Lag B’Omer Storytelling with Marc Young

This year Lag b’Omer, the 33rd day of our countdown to Sinai, begins at sundown on Thursday, May 15. Lag b’Omer commemorates two great sages of the generation that experienced both the catastrophic destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the birth of a new Torah-centered rabbinic Judaism which restored their shattered communal identity. 

Today we remember Lag b’Omer mainly as the day a long-ago pandemic finally came to an end, after having slain a host of the quarrelsome pupils of Rabbi Akiba. The passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (aka ‘Rashbi’) is also said to have occurred on Lag b’Omer. Rashbi was an outspoken Talmudic scholar who was forced to flee for his life from the Roman conquerors of Judea. Years later he emerged from his wilderness hideout, aflame with revelations acquired during years of solitary study, now determined to either illuminate the world or burn it to the ground. Rabbi Shimon’s reputation as a uniquely gifted mystic continued to grow for centuries following his death. It inspired the writers of the kabbalistic text we call the Sefer Zohar (the Book of Splendor) to credit its authorship to Rashbi, more than a thousand years after his final Lag b’Omer.   

Join us on Zoom the eve of Lag b’Omer to hear these provocative tales of courage, conflict, and yes, zealotry. Although names and particulars have changed with the passage of time, the struggles these stories recount are old as the human heart, and as urgent as tomorrow’s headlines. 

If you wish to attend, please email Judy Young: jyoung11650@gmail.com. You will receive an email with the Zoom link to join the session.

The Divine emanations that characterize the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer are Hod she’be Hod: Presence within Presence. Let’s be present b’yachad (together) for Lag b’Omer.