Lag B’omer

On the second Seder we start the count

‘til the Ten Commandments came down from the mount.

The thirty third day is Lag B’Omer,

to call it well known would be a misnomer.

On Lag B’Omer we play at archery

The reason isn’t clear to see

So let’s look into collective memory

to recollect our history.

The year 132 CE it’s told

the great Bar Kochba led a revolt

Against the mighty empire, Rome

The Jews just wanted to keep our home,

A place to follow the laws of Yah

and not bow down to Olympia.

They won for a while but eventually lost,

Akiva’s life was but one of the cost.

His students were killed by a plague it’s said

But maybe they fought against Rome instead.

Or maybe as hunters they all did pretend.

When studying Torah was really their end,

they went to the woods with their arrows and bows;

the truth of the matter no one really knows.

The plague allegedly ceased on this date

And that is a reason to celebrate.

Akiva’s great student Shimon ben Yochai

Fled the Romans who had condemned him to die.

For twelve years he lived with his son in a cave,

They ate from a carob tree, drank from a spring

and studied as deep as thought could bring

They left but he didn’t know how to behave:

He regarded those working the land with a stare

His gaze was so bright people died in the glare.

And so they went back to the cave for a year

And when they came out people needed no fear.

The Romans rescinded the fatal decree

And once again Shimon ben Yochai was free.

Rabbi ben Yochai, also called the Rashbi

From Rabbi Akiva had in secrecy

Learned the great wisdom which became the Zohar

And students of Kabbalah came from afar

the day that he died when the Rashbi revealed

All of the secrets that had been concealed –

Just so he could finish the sun stood still

and with a great glow the room was filled.

And so on Lag B’omer the bonfires we light,

and picnic and party late into the night. Yah!