Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Getting close to Lag B'omer

Today is the 30th day of the omer, that is 4 weeks and two days.

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May 17, 2011 | 13 Iyar 5771 | Week 392, Day 2

Lag B’Omer: Yet waiting but choosing joy
By Jordana Schuster Battis
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For 49 days, beginning on the second day of Passover, we count. Seven times seven weeks—each day, one more sheaf of barley; each day one step farther along the path from the Egypt to Mount Sinai; each day one setting sun closer to Shavuot and the giving of Torah. This is the Omer, the period of waiting between the barley harvest at Pesach and the wheat harvest at Shavuot.

Traditionally, this is considered a time of mourning, though what we mourn for is obscure. Are we mourning the disciples of Rabbi Akiva (2nd century), who died in a plague or in unsuccessful revolt against the Romans? Mourning the souls who, according to Roman custom, walk the earth during this season each year? Mourning the losses of life during the Crusades? Not mourning at all, perhaps, but fretting that what we have planted in spring won’t make it to harvest in summer?

Then, on the 33rd day of the Omer—Join us on Facebook! lamed (counted as 30) + Join us on Facebook! gimmel (counted as 3), spelling “lag”—on the 18th of the month of Iyyar, we arise from our mourning for the day, and we celebrate. Our reasons for celebration are as obscure as our reasons for distress. Has the plague been lifted? Have the students won a battle? Have the souls returned to earth? Is there hope yet for our harvest? This day is one on which, traditionally, Jews have cut their hair, gotten married, lit bonfires, played in the fields with toy bows and arrows, and made merry—but made merry over what?

Whatever the period between Pesach and Shavuot is, it is a period of waiting. During these seven weeks of spring, those in cold climates wait for consistently warm weather. Students and teachers await the changed schedule of summer. We wake each morning to an earlier sunrise, but there is a sense of the more-light to come. We have made it out of Egypt, but our purpose in freedom has not yet been revealed. It is only with Shavuot—when every one of us is not only freed by an outside force from oppression, as we are on Passover, but each has the chance to actively choose to accept Torah and peoplehood—that, according to our yearly narrative, our purpose in freedom is found. During the Omer, we wait, and we count the days toward the light and thunder of Sinai.

Waiting is stressful.

Waiting is about being between.

Waiting is the long stretch of road trip between one destination and another. It is the doctor’s waiting room, before you know if it serious. It is unknown results of a test already taken, a presentation already made.

Waiting is being unable to do anything, but just having to accept that what has been, has been, and what will be, will be.

On the 33rd day of waiting, of anxiety, of distress, we shrug it off. Over halfway to Shavuot, the end of journey to Sinai is in sight, but it is indeed darkest before the dawn and we can sit with our distress no longer. On the 33rd day, we act rather than sit. We actively choose, rather than wait—and we choose joy! We choose hope rather than waffling between optimism and despair. We choose celebration rather than depression. We choose to choose rather than accepting the paralysis of anxiety.

The wait is not over. Our mourning is not yet complete. The results are not yet in. But Lag B’Omer is a reminder that even within our sadness, we can choose joy. Even within our despair, we can choose hope. Even within our fear, we can choose courage. Even within our Wilderness, we can look onward toward Sinai and see light.

Rabbi Jordana Schuster Battis was ordained this spring at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles, where she also earned a Masters in Jewish Education. She will be moving to the North Shore of Chicago this summer with her husband, Seth.

Enjoy a summer of learning and renewal! Join us for the Summer Learning Institute, July 6-10, 2011, Princeton Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Princeton, NJ. Our programs include Kallah, an Adult Learning Retreat, Had’rachah, ritual training for lay leaders, and Schindler Fellows for Conversion Certification, training to provide support for conversion candidates. Registration is now open!


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