Lag BaOmer

From an American point of view, Israelis celebrate a bewildering number of holidays in the spring: Purim, Passover, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and most recently a holiday called Lag BaOmer.

Lag BaOmer marks the 33rd day of the Omer, which is the period of time between Passover and Shavuot. (In truth I don't know enough about Lag BaOmer to explain it coherently, but I found this wikipedia site to be very informative.) Lag BaOmer is basically a celebratory holiday characterized by weddings, bonfires, and other festive events. Despite my previous unfamiliarity with the holiday, Lag BaOmer turned out to be quite a memorable experience.

I attended an enormous Lag BaOmer Gala held west of Jerusalem, in a valley region called Latrun. The event was sponsored by MASA, a joint initiative by the Israeli government and Jewish Agency to promote and finance long term programs in Israel for young adults. I was one of 5,000 people to descend on Latrun's huge outdoor theater Monday evening to celebrate MASA's second anniversary.

The gala was kind of like an enormous, well-orchestrated, glitzy Bar Mitzvah party staring Israel. I don't mean that derogatorily, however. The entertainment may not have been high-brow, but it was fun. The organizers went all out - the gala even ended with a fireworks show! Most of the theater had mixed seating, but there was also a women-only section populated primarily by seminary girls in their late teens. Given the behavior I observed of some of their yeshiva counterparts, I can actually understand why the girls might be cordoned off.

The gala began on a more serious note, with several of the speakers entreating young diaspora Jews to consider making aliyah. I've noticed that Israelis often tip-toe around the subject in front of Anglo audiences, but even Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a speech encouraging us to move "home" to Israel.

At the end of evening one of the musicians played a long medley of popular Jewish/Israeli songs. Like most of the audience members I was familiar with many of the songs, but for the first time I was able to actually understand the Hebrew lyrics. I was struck by the irony of a popular song entitled "Od yavo shalom aleinu" - "Soon peace will come to us". The Arabic word for peace - Salaam - features prominently in the chorus. As thousands of young Jews belted out "Salaam", I couldn't help but think about how Israel's neighbors refuse to even whisper "Shalom" in return.