Lag BaOmer (, LaG Bāʿōmer ), also Lag B'Omer or Lag LaOmer, is a Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar.Posner, Menachem. "What Is Lag BaOmer?", Chabad.org. Accessed May 7, 2026. "Lag BaOmer is always on the 18th day of the month of Iyar. So what’s up with the name? The word 'Lag' is made of the Hebrew letters lamed (ל) and gimel (ג), which together have the numerical value of 33. 'BaOmer' means 'of the Omer.'"
According to the Rishonim, the plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students ended on Lag BaOmer. For some communities, the mourning period of the Counting of the Omer thus concludes on Lag BaOmer.
The Hillula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, is held on Lag BaOmer to mark the anniversary of his death. According to a late medieval tradition, pilgrimages are made to the burial place of Shimon bar Yochai in Meron on this day.
The holiday also serves to commemorate the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire. Embassy of Israel to the United States, "About Israel: Holidays and Observances: Lag BaOmer," Accessed 05/06/2022.
Etymology
Lag BaOmer is Hebrew for "33rd [day] in the Omer". The letter (lamed) or "L" has the numerical value of 30 and (gimel) or "G" has the numerical value of three (see Hebrew numerals). A vowel sound is conventionally added for pronunciation purposes.
Some Jews call this holiday Lag LaOmer, which means "33rd [day] of the Omer", as opposed to Lag BaOmer, "33rd [day] in the Omer". Lag BaOmer is the traditional method of counting by some Ashkenazi and Hasidic Jews; Lag LaOmer is the count used by Sephardi Jews. Lag LaOmer is also the name used by Yosef Karo, who was a Sepharadi, in his Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 493:2, and cf. 489:1 where BaOmer is inserted by Moses Isserles).
Origins
The origins of Lag BaOmer are unclear. The 18th of Iyar, corresponding to the date of Lag BaOmer, is first mentioned in a list of fasts on a Tel Rehov synagogue inscription dating to the 5th-7th century CE.Misgav, H. "The List of Fast Days from the Synagogue of Rehov" Israel Museum Studies in Archeology 7, 2015: 14-23. https://museum.imj.org.il/journal/archive/images/Haggai%20Misgav.pdf It is theorized that this fast originated with the destruction of the in-construction Third Temple by the Galilee earthquake of 363, which occurred on this date. After the Muslim conquest and the end of Christian oppression of Jews in Israel, mourning practices ceased to be observed.The Byzantine Prehistory of Lag ba-Omer
Another theory posits that the connection between Lag Baomer and Shimon bar Yochai arose from a general pilgrimage to Mount Meron on Pesach Sheini (15th of Iyar), specifically to Hillel's cave wherein water filled up the cave's cisterns and sometimes overflowed; the phenomenon was considered miraculous and attracted Jews and Muslims alike. As Hillel's cave is close to Mount Meron it was customary for the pilgrims to stop by the graves of other holy saints on Mount Meron, among them Shimon's tomb. During the 16th century, when the Ashkenazi community came to Safed, the pilgrimage naturally moved up to Lag Baomer (3 days later), already a joyous day according to Ashkenaz custom (Rema OC 493:2), as it was believed to be the day the plague of Rabbi Akiva's students ended. As one of the Rabbi Akiva's prominent students, Shimon's tomb became the focus of the pilgrimage.https://forum.otzar.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=64355 Ariel Ephraim Aharonob, "Lag Baomer in Meron: an Historical Overview", Bnei Brak, 2024.
The earliest reference to the observance of Lag BaOmer as a festival is in a gloss to Mahzor Vitry in BL Add MS 27,201 (f. 227v), if it is the work of Isaac ben Dorbolo. The gloss points out that Purim and Lag BaOmer always fall on the same day of the week, but says nothing about the origin of the holiday. Abraham ben Nathan (citing Zerachiah haLevi of Girona),Sefer HaManhig, p. 144, #106: ואך מנהג בצרפת ופרובינצא לכנום מל"ג בעומר ואילך, ושמעתי בשם ר' זרחיה הלוי ז"ל מגירונדא שמצא כתוב בספר ישן הבא מספרד שמתו מפסח ועד פרוס העצרת ומאי פורסא פלגא כדתנן שואלים בהלכות פסח קודם לפסח ל' יום ופלגא ט"ו יום וט"ו יום קודם העצרת זהו ל"ג בעומר. David ben Levi of Narbonne,Cited by Abraham Zacuto, Sefer Yuhasin ed. Herschell Filipowski, p. 37: ויש נוסחא אחרת עד פרס העצרת שהוא ט"ו יום קודם וזה עד ל"ג ללעומר עד י"ח אייר. According to Zacuto, Ben Levi gave a mnemonic בן י"ח לחופה for the day on which marriage could resume (cf. the medieval additions to m. Avot 5:20), corresponding to 18 Iyyar. Zacuto's contemporary, Samuel ibn Danan, "writes that he heard from his father Saadya that Samuel ibn Sunbal, a certain great rabbi of that time in Fez who had long ago died, appeared to him in a dream and spoke of Lag BaOmer, giving the mnemonic בן י"ח לחופה, and [Saadya] asked [Samuel] what he meant, and [Samuel] said to him that he was referring to the fact that 18 Iyyar is Lag BaOmer, the day on which marriage becomes permitted." (Malkhei Rabanan p. 125b: כהה"ר שמואל אבן סונבאל ז"ל מחכמי פאס הקדמונים דרך אגב ארשום בכאן מה שמצאתי כתוב בכ"י מוהרר"פ אבן צור שמ"ך בכ"י הרמ"ז הגאון זיע"א וז"ל כתב מהר"י שמואל אבן דנאן זלה"ה ששמע מאביו ז"ל הה"ר סעדיה שראה בחלום חזיון לילה חכם א' מכחמי דורו שהיה לו זמן רב שמת ושמו החכם הה"ר שמואל אבן סונבאל ז"ל והיה מדבר על ענין ל"ג לעומר ונתן סימן בן שמונה עשרה לחופה ושאלו לו מה כוונתו בז"ה ואמ"ל נקוט האי כללא שלעולם יום י"ח באייר הוא ל"ג לעומר שמשם ואילך מותר לישא נשים ולהכניסן לחופה ע"כ) MS ex-Montefiore 134,f. 66v, #382: מנהג הוא בזה המלכות שאין נושאי' נשים בין פסח לעצרת. ואין מקיזין דם עד ל"ג בעמר. לפי שהימים הן עלולים שנפלה מגפה בתלמידי חכמים ר' עקיבא כמה אלפים שמתו מז פסח עד ל"ג בעמר וכלם מתו עבור שנאת חנם. ואותו היום נעצרה המגפה ועשו אותו היום יום טוב ולפיכן נהגו להקיז בל"ג בעמר. Levi ben Abraham ben Hayyim,Liveyat Chen ed. Howard Kreisel, p. 404-405: ומה שנהגו העולם שלא לספר ולא לישא אשה עד ל"ג בעומר לבד אפשר שהתפשטות החול והתילדו לא היה [רק] עד ל"ג בעומר אלא שקצתם האריכו החליים עד עצרת. Joshua ibn Shuaib (citing a "midrash")Drashot al haTorah l'RY ibn Shuaib f. 41v: ומה שנהגו רוב העם להגדיל שפם עד ל"ג לעומר לא מצינו בו ענין, ובתוספות פי' כי מה שאמר ל"ג אינו כמו שנוהגין, אלא ל”ג יום כשתסיר שבעת ימי הפסח ושבעה שבתות ושני ימי ראש חדש שהן ששה עשר יום שאין אבלות נוהג בהם, נשארו מן הארבעים ותשעה ימים ל"ג, וזהו מאמרם ל"ג יום לעומר. שמעתי שיש במדרש עד פרס העצרת והוא חמשה עשר יום העצרת באמרם פרס הפסח פרס החג שהם חמשה עשר יום בניסן ובתשרי, וכשתסיר חמשה עשר יום מארבעים ותשעה יום נשארו שלשים וארבעה, והנה הם שלשים ושלשה שלימים ומגלחין ביום שלשים וארבעה בבקר כי מקצת היום ככולו. Menachem Meiri (citing "a tradition of the geonim"),Beit haBechirah, Yevamot f. 62v: וקבלה ביד הגאונים ז"ל שביום ל"ג לעומר פסקה המיתה. and Judah Halawa (citing a "yerushalmi")Imrei Shafer (MS Paris 264) ed. Chaim Hershler, p. 224-225: מנהגו עד ל"ג לעומר ובתלמוד שלנו אומר מפסח ועד עצרת, סמכו על הירושלמי שאומר עד פרס העצרת, כלומר עד חצי זמן [העצרת, וזמן] העצרת הוא שלשים יום לפני עצרת, שהרי אמרו בפרק בני העיר משה תקן להם לישראל שיהיו דורשין ושואלין שלשים יום קודם לפסח בהלכות הפסח, והפרס שהוא חצי הן ט"ו יום לפני עצרת עד פרס, עד ולא עד בכלל נשארו י"ד ימים, ולפי זה ל"ג עצמו אינן ראוי. ויש מחמירין בענין זה ובמנהג זה ואומרים שמה שנהגו לומר ל"ג לעומר כל ימי העומר בכלל מפסח ועד עצרת, אלא שימי החול שבכל ימי הספירה הם ל"ג כשתוציא השבתות וימים טובים שבהם נשארו ל"ג. אבל המנהג הקדום הוא כמו שאמרו בירושלמי ער פרס העצרת, כלומר חצי שלשים לפני עצרת, ואין ראוי לשום אדם לבא כנגד המנהג והגדר, שלא יקראוהו פורץ גדר. are the first to name Lag BaOmer as the day on which the plague afflicting Rabbi Akiva's students ended, although this is said to explain a previously-existing custom to allow marriages between Lag baOmer and Shavuot. According to MS ex-Montefiore 134, it was traditional to let blood on Lag BaOmer in celebration.Mitchell First, The Mysterious Origin of Lag Ba-Omer, Hakirah 20 (2015), pp. 205-218 (available at hakirah.org)
The following anecdote occurred circa 1400:The shamash's son ran to join [Yaakov Moelin]'s students in their Lag baOmer celebration, and an argument broke out between him and Rabbi Lemlin, the son of Rabbi Moses Neumark Katz. This youth called [Lemlin] 'pig's meat'! Word of the event came to our master [Yaakov Moelin], and he excommunicated the shamash's son, and he said 'How could you be permitted to call one of my students this?!' The youth sat excommunicated until the Monday after Lag baOmer. His family was greatly afflicted, as he was a member of the city elite, so he and his father went and publicly begged Moelin and his students for forgiveness, before the entire yeshiva of 50 people. And they were forgiven. This was the only time Moelin ever excommunicated a person.Lag Baomer is said to be the day on which Shimon ben Yochai died. Neither Chazal nor the Rishonim mention that the date of his death was Lag Baomer; the first known appearance of this claim is in the Sabbatean Hemdat Yamim (1731), but it was later popularized by a misprinting of Hayyim Vital, which replaced "the celebration of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai" with "when Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai died".
The origin of kabbalistic traditions of visiting Meron on any of several dates in the month of Iyar date to the Middle Ages; but it is not clear when, by whom, or in what way Lag baOmer was first connected to Shimon ben Yochai.
Nachman Krochmal, a 19th-century Jewish scholar, suggests that the deaths of Rabbi Akiva's students was a veiled reference to the defeat of "Akiva's soldiers" by the Romans, and that Lag BaOmer was the day on which Bar Kokhba enjoyed a brief victory.
In pre-war Europe, Lag BaOmer became a special holiday for students and was called "Scholar's Day". Students were freed to engage in outdoor sports. Kabbalistic significance Lag BaOmer is also connected to the Kabbalistic custom of assigning a Sefirah to each day and week of the Omer count. The first week corresponds to Chesed, the second week to Gevurah, etc., and similarly, the first day of each week corresponds to Chesed, the second day to Gevurah, etc. Thus, the 33rd day, which is the fifth day of the fifth week, corresponds to Hod she-be-Hod (Splendor within [the week of] Splendor). As such, Lag BaOmer represents the level of spiritual manifestation or Hod that would precede the more physical manifestation of the 49th day (Malkhut she-be-Malkhut, Kingship within [the week of] Kingship), which immediately precedes the holiday of Shavuot.
Customs and practices
While the Counting of the Omer is a semi-mourning period, all restrictions of mourning are lifted for Ashkenazim on the 33rd day of the Omer. The Sephardic custom is to cease mourning the following day, celebrations being allowed on the 34th day of the Omer, ().Orach Chayim 493:2. Also here As a result, weddings, parties, listening to music, and haircuts are commonly scheduled to coincide with Lag BaOmer among Ashkenazi Jews, while Sephardi Jews hold weddings the next day. It is customary mainly among Hassidim that three-year-old boys be given their first haircuts (). While haircuts may be taken anywhere, if possible, the occasion is traditionally held at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel, or at the Jerusalem grave of Shimon Hatzaddik for those who cannot travel to Meron.
Families go on picnics and outings. Children go out to the fields with their teachers with bows and rubber-tipped arrows. , the prayer for special Divine mercy on one's behalf, is not said on days with a festive character, including Lag BaOmer;"Jewish Prayers: Tahanun". Jewish Virtual Library. jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved April 11, 2019. when God is showing one a "smiling face", so to speak, as He does especially on the holidays, there is no need to ask for special mercy.
Bonfires