Lag BaOmer

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Yulia Medovoy Edelshtain

May 16, 2025, 5:45 PM

‘HOD’ on a minute

(I peeked through the window in the picture above to try to find out where the music was coming from. It was so beautiful, I heard it from my balcony a block away, had to find it.) We all struggle...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

May 16, 2025, 9:46 AM

Stop believing in a miracle that will bring redemption still today!

Singing We Want Messiah Now and Still Better hinder Redemption! Surely, we must never give up on hoping for Redemption, even today. Yet, Redemption may come in either of two ways. Either based on our merit, or before its time, in...

May 16, 2025, 12:04 AM

Trump, Bar Kochba and Lag Ba’Omer

One of the main messages of Lag Ba'Omer, to me anyway, is the one that it is truly only in G-d we trust and believe is Perfect. This was true in the time of Rabbi Akiva and the story...

Michael Laitman

May 16, 2025, 12:00 AM

Lag B’Omer: Rekindling the Flame of Unity

The meaning of Lag B’Omer is generally not well understood. Its historical background and the sequence of events leading up to the holiday are unfamiliar, not to mention its spiritual significance, which has all but vanished from the public’s...

Rachel Sharansky Danziger

May 15, 2025, 11:27 PM

Running for cover under firelit skies

I stood by my community's bonfire tonight, surrounded by friends who know the taste and weight of loss. We sat together in too many shivas this year. This year? Or was it an eternity? I'm not sure. The night was...

May 15, 2025, 7:29 PM

Wedding Season Without the Stress

A few weeks ago, my phone buzzed: another wedding invitation landed in the family WhatsApp group. It was beautiful—elegant font, promising an amazing sunset venue, and probably a gourmet menu. And with it came that familiar inner sigh. Don’t...

Marc J. Rosenstein

May 15, 2025, 7:22 PM

The Jewish Power Blog: Power over the Past (2)

One of the mysteries of the Jewish calendar is Lag Ba’omer (May 16 this year), the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer – the 49 days from the second day of Passover until Shavuot (see Leviticus 23:15-6). ...

May 15, 2025, 2:39 PM

Your Job = Your Identity?

I once knew a man who became depressed after retiring. I knew another who launched a business the moment he retired. He could not imagine not working. And I knew a third who worked until his final breath, because the thought...

May 15, 2025, 8:14 AM

Let’s Have a Good Talk!

This week’s Torah reading begins in such a friendly way: Speak to the Cohanim, the sons of Aharon, and say to them. We’re not commanding them or ordering them; we’re just having a friendly talk with the family of...

May 15, 2025, 8:12 AM

Lag BaOmer: Fire, Faith, and the Unity that Ignites Our National Mission

"Fire is never neutral. It warms, it cooks, it illuminates—or it destroys. The same flame can kindle Torah or consume our unity." —Inspired by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks As the sun sets over Israel, bonfires flicker to life across the country, signalling...

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