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Belle Harbor Torah Institute
Lag Baomer

Lag BaOmer -- this year, May 22, 2011 -- is a festive day on the Jewish calendar, celebrating the anniversary of the passing of the great sage and mystic Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar. It also commemorates another event. In the weeks between Passover and Shavuot, a plague raged amongst the disciples of the great sage Rabbi Akiva. On Lag BaOmer the dying ceased. Click here to read more...


What is Lag BaOmer?
What is Lag BaOmer?
The Chassidic masters explain that the final day of a person's earthly life marks the point that "all his deeds, teachings and work" achieve their culminating perfection...
Discuss 5 Comments
Traditions and Customs
Lag BaOmer Traditions and Customs
Bonfires, Jewish Unity parades, bows and arrows, carobs, and more. Find out what is traditionally done on Lag Baomer, and why...
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Lag BaOmer Event Search
Lag BaOmer Event Search
Find Lag BaOmer Events Near You
Parades, picnics, bonfires, outings... Find out which fun programs YOUR local Chabad center is offering this Lag BaOmer!
Lag BaOmer Parades with the RebbeLag BaOmer Parades with the Rebbe
A Carob Tree and a Spring
A Carob Tree and a Spring
Seeing a man ploughing and sowing, they exclaimed: "They forsake eternal life and engage in temporal life!" Whatever they cast their eyes upon was immediately incinerated
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24,000 Plus One
24,000 Plus One
Rabbi Akiva taught that "Love your fellow as yourself" is a "cardinal principle in Torah." How was it that that Rabbi Akiva's disciples, of all people, were deficient in this area?
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Bow and Arrow
Bow and Arrow
There comes a point at which the external resources we've come to rely on are suddenly ineffectual, and the only place to turn is inward, to ourselves
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The Practical Implications of Infinity
The Practical Implications of Infinity
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the essence of Jewish mysticism
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Driven to Distraction
Driven to Distraction
If only I could be locked away in a cell with no distractions and no excuses, can you imagine how much I would accomplish?
What Is Kabbalah?
What Is Kabbalah?
To explain our world without examining its inner depth is as shallow as explaining the workings of a computer by describing the images viewed on its monitor...
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Attaining Immortality
Attaining Immortality
Is death a reason to mourn, or to celebrate the life of the deceased? That depends on the nature of the person's life...
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Love Distorted
Love Distorted
The night their father left town, his sons reminisced about their shared childhood, and the messages stressed in their home...
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Thirteen Years in a Cave
Thirteen Years in a Cave, Now What?
They wallowed in sand, subsisting only on carobs and water. They exit after thirteen years. What is the first thing on Rabbi Shimon's agenda?
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Heavenly Service, Earthly Rewards?
Earthly Rewards for Heavenly Service?
Can you find a competent electrician willing to do a job for, say, three candies an hour? How about a spiritual person willing to serve G-d for material reward?
Make Me an Offer
Make Me an Offer
Is your job a method of providing youself with the necessities of life, or has it become its own purpose?
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Living in the Future
Living in the Future
Lag b'Omer
It's my favorite oxymoron: If one indeed lives in the future, it's not the future anymore, is it? And if one only thinks he's living in the future, than he's not really living there, is he?
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An Inward Focus
An Inward Focus
In order to conquer and affect the world around us we must first move inwards...
Lag BaOmer Parades
Lag BaOmer Parades
What were they thinking when they invented Lag BaOmer parades?
StoriesMystical Lag BaOmer Stories
What is Lag Ba'Omer?
What is Lag Ba'Omer?
What do we really celebrate on Lag Ba’omer and what does the Rebbe say about it. The story of Lag Ba’Omer -- in depth.
Discuss 4 Listen (20:37)
A History of Lag BaOmer
A History of Lag BaOmer
Why were the disciples of Rabbi Akiva punished by death for being disrespectful? And why are we happy on the day that R. Shimon Bar Yochai died?
Listen (36:28)
What is a Tzadik?
What Is A Tzadik?
Why do we celebrate on the day that R. Shimon Bar Yochai passed away? Also: If we are not permitted to talk to the dead, why do we pray by a tzaddik’s grave?
Listen (1:09:17)

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