Dear friends!
We celebrate Lag BaOmer between two, the most important holidays for Jews – the Passover and the Shavuot. It is the 33rd day after the Passover and, despite the prohibition to have fun during this period, Lag BaOmer is joy and fun. And there are many reasons for this: this day is the day of the end of epidemic, which took the lives of 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest wise men and Torah connoisseurs. This day, one of his favourite students, Shimon bar Yochai, died. He entrusted his students with not mourning for him, but enjoying themselves. According to many Jewish wise men, this day, manna from heaven appeared in the desert and saved the Jewish people from famine. This day, the victory of Jews in the beginning of the rebellion against Romans in Israel is celebrated.
But the main thing is what we celebrate and what makes us happy on Lag BaOmer. It is the greatness and the inflexibility of Jewish spirit. Jews have never stopped to study Torah, even during the most mournful times, under the fear of annihilation, and exile from the native land! And thank to this – to own faith and to moral courage – the Jewish people is alive! I am proud of being the representative of this people, who maintained and carried their faith and love to the God through the millennia.
I wish everyone, from the bottom of my heart, a happy Lag BaOmer!
