Lag BaOmer This Year

This year, Lag BaOmer begins on Thursday, April 29 at sundown
and ends on Friday, April 30 at sundown.

Join us for Hakafa's Virtual Lag BaOmer Bonfire!

This year, we are again going virtual for our annual Lag BaOmer celebration! Join us on Thursday, April 29 at 7:00 PM for 45 minutes of shmores (AKA s’mores), schmooze, and music. If you've got a fire pit, bring us virtually to your pit. If you have an outdoor barbecue, bring us to your barbecue. Rabbi Elder will be making his shmores in the microwave and will welcome all of you there. Who knows where Sara will be making hers? We look forward to seeing you then!

Zoom Meeting ID: 868 7548 3199

What is Lag BaOmer? We are commanded by the Torah to count forty-nine days starting from the second day of Passover. On the fiftieth day, we celebrate the festival of Shavuot, commemorating the giving of the Torah. This 50-day period is called “Counting the Omer.” The Omer was a barley offering brought to the Temple on the day we start counting, the second day of Passover. “Lag Ba’Omer” is the thirty-third day of counting the Omer. The word “Lag” means 33 because it is comprised of the letters “lamud” and “gimmel,” corresponding to the numerical values of “30” and “3.” In the time of Rabbi Akiva, who witnessed the destruction of the Second Temple and who was the greatest Torah Sage of his generation, twenty-four thousand of his disciples died in an epidemic during the counting of the Omer. Since the epidemic was suspended on the 33rd day, Lag BaOmer has become a joyous day of celebration, complete with picnics and bonfires – especially in Israel.