page_title: Lag BaOmer
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Lag BaOmer / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Lag Ba'Omer bonfire in Shapira neighborhood in Tel Aviv, 2011.Français&#160;: Feu de joie de Lag Ba'omer dans le sud de Tel Aviv (quartier Shapira), Israël, 2011.עברית: חגיגות ל"ג בעומר בשכונת שפירא, דרום תל אביב, ישראל, 2011
context_page_description: Lag BaOmer, also Lag B'Omer, is a Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar.
  According to kabbalistic tradition, this day marks the hillula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, "the Rashbi", a Mishnaic sage and leading disciple of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century, and the day on which he revealed the deepest secrets of kabbalah in the form of the Zohar, a landmark text of Jewish mysticism. This association has spawned several well-known customs and practices on Lag BaOmer, including the lighting of bonfires, pilgrimages to the tomb of Bar Yochai in the northern Israeli town of Meron, and various customs at the tomb itself. However, the association of Lag BaOmer with the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai may be based on a printer's error.
  Another tradition that makes Lag BaOmer a day of Jewish celebration identifies it as the day on which the plague that killed Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 disciples came to an end, and for this reason the mourning period of Sefirat HaOmer concludes on Lag BaOmer for some believers.
context_section_description: Lag BaOmer is Hebrew for "33rd [day] in the Omer". (The Hebrew letter ל (lamed) or "L" has the numerical value of 30 and ג (gimmel) or "G" has the numerical value of 3. A vowel sound is conventionally added for pronunciation purposes.)
  Some Jews call this holiday Lag LaOmer, which means "33rd [day] of the Omer", as opposed to Lag BaOmer, "33rd [day] in the Omer". Lag BaOmer is the traditional method of counting by some Ashkenazi and Hasidic Jews; Lag LaOmer is the count used by Sephardi Jews. Lag LaOmer is also the name used by Yosef Karo, who was a Sepharadi, in his Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 493:2, and cf. 489:1 where BaOmer is inserted by a glossator). (The form Lag B'Omer ["33rd day of an Omer"] is also sometimes used, though it is not grammatically correct in this setting.) The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, writes in his Likkutei Sichos that a deeper reason for the term Lag BaOmer is that the Hebrew words Lag BaOmer (ל״ג בעמר, spelled without the "vav"), have the same gematria as Moshe (משה, Moses). He writes that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whose yahrzeit is traditionally observed on this day, was mystically a spark of the soul of Moses.
caption: Children watch Lag BaOmer bonfire in Tel Aviv, Israel.
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