Category — Jewish Holidays

If ever there were a day for weddings, today would be the day!  As the Torah says in Leviticus, we are to count the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, the amount of time that passed between the Jews’ physical emancipation from Egypt and the spiritual liberation of receiving Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai.  This is known as The Counting of the Omer.  The 1st 32 days are considered a period of mourning when Jewish weddings and other celebrations are discouraged. Why? As the story goes, the great Rabbi Akiva was known to have brilliant students, however they let their ego’s get out of hand and did not show each other proper respect. As a result, 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students were killed by a heaven sent plague.   Each year, we observe a period of mourning in remembrance.  Jews celebrate on the 33rd day of the Omer because it is the day that this plague ended. Because today, on Lag B’Omer, it is the 1st opportunity in a month to wed, many couples take advantage of the happy and spiritual nature of the day by choosing it as their wedding day. Since marriage is a time of utmost happiness for a couple, why not choose a day that symbolizes great happiness for the Jewish people as well?

Learn more about Lag B’Omer:
Jewish Treats
Chabad
Wikipedia.org
My Jewish Learning

Photo credit: Chabad.org