Blog B'Omer: This is the Fourth Post

Submitted by:  A post sem girl :) 

Reflections:

This whole year has been a lot about living in the present and the past at the same time, by thinking about the last time i did each thing... Remembering the experiences I had in seminary and sometimes noticing the stark comparisons of how different life is here in America as apposed to living the the heart of a charedi community in Eretz Yisroel.

Lag B'omer seems to be a real example of these differences in the way of life and living with what seems to be a different focus. Remembering last year, in the weeks leading up to Lag B'omer (probably starting after pesach) you would notice lots of piles of wood and sticks and anything that could burn.... all the little boys getting ready for their Lag B'omer fires. ( leaving aside all the dangers involved for a moment...) as shkia got closer you saw lots of activity in the streets, kids running and getting excited and started to smell the fires starting. Walking around Yerushalyim that night there were many different bonfires and lots of beautiful singing and dancing. I saw the Belz fire, Chabad, the big fire all the families on Sorotzkin work on together to make, the little one on the small street of seminary and others as well.

 Standing on Sorotzkin you can see Ramot, and were able to notice some fires there as well. The feeling of the celebration was in the air...everywhere. The next day I went with hundreds of other people up to Meron, a very unique experience. Seeing all different types of people gathered together for the same reason... celebrating and using the day for tefila. At shkia at the end of the day there was a large bonfire with a lot of singing and dancing outside the kever... it was a unique experience I'll never forget.
 
Compare that with my day here... last night was a regular motzai shabbos (some roasting marshmallows for the spirit of things) and today a regular Sunday with some music playing in the background.

I'm not advocating for hundreds of fires, just noting the extreme difference of the way we live and celebrate different marks in yiddishkeit with the way they do it in Eretz Yisroel, where things seem to take on a whole new level of living with the past and the way to commemorate it.