‘Ancient’ Holiday Of Lag BaOmer Is A Medieval Fabrication

Take a bizarre plague no one had ever heard of until hundreds of years after it allegedly happened, a yartzeit that no one knew or celebrated until about 1,350 years after the person's death actually took place, and a notorious rabbinic forgery. Combine them and you get Lag Ba’Omer, where giant bonfires celebrate the book Bar Yochai did not write as hundreds of thousands of Jews pray at a grave Bar Yochai almost certainly does not occupy.

 

‘Ancient’ Holiday Of Lag BaOmer Is A Medieval Fabrication
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

As hundreds of thousands Jews, primarily haredim, build bonfires and rush to Meron to celebrate the holiday of Lag BaOmer, it behooves us to explore the actual origin of the holiday.

The holiday is supposed to celebrate both the cessation of a plague (or other calamity) that supposedly killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students almost 1900 years ago and the yartzeit (anniversary of the passing) of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the purported author of the Zohar, the “bible” of all Jewish mystical texts.

The problem with this holiday, however, are many.

Lag Ba’Omer – the 33rd day (the Hebrew letters lamed-gimmel, together adding up to 33 in Hebrew, is pronounced “lag”) of the Omer counting – didn’t become the day marking the end of the purported plague that killed Rabbi Akiva’s students until sometime in the late Geonic era at the earliest, about 850 years after the mysterious plague allegedly took place.

Worse yet, there is no actual contemporaneous record of this purported plague – even though the death of 24,000 people due to a mysterious illness certainly would have been noticed and recorded, not only by Jews in Israel but by their Roman occupiers and the non-Jewish people that lived among them and surrounding them. The first mention of it comes from the Babylonia Talmud Tractate Yevamot 62b, which was codified (so to speak) about 800 CE to 900 CE – approximately 750 years after the plague supposedly happened.

And then we turn to Bar Yochai, whose yartzeit is on Lag Ba’Omer – maybe – and who is buried in Meron where his ‘tomb’ currently stands – maybe.

In about 1570, Rabbi Isaac Luria – the Ari – arrived in Sefat in the north of Israel not far from Meron and taught a new system of Kabbalah. Luria – who by today’s definition was arguably mentally ill –  also claimed to be able to divine the locations of the graves of famous Jewish personalities from antiquity. One of those famous personalities was Bar Yochai, whose grave Luria “found” through divination in Meron. Luria also insisted that Lag Ba’Omer was Bar Yochai’s yartzeit – even though there was no evidence to support either claim.

Worse yet, the Zohar, the mystical book Bar Yochai supposedly authored, was really written by a medieval Spanish rabbi, Moshe de Leon, in the 13th century CE – about 1,000 years after Bar Yochai died.

So we have a bizarre plague no one had ever heard of until hundreds of years after it allegedly happened, a yartzeit that no one knew or celebrated until about 1,350 years after the person's death actually took place, and a notorious rabbinic forgery. Combine them and you get Lag Ba’Omer, where giant bonfires celebrate the book Bar Yochai did not write as hundreds of thousands of Jews pray at a grave Bar Yochai almost certainly does not occupy.

In fact, the first celebrations we have record of marking Lag Ba’Omer in some form took place 15th century CE in Germany, about 1,200 years after Bar Yochai died and about 1,300 years after the plague that almost certainly wasn’t supposedly ended. And we don’t have any idea what those celebrations consisted of or looked like.

Many (if not most) academic scholars think the mysterious ‘plague’ was really the Bar Kokhba revolt, which took place from 132 CE through 136 CE.

Rabbi Akiva was one of the only major rabbis to back Bar Kokhba and his revolt against Rome. He saw in Bar Kokhba messianic portent and sent his students to fight with with him. At first, Bar Kokhba was successful. He took Jerusalem, minted his own coinage and probably ruled there for a brief time as both king and as the potential messiah.

But Rome eventually turned the tide (in part with the help of spies who may have been followers of other rabbis) and destroyed Bar Kokhba along with his army, tens of thousands (if not more) of other Jews, and much of Jerusalem and the surrounding area, as well.

Jewish life and most of the surviving rabbis then relocated to the Galilee in the north of Israel. The Mishna was written there, most of the sages cited in the Mishna – including Bar Yochai – lived there, and that is why Bar Yochai could have been buried in Meron – which is in the Galilee – although there is no actual evidence to show that he is.

So why celebrate Lag Ba’Omer, which is not an ancient holiday and likely celebrates fictional events?

The short answer is that the hasidic movement, which began in the 1700s CE, based their teachings on Bar Yochai’s purported book, the Zohar and on the teachings of Luria which he claimed to derive from it. The same is true for Sefardic kabbalists who based their authority on ‘Bar Yochai’s’ book and Luria’s interpretations of it.

Luria “discovered” Bar Yochai’s grave. Luria divined the date of Bar Yochai’s yartzeit. And Luria made a questionable and obscure minor holiday celebrated by almost no one into an important event for him and his handful of followers.

And because the celebration of Lag Ba’Omer offers a one-day respite (or for some, an end) to the yearly 43-day mourning period for the 24,000 dead students of Rabbi Akiva made up of all of the days of the Omer counting that do not fall on Passover or Shavuot, and because the day was a 24-hour party filled with singing, dancing, bonfires, cookouts, and special children’s games, the holiday as reinvented by Luria out of whole cloth eventually became a Jewish national holiday accepted by all Jews as authentic and ancient – even though it likely is neither.

Comments

[Mighty Garnel Ironheart]

I believe the words "party pooper" apply to you right now.

[Dave]

Who the are you to mess with tradition, so you're a atheist, all this because Shalom wouldn't supply you chickens for a store in St. Paul, boy oh boy you go some big problems

[typadder]

And here’s another thing I don’t get. SBY wasn’t exactly mainstream, even for a Rabbi. I mean, who would be after living twenty four years in a cave, purportedly buried to his neck in sand? The tale I heard since way back in elementary school is that upon emerging from the cave he spotted a man working and murdered him with his gaze, upon seeing him engaging in worldly occupation. Only after returning to the cave for an additional number of years, upon god’s orders, was he sufficiently integrated to walk this earthly planet? Why then the fanfare over this being? And why paasken haloochois upon his views?

[ruthie]

nothing surprises me anymore.

[jancsibacsi]

The insanity of lighting bonfires is contagious,to the chassidim its big time entertainment they need to break their monotonous life.

[Jeffrey]

Blah blah blah. Do you even consider yourself Jewish?

[levi streiter]

Shmarya why don't pick up your fat ass and go get some air and exercise instead of sitting at your computer writing up one hateful article after another.

[try to]

Ha Ha! SR knows very little of Jewish history, and what he does know, he doesn't believe.
It is a joke, how SR, a massive am ha'aretz, and a koifer with an agenda, starts preaching his "opinion".

[Max Ponzi (the one from Cedarhurst)]

Damn, I knew it! As always, thank you, Shmarya, for confirming it. May God bless you and your family with all that is good.

[try to]

many articles on this blog are copied illegally from other sites, and fed to his hungry followers, who behave like pigs at feeding time. Munching on every word, and chewing on regurgitated filth.

[try to]

SR if you're looking for your brains, get up from your computer, your sitting on them. Your knowledge has become so limited, that you confuse halocha with minhag, and fact from myth. Why don't you get a job, instead of moaning all day?

[try to]

SR You could open a care home for all your followers. Most of them are so deranged, bitter, simple, and ignorant, they would make you the manager! You could give a shiur every couple of hours, on how silly charedim are, how they ruined your life, stole everything from you, etc. etc.

[RedLeg]

Not so hateful (at least by Shemarya standards) and probably accurate but, you know, as Chassidic/Chareidic customs go, LAG B'Omer celebrations seem pretty harmless and fun too.

[laugh]

SR. You know so little, so the world is very confusing to you. If you bothered to learn when you had the chance, you would understand a bit more, and realise, that history can't be re-written every time you don't understand something. You don't understand, not the end of the world. You've missed plenty more than just lag beomer

[Rabbi Fleishig]

It's not news to anybody that the Judaism of today has almost nothing to do with the Judaism of the Torah, and that the rabbis are making it up as they along. The well-known story of how Rabbi Akiva's fantasy that Bar Kokhba was the Messiah brought down upon the Jews of the Roman Empire an unmitigated disaster is proof tha "daas Toireh" is sheer nonsense,

[laugh]

SR, it's funny how you don't believe the history books, yet you quote them frequently. We have enough history from the Romans alone to know of the existence of things that you don't believe in. Either you live a secular life not caring where you came from, or where you are heading, and think you are nothing more than a creature and an animal, or you realise that there was a start to the world, and things happened before your days, and some pretty shocking things too. But don't mix it all up. You will get very confused, as we see you are already.

[yehudis]

It looks like the boys are coming out of the woodwork. It is too bad that some people are so brainwashed they can only see things their way. They don't agree about things that took place in the twentieth century but claim to know what happened thousands of years ago.

[Believer]

First go through Shas. Shulchan Aruch, Jewish history lesson, mussar and Kol Hatorah and then try to reinterpret history. Also according your logic George Washington , Lincoln and Obama don't exist either, who can prove it?

[Martin Samuels]

The validity of an observance does not always depend on whether or not the events it commemorates are always historically accurate. The Kaballah has become a part of Jewish thought and practice for a variety of historical reasons, and whether or not they are all accurate is irrelevant. However, if you are unhappy you are free to go elsewhere. G-d knows you will not be missed. The number of idiots who read your blog is ample confirmation that there will always be another unhappy a-hole to take your place.

[anuran]

Wow. The butthurt is strong in the sheep this morning.

[rty]

It is clear for all to see, that SR is rather ignorant, and takes on people and books that he hasn't even bothered to read, let alone study in depth. He is a fool who thinks everybody around him is the fool, but not him, no!
Sorry, but we are the ones who think, and you SR, believe in evolution, and think you are the outcome of some fluke chance that is not even remotely possible to have happened. But that is just a small question on evolution that you hope you'll be able to answer one day. Today you can't explain how the world made itself, because it didn't. I think you need to get straight who brainwashed who.

[SkepticalYid]

So many ad hominems fromthe trolls.,,yet not one fact to rebut the contentions.

[Account Deleted]

STFU all who decry FM for this post. Read here and weep all you ignorant sheep http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/

[Believer]

Talmud Page 33 talks about Rav Simeon Bar Yochai. He lived 200CE when the Talmud was written. I personally live in Zefat and know of the pilgrimage to his Burial place has been since his death this has been told over from father to son since his death. Rav shimeon had walked out on His Rebbie Rav when Rav embarrased one of Rav Simeon fellow colleague. Rav shimeon was sensitive to the lack of respect shown by the rabbis of the time and his life's mission was to unify and show like Rav Akiva that Respect for another is more important than Torah!

[jancsibacsi]

Believer--You ARE A TRUE SHOITE HE SHAMARYA IS STATING FASCTS WHICH HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH BELIEVE.

[Rebitzman]

First: "Talmud page 33" is NOT a citation. Not an intelligent one in any case.

Secondly: I will say this........the indignation over the legitimacy of a holiday seems at best to depend on where one happens to be sitting at the moment. Barely a week ago a good many of those expressing indignation today at SR's disrespectful perspective at this holiday were probably having BBQ's and going to the park while the remainder of Israel stood in silence to mourn their fallen warriors.......and a good many of those who defend SR today expressed their own indignation at the BBQ's, trips to the zoo..........

[jancsibacsi]

rty--eVOLUTION IS A PROVEN FACT YOU JUST CANNOT BEAR TO HEAR HOW THE REAL WORLD OPERATES,YOU ARE THE ONE WHO LIVES A FANTASY LANF WHICH YOU THINK IS REAL IT IS REAL ONLY TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO ARE IGNORAMOUSES IN CIENCE,SHMARYA IS LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF YOU GUYS YOU ARE TOO DUMB TO FATHOM IT,EVERYTHING IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WROTE OF SHMARYA HE IS AS I WROTE LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF ALL YOU GOILEMS.

[Jeff]

"SR. You know so little, so the world is very confusing to you. If you bothered to learn when you had the chance, you would understand a bit more, and realise, that history can't be re-written every time you don't understand something."

Absolutely priceless. This one wins the Internet irony award for the day. As I've said so often: 1) you absolutely cannot fabricate this stuff; 2) frum people, like their evangelical BFF's, are the least introspective, least self-aware people on the planet.

I had no idea Lag B'Omer was such a big deal among frum people, that to question its origins would elicit so much vitriol.

[jancsibacsi]

jeff---The depth of their insanity knowS no bounds just look at mbp they just dont want to think just follow the leader into the abyss.

[Scott]

Why should I read anything from this website when the founder and writer "Shmayra Rosenberg" denies history he's nuts, a lot of these articles on this website are either fabricated or completely distorted. #shameonyouShmayra"Scott"Rosenberg

PS No this is not a ddeath threat a just simply don't agree with you.
PSS no matter how far you turn you can always turn back
PSS I'm not a stupid charedi like you say Iam cause if i was I wouldn't be on a computer right now.

[Jeff is a Putz]

You gotta love poor little jeff. His hatred knows no bounds, and like most fanatical liberals, will fight for your right to free speech as long as he agrees with it. Then again, most of this blog is made up of Scotty the kofer and his little band of wacko heathens who lick his smelly feet.

[singlemalt]

If you take out all the issues you have with Jewish celebration and philosophy etc, what will you have left? What exactly does the judaism your looking for, look like?

[Account Deleted]

Defenders of traditional Yidishkeit are always the most nasty in their posts on this blog. It really does support the premise of all that is wrong.

Read Rabbi Slifkins post about the historical issues related to Lag BaOmer.

http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/

[Jeff]

Astonishing. It's just an explosion of ignorance. Again, you cannot make up this stuff.

But what do I know? I'm told I'm a putz!

[Sarek]

@Martin Samuels -
>The validity of an observance does not >always depend on whether or not the events >it commemorates are always historically >accurate. The Kaballah has become a part of >Jewish thought and practice for a variety >of historical reasons, and whether or not >they are all accurate is irrelevant.

So are you saying that just because something is inaccurate, wrong, or even bullshit, we should still believe in it and follow it? Sorry, but the logic of this escapes me.

[(The other) Eli]

The ad hominem brigade is out in full force. I guess they're doing it while grilling.

[RWisler]

Those who are religiously attached to the myth of Talmudic Judaism might as well believe in the Gospels or the writings of Islam. The Gospels have more historical witnesses and are less self-contradictory than those of the writings of Judaism. Islam was invented at the same time as Talmudic Judaism and is based on the same myths. I spent ~18 years studying Talmud at a New York Litvish yeshiva and found Talmudic Judaism to be about as credible as Islam. Islam and Christianity have as many scholarly texts as Judaism and make about as much historical sense.

[ah-pee-chorus]

Great summary!!

Frum people hate truth more than anything.

And still not even an attempt to dispute the facts by those who still believe the equivalent of Santa and his elves.

[typadder]

hmmm is that as opposed to other holiday stories?

[Allan]

@jancsibacsi | May 18, 2014 at 09:45 AM

Fantastic post Jancsi. Very well said!

Shmarya lays out simple facts of history that yet another Jewish holiday is based completely on myth and was manufactured by the rabbis. As usual, the black hat brigades have no evidence to offer on their side and so resort to hurling insults not only at Shmarya and his supporters but also include the obligatory attacks on Charles Darwin (who has nothing to do with this post.)

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

Setting fires on the streets of Brooklyn is exactly what God wants Jews to do.

If you do not set fires in your neighborhood, God will become angry and send another plague.

Do you want an angry God, or a happy God?

[dh]

"PSS I'm not a stupid charedi like you say Iam cause if i was I wouldn't be on a computer right now."

Posted by: Scott | May 18, 2014 at 11:31 AM

PPPS, Scott, don't kid yourself. Your IQ is comparable to tepid water.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

The Ari, single handedly destroyed much of classic Judaism followed by the hordes of foolish hasidic clowns.

[Leumi but not Dati]

Although all the information here is accurate, I would add one thing into the "why celebrate Lag B'Omer?" category. Today in Israel, at least among my secular Israeli friends, Lag b'Omer is a positive celebration of Bar Kochba's revolt and of Jewish nationalism and self determination, where young Jews fire bows and arrows and climb Masada. The Zionist movement, quite wisely, was able to take this silly and, as you note, historically false, holiday and turn it into a positive.

[Yahoo]

Man, Shamarya sure got bitch slapped on this one. LOL

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: Yahoo | May 18, 2014 at 05:45 PM

Hardly. The fact remains that the holiday is a relatively modern innovation. No one has refuted that , despite all the childish insults.

[WoolSilkCotton; I must be seen to be believed]

++PSS I'm not a stupid charedi like you say Iam cause if i was I wouldn't be on a computer right now.

Posted by: Scott | May 18, 2014 at 11:31 AM++

Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

DH 3:50,
As Oscar Wilde said "Irony is wasted on the stupid".

[jimmy]

"ONLY TO PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO ARE IGNORAMOUSES IN CIENCE"

Janci the "CIENTIST"!!
Priceless. He does "cienctific" tests on "IGNORAMOUSES "

[Manny Wackjob Breaking]

And in other news, a bonfire was held in Sydney to commemorate Lag B'Omer. At least 3 alleged peadophiles were seen danncing there. Manny Wackjob, CEO of My Tuches Still Hurts said: "I am shocked that this is allowed to happen. There is no evidence that they ever abused anyone but the way they danced suggests they are peadophiles who have no place around bonfires." Wackjob, who gave up a job he never really had to be full time Chief of My Tuches Still Hurts because it pays the rent, added: "I come from a family of 100 kids. Most of us are messed up. I am therefore fully qualified to testify against these guys cavorting around a bonfire and I think Chabad should be sued for allowing this to happen."

Manny Wackjob, who has no one really paying attention to him apart from a few followers on facebook said he hoped that Shmarya Jackass would post his story on his website FailureScotty so that at least a few more people would read it and he could then feel as if he's doing something with his life.

Meanwhile, Shmarya Jackass has seen a significant drop in users and comments and so abandoned the typepad system he was using in order to invite the trolls back and make his site look busy again. Donations however are said to have hit an all time low. Shmarya Jackass will have to go back to a day job. It is anticipated he may move to Australia where he could work for Manny Wackjob.

[JACK]

Jimmy,what do you want from Janci,he is nothing but an ignorant former hasidic Satmar dropout,and it makes him fell important to sit all day on his computer and kiss Shmaryah's behind and lick his boots,a verry pathetic individual indeed

[Wtvr]

The talmud written 2000 years according to wiki states that his students died in a short period of time betwean pesach and lag baomer we dont celebrate the zohar we celebrate the idra's and other works not the zohar according to all opinions even christians would argue on you. I love your site but i dont know when to believe most of the time i dont your stories a ridiculous

[Shmarya]

I can't help your ignorance or your near illiteracy.

The Talmud was first codified published about 1250 to 1050 years ago – long after the time you claim.

We openly and clearly celebrate the Zohar – but the Zohar is a forgery.

You are either as dumb as a tree stump or another example of a hasidic troll.

[Nanoboy]

Moses De Leon compiled the Zohar (he even said he did not 'write it' but compiled it along with some very few words in ancient Portugese and Spanish words. What you said was incorrect about the Zohar.

[Shmarya]

Please.

There's a ton of actual research on this. You simply don't know what you're talking about.

[The Beatles]

Primarily, we celebrate the last book's written on bar yochai's day of passing. It is known by historians for thousands of years according to researchers and kabalists. I am non orthodox, studying in yeshiva university not some troll .....

[The Beatles]

They celebrate with Bon fires because on that day he called his students and gave the idra's. Which has existed before de Leon showed up. While doing so a according to the by standees a great surrounded bar yochai and his students. According to many opinions he didn't even pass away on lag baomer.i think proper research and fans need to be taken into consideration. Keep up the great work.

[Moses Kestenbaum ODA]

Shmarya has a right to his opinion and i respect him. The holiday if lag bomer could be is all a made up stuff holiday ny hoari luria but since jews the world over accepted the lag bomer holiday its a minhag yisroel and Minhag Yisrael torah

[Julian]

@try to "SR You could open a care home for all your followers. Most of them are so deranged, bitter, simple, and ignorant,..."

And believing that the universe and world where created in 6 days and that a guy named Moshe spoke to a burning bush he named god is not ignorant? Really?

[Julian]

@ singlemalt "If you take out all the issues you have with Jewish celebration and philosophy etc, what will you have left? What exactly does the judaism your looking for, look like?

I got your answer....myth. Just like all religions, Judaism is nothing else but glorified myths that fools like you and all the religious troll fanatics here are willing to kill for. Pathetic.

[Julian]

Actually I am almost certain that there is more truth and veracity in The Cantar de Mio Cid than all this religious rubbish being peddled by religious nut jobs.I am sure none of the moron charedi trolls here know what I am talking about.

Zohar: first appeared in Spain in the 13th century; published by a Jewish writer named Moses de Leon. De Leon ascribed the work to Shimon bar Yochai, a rabbi of the 2nd century during the Roman times who, according to Jewish "history" hid in a cave for thirteen years studying the Torah and was inspired by the Prophet Elijah to write the Zohar. Sounds familiar? Of course, his patriarchal "cousin"(those descendants of Ishmail), Mohammad made the same claims about the Quran. Wow, rich shit!

Cantar de Mio Cid: Apparently written about a real man—his battles, conquests, and daily life. The poet, name unknown, wrote the epic in about 1140 and Cid supposedly died forty years before in 1099. This epic represents realism, because nothing was exaggerated and the details are very real, even the geography correctly portrays the areas in which Cid traveled and lived. Unlike other European epics, the poem is not idealized and there is no presence of supernatural beings. It has assonance instead of rhyme and its lines vary in length, the most common length being fourteen syllables. This type of verse is known as mester de juglaria (verse form of the minstrels). The epic is divided into three parts, also known as cantos.

Pick and choose.