lag B'Omer
Nonfiction for ages 12-16 about a great rabbi, the holiday in his honor, and what he taught
Lag B'omer is a special day that falls between the Jewish holidays of Pesach and Shavuoth. Pesach, or Passover, is 50 days before Shavuoth. “Shavuoth” translates to English as Weeks because Shavuoth is seven weeks after Pesach. The two holidays are related historically and spiritually.
Passover is seven days long in Israel and eight days long in the rest of the world. (Like other major holidays, an extra day is celebrated outside of Israel.i) The first and last days of Pesach are like the Sabbath in that we have special synagogue services. We also avoid certain activities. The middle days are considered half-holidays. In Israel, schools are closed for all or part of the time and many people take vacation. The last day (2 days outside of Israel) is another full holiday.
The first day celebrates the escape of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt to freedom. The middle days remind the Jews of wandering in the desert on their way to the home of their ancestors in Israel. The last day commemorates the miracle of the Red Sea. With the Egyptian army chasing them, the Jews found their escape was blocked by the Red Sea. Miraculously it opened up so that the Jewish people could cross it. Then the sea closed and drowned the enemy army.
Shavuoth celebrates when God gave the Ten Commandments and His Law to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The tradition says that was the length of time it took for the Jews to travel from the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai.
The Law that God gave to the Jews on Mt. Sinai told them how to build their society when they got to their ancestral homeland. These laws form the basis of the civilization of the western world.
On the 33rd day after the first day of Passover is another very special day. This day is not directly related to Pesach and Shavuoth. Called Lag B'Omer, its name is written in Hebrew with the letters lamed and gimel. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet represents a number.ii Lamed is 30 and gimel, the 3rd letter of the alef-bet, is 3, so ל + ג = 33 . Omer is the name of this 50-day period. The two little marks between the letters separate them so the reader knows these are numbers and not a word spelled לג.
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai
This day is special because it is the date of the death of one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all time, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.iii,iv My story for young children, Hotdogs and Memories, explains about the yartzeit or anniversary of a death.
Jews believe that recognizing and appreciating the life of someone who has passed away helps his or her soul in eternity. On Rabbi Shimon's yartzeit, big celebrations are held. Bonfires are lit in honor of his great work, the Zohar. In this work he revealed many mystical secrets. The Zohar is the primary text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. The ideas in the Zohar bring light to the world, so we have bonfires in honor of these ideas and Rabbi Shimon's role in teaching them.
On most years, thousands of Jews visit Mt. Meron in Israel. They pray at Rabbi Shimon's grave there, study the Zohar, dance, and have a bonfires. This year, 2025 (5785 on the Jewish calendar), we had a dry winter, so the forests are drier than normal. Just a few weeks ago, thousands of acres of Israeli forests were burned by Palestinian terrorists. Because of these two factors, bonfires will only be permitted in very safe places, and then only if they are carefully supervised. Both types of fires pictured here are outlawed this year.
There will be other celebrations instead of fires. Many communities, synagogues, or other groups will hold barbecues. There will probably be live music and dancing at some. Plays about Rabbi Shimon and dance recitals will be put on by schools. In Israel, it is common for children to write the songs and plays that they produce for special days like this. People will still celebrate, just not in the same way.
Why the Zohar is Important
Judaism teaches that God wants people to live in safe, orderly communities. He knows people are not perfect.v Large numbers of people cannot live together comfortably without laws. The Torah and Talmud focus on how God wants society to be organized. It tells us how to live: in other words, what we should and should not do.
The Zohar teaches why we do the things we do. These are mystical or spiritual meanings behind our laws and customs. Rabbi Shimon taught that everything we do has an effect much larger than just us doing the thing. They affect other people. They also affect the Next World, the spiritual world of God that we cannot see. The Zohar explains the effects when we do (or don't do) certain things, both good and bad. Many of the customs mentioned in my stories have their roots in the Zohar.
Teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar-Yochai
Here are a few of the things that this great rabbi taught:
Everything in existence is interconnected, and everything reflects the unity of God.vi
Torah study and doing the mitzvot (commandments) help a person's soul to grow and lifts him or her spiritually.
Suffering is a way in which we are purified and grow spiritually. That is, when bad things happen we can find a lesson that will help us. This concept has helped countless people handle troubles with grace and growth.
Some of the Israelis who were kidnapped and hidden in tunnels in Gaza for over a year found out this truth. After they were freed, they said that they had not been religious before they were kidnapped. However, they felt God protecting them during their captivity. This gave them strength to survive. They say it changed them. It will also help them live normal lives in spite of their terrible ordeal.
We should serve God with joy. Happiness strengthens our spiritual connection with God.
Words have immense spiritual power, so they should be used wisely. For example, gossip is wrong--it is like opening a feather pillow on a windy day. The feathers fly around and cannot all be put back in the pillowcase. In the same way, hurtful words about another spread uncontrollably. Even if we learn later that the words we spread were lies and we apologize, the damage has been done.
Righteous people are able to bring divine blessings down into this world through their good deeds.
One lesson from Rabbi Shimon that everyone can do is to make a new habit that will help others, such as giving charity, visiting the sick or elderly, volunteering at a food kitchen, or even not fighting with a sibling. When we make a new, good habit, we are doing a little something to make the world a better place.
For Parents, Teachers and Others
Judaism as a Way of Life
Judaism is not a religion in the same way that Christianity is: it is a way of life. Our laws define our civilization, our societies in this world. Religious Jews prefer living in communities where our laws and customs are followed. Many liberal Jews believe that the Torah laws are no longer relevant. They do not believe in a God who cares about them. However, they still are Jews, and many of them still follow the moral and ethical laws.
Our desire to live in our own communities is one reason we are seen as "clannish." This word is also used negatively; people think religious Jews like to be separate because we believe we are better than others. This is not true; it is not an issue of "better" or "worse."
The Chosen People
Remember, God created everyone and like a good parent, He loves all His children. Judaism teaches that God took His Law around the world and asked the different peoples if they wanted it. When they found out that it contained laws about behavior, they declined. The Jewish people chose to accept the Law without worrying about what it contained. We said, "We will do and we will hear." This is how we obtained the Torah. But with the Torah comes obligation: the obligation to fulfill the commandments. We became God's favored children because we chose to live according to His Law, not because we are intrinsically better.
In the Bible story of the Tower of Babel, the people got the idea that they could build a tower tall enough to reach Heaven. They were getting very arrogant, and God didn't like that. As a result, He divided them into 70 nations, each with its own language. Many Jews believe that He gave each group its own special gift. Some of those still exist. They are considered functions of culture. People do not realize that these traits are gifts God gave to their people, just as He gave His Law to the Jews.
These traits are also called stereotypes because they suggest that everyone in a group has this trait. This is not true; people are individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses. But some things are true in general: they apply to many in the society. The music of Black Africa has rich harmonies and gorgeous melodies, and many Black people have wonderful singing voices. Just think of how the proportion of Black musical artists compared to white in the USA is far higher than the proportion of Blacks to whites in American society in general. Germans excel at organization. Many Irish can spin tales like none other. Japanese have a singular and outstanding sense of beauty. People go to France to see cathedrals, Austria to see castles, and Italy to see religious paintings.
We were once all one people with all these different talents and skills. Now, even though we are divided, we still need all the parts. The world is a much richer place when we share our talents and skills. (This philosophy contrasts with the sick modern-day belief of cultural appropriation, which says that it is wrong to use what developed in a different culture. But somehow pizza and Chinese take-out are exceptions and can be shared. Go figure.)
Jewish Law
Christianity, a religion in the true sense of the word, has as its primary focuses first, the worship of God and second, the individual and his salvation. Judaism, on the other hand, focuses on building a kind, just, peaceful society in this world through following God's laws.
Some Christians call Judaism "legalistic," as though that was a bad thing. It is very true that we have a lot of laws, but we also have a society that has a far lower crime rate than most other societies. (Unfortunately a few non-religious Jews like Jeffrey Epstein and Bernie Madoff turn to nonviolent crimevii and excel at it, but they are the exception.) A large percentage of crime in modern Israel is committed by the non-Jewish minority--people whose basic cultures are different, with different attitudes towards life, violence, and theft.
The Ten Commandments are the basic laws of society. The Five Books of Moses are a history book covering the period from the creation of the world until the freed slaves enter the Promised Land, the land where their ancestors lived.
The Five Books of Moses are called by Jews the Written Law. We believe Moses wrote them down during the 40 days he stayed on Mt. Sinai. We consider it the Cliff's Notes of the word of God--notes he took as God dictated to him.
The Talmud, called the Oral Law, is considered the complete text that God related to Moses. We believe that during the 40 years the Jews were in the desert (according to Jewish tradition, for 38 of those years they were camped), Moses taught that law to the Jews. Then it was passed down orally until the early years of the common era (called by Christians A.D.). At that time it was organized and written down. It contains the explanations and details of the laws given in the Five Books of Moses--how these laws are to be carried out. Its laws form the basis of Christianity and European/American civilization, covering such topics as:
tort law: money awarded by a court for harm done to another, but not by criminal means, such as paying expenses that someone had to pay because someone hurt him (but not in a criminal way), through carelessness, from assault (behaving in a threatening way), battery (touching another in a threatening or hurtful way), being on or using someone else's property, or being damaged by something that someone else told you was safe.
criminal law: laws about an act or failure to do something that breaks a law
inheritance
marriage and other family issues
business laws and laws dealing with money
This list just scratches the surface of what the Talmud deals with. It is huge and complex, and people can and do spend a lifetime studying it.
I have heard Christian leaders say that Jesus brought love and kindness into the world. He certainly spread those concepts, along with other concepts from Judaism. But Christian leaders forget that Jesus was a Jewish scholar and as such had spent many years learning the Oral Law. Almost everything taught in the New Testament and ascribed to Jesus can be found in the Jewish tradition. It was so obvious to Moses, however, that he did not write it in his notes when God was teaching him, so it doesn't appear in the Jewish Bible itself.
i Golding, N., Shurpin, Y., Why Do We Still Celebrate Holidays for Two Days in the Diaspora? Chabad.org, https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/527614/jewish/Why-Do-We-Still-Celebrate-Holidays-for-Two-Days-in-the-Diaspora.htm , accessed May 12, 2025.
ii Hare, J.A., Hebrew Letters for Numbers, The Hebrew Cafe, Dec. 5, 2020, https://www.thehebrewcafe.com/uploads/pdf/letter_values.pdf , accessed May 11, 2025
iii https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shimon-bar-Yochai,
iv https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112515/jewish/Rabbi-Shimon-Bar-Yochai.htm
v https://mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/human.htm, https://aish.com/48939737/
vi Unlike Christianity, Judaism does not teach that there is a separate, powerful force of evil in the world. Rather, as our most important prayer says, God is One and his name is One. There is nothing else but God. We believe that God wanted people to have free will--the ability to choose what we do--and so He created the evil inclination. This is the desire to do the wrong thing. One of the chief jobs of our lives is to subdue the evil inclination. Some people, such as Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler, instead seem to have subdued their inclination to do good, and reveled in doing evil. This was their choice, and they were punished in the afterlife for it.
vii Epstein's crimes really were not nonviolent; people were certainly hurt by them. But he did not commit what are commonly called “violent crimes.”
You explained everything beautifully for all ages to understand.