Editor’s Note: This essay by Rabbi Address originally appeared in the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey on May 15, 2025.
The 33rd day of the counting of the Omer is celebrated within Jewish tradition as a mini festival. For many in our community, this is the day between Passover and Shavuot that marriages can take place. The Omer period (reflecting the grain offerings in the ancient Temple) links the Exodus story to the giving of Torah story celebrated at Shavuot. This seven-week period carries with it a wide variety of meanings. For some, it is a period that reflects memories of misfortunes that have impacted Jews, from plagues to Crusades to failed revolutions against the Romans. In the middle of this period comes Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day (this year May 16) of the counting and the 18th of the month of Iyar. This pause in the semi-mourning period relates, according to some, to a plague that was raging against the followers of Rabbi Akiba and which was halted. In Israel and the Diaspora, the day is often marked by outdoor activities.
To be honest, in our society, the majority of the Jewish community is unaware of the day and its meaning. There have been attempts in recent years to raise its profile and in many non-Orthodox communities, the prohibition against weddings in this period, except on Lag B’Omer, is rarely observed.
How could our community begin to see some meaning within this festival? Perhaps we can get a suggestion from the letters and numbers that help define the day. As we mentioned, Lag B’Omer comes on the 18th of Iyar. Eighteen is made of the letters “yud” and “chet.” The “yud,” as many of you know is the first letter for the Hebrew word for hand, “yod.” The “chet” stands for life, or “chai.” What can it mean to have a hand for life?
Can this day begin to help fashion a sense that we, now more than ever, need to seek ways to open our hands to help those in need? Can it mean that what we do can extend this hand of life to our own self as well as the community in which we live?
The “lamed” in Lag can easily reflect the Hebrew “lev” or heart and the “ayin” for Omer can have the sense of work or sacred service as in the word “avodah.” So, if we look to combine the values of hand and life, heart and service, we can see in this mini festival a call for us to embrace these values. We are called to open our hearts in life affirming acts, to extend that hand of life in sacred service to others and to our own souls. This period between Exodus and Torah can be seen as a reflective period that each of us experiences. Each of us must deal with challenges as we navigate our own journey of life. At so many times we are called upon to reflect on these challenges and to seek a sense of meaning and moral foundation (Torah) in life, especially as life changes. Judaism helps guide us on this journey as it reminds us that when we extend our hand and open our hearts to the sacred acts that sanctify life, we grow in spirit and our community is enhanced.
An open hand and a loving heart that propels each of us to deeds that sanctify and honor life is a formula that may be more relevant now. We are adrift in a wilderness of angst and concern as we examine our place in life. What so many of us thought was true is now being redefined. So many, across the generations, find themselves searching for a moral and ethical foundation that is transcendent and not transactional. That is why, according to recent reports, we are seeing a gradual return of people seeking meaning within communities of faith. We wish to be taught to care and love and respect ourselves and others. Perhaps this Lag B’Omer can serve as a catalyst to open our hands and hearts to deeds of sacred service.
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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