FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK   

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK 

Dear Friends,

Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Passover. This month we continue to enjoy and celebrate Spring. On Sunday May 6th we celebrate Lag B’Omer and on May 22nd we celebrate Shavout. On the thirty-third day of the Omer, the 18th day of Iyar, which is on Sunday, May 6th, we celebrate Lag B’Omer. The word “Lag” is not really a word; it is the number 33 in Hebrew, as if you were to call the Fourth of July “IV July” (IV being 4 in Roman numerals. It is the letters Lamed and Gimel. The numerical equivalent of the Hebrew letter “lamed” is thirty. Similarly, the numerical equivalent of the letter “gimel” is three. Together, they add up to - (I bet you said 33). Lag B’Omer is characterized by a day of outings. In Israel and throughout the Diaspora, the day is celebrated with picnics, ballgames, and mock bow-and-arrow play-fighting. It is also customary to light bonfires and sing and dance around them.

Tens of thousands of Jews congregate at Meron, in Israel, the burial place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and his son, Rabbi Elazar b’Rebbi (son of Rabbi) Shimon, where the day is celebrated with bonfires and songs. Many parents wait until their son is three to cut his hair, and on Lag B’Omer they cut his hair for the first time at the burial place of Rabbi Shimon. This odd celebration of a Yahrtzeit was a specific request by Bar Yochai of his students. Even though the death of such a great sage is a sad event, there is also joy surrounding the fact that he attained his final reward (as the Zohar explains), and the fact that he revealed many deep secrets of the Torah to his students on his dying day. The Zohar says that on the day Rabbi Shimon died, a great light of endless joy filled the day because of the secret wisdom he revealed to his students. That secret wisdom was recorded in the Zohar. The sun did not set until Rabbi Shimon had revealed all that he was allowed to. As soon as he was done, the sun set and he died. The fire which surrounded the house, preventing any but Rabbi Shimon’s closest students from approaching, serves as a basis for the custom of lighting bonfires on Lag B’Omer. We might want to skip the bonfire so that we do not burn down something! I would encourage you to get together with family and friends and go to a park or beach, pack a lunch
(kosher of course), play some baseball or soccer and celebrate. 

Shavuot, begins at sundown on May 22nd, and is the Feast of the Weeks. It is the Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest season in Israel. Shavuot, which means “weeks”, refers to the timing of the festival which is held exactly 7 weeks after Passover. Shavuot is known also as Yom Habikkurim, or “the Day of the First Fruits”, because it is the time the farmers of Israel would bring their first harvest to Jerusalem as a token of thanksgiving. Shavuot also commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

Here are some Holiday customs for you and your family to enjoy:

- A long-standing Shavuot tradition is the decoration of our homes and synagogues with fragrant
flowers,leaves, tree branches, and greens. Many reasons have been given for this custom.

- A well established custom calls for all-night Torah study on the first night of Shavuot, because on the day
the Bnei Yisroel were to receive the Torah, the nation overslept. As an atonement, the Zohar says that certain
pious individuals would remain awake the entire night of Shavuot as a means to rectify this lapse.

- It is customary to eat a dairy meal at least once on Shavuot. Another reason is that the Torah is compared
to Milk. The word for milk, Chalav, has the numerical value of 40, corresponding to the 40 days Moses spent on
Har Sinai.

- The scroll of Ruth is read on the second day of Shavuot, before the reading of the Torah. The act of Ruth’s conversion took place during the harvest season, ‘at the beginning of the barley harvest’ to the ‘end of the wheat harvest.’ This period includes the Yom Tov Shavuot.

Hopefully you will enjoy these festive holidays both in and out of the synagogue. From my Family to yours, may you enjoy in health and happiness. As I always say, if any of you ever have a question, a problem, or just want to talk, you can either email me at president@plainviewjewishcenter.org or call me at PJC at 516-938-8610. If you want to meet with me I will be more than happy to make an appointment that is convenient for you.

Warmest Regards, Michael S. Stromberg