today was yud-daled iyar. but it was also wednesday. so like every other wednesday i taught hebrew school. i told my students that today was something special - that it was pesach sheni and that in honor of today we would eat matzah. the kids were excited mostly because we were eating matzah. then class continued. we talked about the up and coming lag b'omer. the kids were really excited. after all lag b'omer is major. its chet v'keshet, medurah - its a full blown holiday. we learned about why a fire and why a bow and mostly why we celebrate. as a finishing touch we made edible medurot - toasting our marshmallows over pretzels and fruit roll-up. then the next class came in and we did it all over again.
when hebrew school was over i packed up and drove home. but there was a thought nagging me. why is it that lag b'omer is so huge and pesach sheni is just a piece of matzah? pesach sheni should be major - i mean c'mon its our second chance...we should be jumping and screaming, spreading the word on billboards and yet all we do is eat matzah. and lag b'omer, sure we should celebrate but why not like every other celebration, sitting around the table - wine, meat and bread? why dancing and fires, music and toys? why is lag b'omer strong enough to break the mourning of sefirah but our second chance to connect to Hashem is nothing but crummy flat bread.
well i leave these as questions for now ... answers will come
5 comments:
My guess is that historically we have just picked and chosen which holidays appeal to us most. Besides Pesach Sheni is more solemn than celebratory and Lag Baomer was begun as a specific directive to be merry.
how is pesach sheni solemn? imagine you thought you were missing out on a major mitzvah- on the essence of your celebration of freedom from egypt and you beg your leader to please intercede on your behalf and G-d grants your wish and gives you a 2nd chance - He answers your prayers - this is solemn?
It's appeasing and perhaps a reason for elation, but as to the question of unbounded joy, that's neither it purpose nor its overall affect on the people.
Well the truth is, we didn't pick and choose the holidays that appealed to us, our leaders did. The Mitteler Rebbe always made a big deal out of Lag Baomer- check up the hayom yom for more info- and the Rebbe also put a lot of emphasis on lag baomer, the parade, etc. As for Pesach Sheini, the way I see it, it has an important message, but it is not neccessarily unique to that day. THe message of Pesach Sheini is that there is ALWAYS another chance... so if we don't take advantage of it on Pesach Sheini- there is always tomorrow ;). Not a very scholarly explanation, I'll admit, but it does have a sort of logic to it....
so my thought for the moment is that while pesach sheni gives us a 2nd chance for a torah and mitzva we already received, lag b'omer is our matan torah for pnimius hatorah and therefore we are celebrating our chance to connect not because we missed out on the first but in a way that we never could have before so yippeee hoooray - that's what my unbounded joy sounds like
Post a Comment