Lag B'omer At Mt. Meron in Galilee 's Bonfires and Why

 Nadene Goldfoot                                   

Tonight (Wednesdy night)  was Lag B’omer, the 33rd day of the 49 days counted between the second day of Passover and the holiday of Shavuot. According to the Talmud, during this period of time in the second century in Israel, 24,000 students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva mysteriously died. One of the reasons given by the Talmud was that their deaths were punishment for their ill treatment of one and other. Whatever the reasons, the students stopped dying on Lag B’omer and so the rabbis turned it into a day of celebration.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews from all walks of life and religious leanings will converge on the town of Meron in the Galilee to celebrate the festival of Lag B’omer at the tomb of the second century Talmudic sage Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai (also a student of Rabbi Akiva) who died on Lag B'omer and who is credited in Jewish tradition for authoring the Zohar, the famous cornerstone of the Kabbalah (Jewish mystical teachings).                          

According to the Zohar, on the day of his death Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai gathered together all of his students, who were the greatest sages of the time, and revealed to them the deepest secrets of the Kabbalah. During this momentous session his home was filled with an intense light, like a fire.

To commemorate this holy and mystical event, thousands of bonfires are lit in Meron and throughout Israel. In fact, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that most of the air quality monitoring stations noted a rise in particle concentrations due to the many bonfires lit. This year private bonfires are prohibited, except for in specially designated areas.                                

The main bonfires in Meron are lit by prominent rabbis, including many Hasidic Rebbes. The first bonfire is lit by the Boyan Rebbe, as has been done for the last 100 years.

In addition to the bonfires, thousands of 3 year old boys are given their first haircut at Meron, following the Kabbalistic tradition performed by the Arizal, one of the greatest expounders of Kabbalah who lived in 16th century Tzfat. Hundreds of hairdressers set up shop in the area to lend a professional hand.

The festivities in Meron continue through the night and into the next day. As a result of last years tragedy, when dozens of visitors were trampled to death, this year all visitors must have tickets (free) to the event, in order to limit the crowds. Safety procedures have been vastly improved at Meron and police will be out in force to assure a safe event.

May the bonfires and prayers at Meron bring light and peace to the entire world.

Resource:

Israel AM news.

History Channel's Take on Manna Made by Alien Machine

Nadene Goldfoot
Usually I love the History channel.  I was watching the History channel on TV this morning and a program was on telling about the Exodus, so naturally I was interested. They  stated that the Egyptians didn't allow the Jews to leave Egypt, which was wrong.  The Pharoah was finally worn down and consented to their leaving after many plagues hit their land, but changed his mind after they had left.  The Egyptians met up with them since they were on horseback and the Israelites weren't. If you saw the movie, you should remember the scene where the water parted allowing the Israelites to cross, but covered up the Egyptians chasing after them.

However,  the point the writers were making was that aliens from outer space helped to create Manna. "Oh, really?"  The narrators look like they might have come from outer space more than they look like Torah scholars.

They went on to say that Moses got some machine from Egypt before they left, of course, obviously created by the aliens, who had sympathy for their future starvation.  Where did they get such wild information about these seeds, they said manna was?  Why from the Zohar, of course.  Some scientist even showed a sketch he had drawn of the machine from the information given in the Zohar.

Not having a Zohar in my library in my house, I got out my trusty Haftorah, Volume I, and turned to Exodus XVI 11 and read..
 G-d, speaking to Moses, called it bread.  "In the morning there was a layer of dew round about the camp.  And when the layer of dew was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness,  fine, scale-like things, fine as the hoar-frost on the ground.  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another; "What is it?"--for they knew not what it was.  And Moses said unto them:  "It is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."

Then they were told to gather it every man according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, shall ye take it, every man for them that are in his tent.  ...and Moses said unto them;  "Let no man leave of it till the morning."  For those who did, it turned into worms and was rotten.  They gathered it every morning, and as the sun waxed hot, it melted.

When the Sabbath was coming the people were told to bake and to seethe what they had and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning, and it did not rot or have worms.  Six days they were to gather it, but not on the 7th day.   And the house of Israel called the name thereof  Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Moses said that they were to keep an omerful ( 1/10th part of an ephah) of it throughout the generations so they may see the bread fed to you in the wilderness. ( The term "omer" was a new term.  It is not found in the Torah anywhere whereas the term "ephah" was the well-known name of a measure.    He told Aaron to take a jar and put an omerful of manna in and lay it up before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.  They ate manna for 40 years of their wandering before entering Canaan. Moses gave the complete history of the manna up to the end of his own life at age 120.  Then Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan.

According to the History channel, the reason we Jews have a Sabbath day of rest is because that's the day Moses had to clean out the machine so that it would work for the rest of the week.  Here I picture Moses preaching to rest on the 7th day while he himself, the role model, was busy cleaning a machine.  Sure!

First of all, the Zohar is on too high a level even for me to read and understand.  It is a book of mystical thought known as Kabbalah.  It contains commentaries on the Torah for people who have already achieved a high spiritual degree in understanding  the origin of their souls.  It's made up of allegories and legends, but it's like for the level of PhD's, not people unaccustomed to Jewish thought.  It's like starting with a doctoral course when you should start with a 101 course.

I have a feeling that the writers on History's programming were first digging for something to prove aliens from outer space were in on the Manna, came across some allegory and used that as their proof.  I don't believe this was very scientific of them and actually is making fun of the event.  This all goes to prove that you can't believe everything you see and hear on TV, even passed off as "history."

The lesson for us to derive from this section of the Torah is to have trust in G-d, belief in the providence and mercy of G-d.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_(TV_channel)
 Pentateuch and Haftorahs Volume I Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus
http://www.greatdreams.com/grlwhat.htm on Zohar and manna machine
http://www.alienexistence.com/index.php?topic=1267.0