Come on Baby, Light My Fire!

It's Lag B'Omer! What's this mean? Well, it’s a tradition on the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, reputed author of the Zohar, to have a bonfire and celebration! In Israel, Mt. Meron is completely alight with bonfires and music (that was last night).


Now, for those wanting more info, here's what I can tell you: Lag B'Omer is essentially a way of saying the Thirty-Third Day of the Omer. The Omer is the count between Pesach and Shavuot (the day the Torah was given), and on Lag B'Omer all the restrictions are sort of put on hold and music and singing and dancing are all permitted and encouraged.


In the land of Chavi, this means I can finally get a haircut and Tuvia shaved his beard. To be honest, I kind of miss it. A lot. It was growing on me, actually. Now he has his baby face back, and it's taking some time to get used to it. 


Last year I was in Chicago for the Lag B'onfire, and this year there wasn't anything like that here. I vow to next year make plans a Lag B'onfire if the community will let me. Until then? Maybe I'll light a candle and hope for the best. 

Some Lag B'onfire Photos!

My hair smells of smoke. Not cigarette smoke (ew) and definitely not bonfire smoke. Yes, I did just get home from the Lag B'onfire at the nearby Conservative shul. However, the bonfire was meager (think: more like an eternal flame), and it was the smoke coming off the gigantic (and brand new) grill, manned by the rabbi. The meat was kosher, the goods were kosher, the people were kosher (in that, you know, they were Jewish). Bada ching? Anyone? Anyhow, the "bonfire" was enough to keep us warm on this chilly Chicago evening.

So, I smell like smoke, and it's delightful. There was a good crowd out tonight -- a cross-section of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews. People who I've met at all the different shuls I've been to in the past year. Old acquaintances, new acquaintances, and everything in between. There was beer, there were burgers and hot dogs and slaw and there was a band, as well.

Perhaps the coolest part of the night was the cutting of the hair! You see, if you keep the omer, you're not supposed to do a variety of things -- one of them being cutting hair. However, you *can* cut your hair on the omer. In the same vein, is this tradition (אפשערן) upsherin. The tradition has that a boy should have his hair cut on his third birthday. Now, if you're a kid whose birthday happens to fall during the omer, well, this means you have to wait until Lag B'Omer and then have the ceremonial haircutting. So tonight, we were lucky enough to have a three-year-old and yes! People took turns lobbing off the kid's beautiful head of thick, curly hair. The child seemed indifferent, which was sort of surprising, but that's what this photo is of ...

So I spent about an hour and a half mingling, took a few photos (you see, I left my 4GB card at home, and was stuck with the 16MB backup, making me have to take my photos VERY carefully), and now I'm home. So enjoy these photos.

And in case I don't end up with anything interesting to say tomorrow -- Shabbat Shalom and enjoy the long weekend (those of you in the U.S. anyhow!).

I promise to post something with more content. And meaning. And depth. Really.

Oy. I've been so busy the past few days. My time at work seems to fly, mostly because I'm busy working on stuff for the professors while intermixing it with loads of genealogy research. After the second cousin started sending me stuff, I started working again on the tree over on Ancestry.com. I don't pay for an account, so I have to be super creative with my sleuthing, and for the most part it works quite well. I'm sending off for five marriage certificates and one death certificate for relatives who lived and died here in Illinois. I think it's interesting that I've ended up in Illinois (yes, I'm moving) and that I'd like to end up back here in the future. The roots of my family were firmly planted here for several generations, and in Missouri and Tennessee, too. I have to figure out how to get creative with looking at the old country, though, because I'm hitting a point where the relatives I need to fill in the gaps come from Germany (my family is uber German, it appears). It amazes me, though, how well-kept records are. Census data, death and marriage records, business dealings -- all in the U.S. these things are tallied closely. Overseas in the Old Country you find most records in the form of business ownership and christening, which can be a blessing I suppose. Especially since my family, being uber German, was also uber Catholic from many angles.

In unrelated news, I've fallen back in line with my Torah study. I didn't manage to get anything put up last week (d'var Torah, that is) because of the trip. Hopefully this week pans out better and I can get some thoughts up. On the other hand, tonight I'm out and tomorrow night is the Lag B'Omer Bonfire of which I'm totally stoked to attend since it's just down the street. Any other Chicagoans should come and join in, by golly. In case you're curious,

It’s tradition on the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, reputed author of Zohar, to have a bonfire and celebration! In Israel, Mt. Meron is completely alight with bonfires and music.

Now, for those wanting more info, here's what I can tell you: Lag B'Omer is essentially a way of saying the Thirty-Third Day of the Omer. The Omer is the count between Pesach and Shavuot (the day Torah was given), and on Lag B'Omer all the restrictions are sort of put on hold and music and singing and dancing are all permitted and encouraged.

Friday I'm going to head back to the Orthodox shul. They're probably going to wonder why I come every other week and don't make it on Saturday mornings, eh? This Saturday morning I'd go, but I have a friend coming into town and we're going to spend the day plodding around town and then heading to the Rilo Kiley show with her sister Saturday night (this friend, Melanie, and I have been to oodles of Rilo Kiley shows together, so it's all happy and nostalgic).

Luckily, no work Monday, which means I get a complete day of absolutely nothing. It'll be nice, considering next weekend I'm setting off again, this time to San Francisco to visit a very awesome someone. It'll be a quick trip, but I've never been. Perhaps I'll get bitten by the SanFran bug, eh?

And finally: Last night, unable to sleep, I penned (well, wrote) an introduction to a book-type-memoir-thing. It involves content based on this blog post, not to mention content from this other blog post. I'm not sure what the chronology will be, but I have so much to say. I'm not sure where I'll go with it, but it will cover a lot of stuff -- past, present, future. Anyhow, perhaps I'll post it up in the Google Docs for all to read. But for now, let's just say that depending upon how tonight goes, it'll probably shape how I feel about it all anyway.

I'll keep you posted.