The Mystery of Sefirah Mourning and Lag Ba’omer

The traditional narrative

Aside from the counting of the Omer, the days of Sefirat HaOmer, between Passover and Shavuot, are regarded as days of mourning in traditional Jewish communities nowadays. The traditional forms of mourning include a ban on marriages, haircutting, and listening to music. The reason given is that these days saw the loss of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students in a plague in 2nd-century Israel.

“It was said that R. Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of disciples, from Gabbat to Antipatris; and all of them died at the same time because they did not treat each other with respect. The world remained desolate until R. Akiva came to our Masters in the South and taught the Torah to them. These were R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Yossi, R. Shimon and R. Elazar b. Shammua; and it was they who revived the Torah at that time. A Tanna taught: All of them died between Pesach and Shavuot. R. Hamma ben Abba or, it might be said, R. Hiyya b. Abin said: All of them died a cruel death. What was it? R. Nahman replied: Diphtheria.”

– Talmud, Yevamot 62b

 

Many communities halt the mourning on the 18th of Iyar, 33 days in, a day commonly known as Lag BaOmer. Others don’t halt it after 33 days, but instead pause it for that day, only to continue the day after until Shavuot. There are many different customs regarding this mourning, a topic beyond the scope of this writing.

Instead we will focus on the earliest sources for these claims. When the mourning began, what it was mourning, and how the customs developed over time. We will also discuss the original sources documenting Lag BaOmer and the reason for its celebratory status.

 

The evolution of Sefirah mourning

While the story of Rabbi Akiva is mentioned in the Talmud (4th-6th centuries), there is no mention of the Sefirah restrictions at that time in any of the Talmudic or Midrashic literature. In all likelihood, the Sefirah restrictions were not in place in Talmudic times, based on the lack of any contemporary references to it. Even the Akiva narrative seems to be legend, rather than a historical tradition. We will discuss more on this later.

The first reference to any restrictions in the Sefirah period is by an anonymous Gaon, living sometime in the 8th to 11th centuries – several hundred years after the Talmud and almost 1,000 years after Rabbi Akiva. He references the custom not to marry during the period, and connects it to the mourning of Akiva’s students. His explanation for the mourning was later adopted by many European rabbis.^[1]

“And regarding your question, why don’t we betroth or marry between Pesach and Atzeret (Shavuot) – is it because of an actual prohibition or not?

You should know that this does not stem from a prohibition but from a mourning custom, for so said our Sages: “Rabbi Akiva had 12,000 pairs of disciples and they all died between Pesach and Atzeret…”

– Otzar HaGeonim to Yevamot.

Noteworthy is that at the time, there is no mention of any other restrictions during Sefirah – only a custom to avoid weddings is mentioned.

In the following years, several more reasons were proposed by various leading rabbis. Various new restrictions and customs also emerge, such as the ban on haircuts, the restrictions for women’s nighttime work, listening to music, and the leniency of Lag BaOmer.

Some rabbis connected the Sefirah restrictions to a Mishnah in Eduyot concerning hell.^[2] The first and most accepted view is that the souls of the wicked burn for 12 months in hell. The diverging opinion quoted there is that the sentence of the wicked is from Pesach to Atzeret (Shavuot). Therefore, we practice restriction and a form of mourning at this time to reflect on the souls going through hell at this time period.^[3]

Other rabbis connected the Sefirah mourning to more recent catastrophes that befell the European Jewish communities of France and Germany.^[4] The Crusade massacres of 1096 swept through the Rhineland in the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. Similarly, the Khmelnitsky massacre of 1648 was also connected to the Sefirah period,^[5] as did many other of the various pogroms.

Ramban saw the Sefirah period as being joyous – a Chol Hamoed (intermediate holiday days) connecting Pesach with Shavuot.^[6] Therefore, just as in Chol Hamoed, weddings were not to be performed.^[7] Other restrictions such as haircutting and work restrictions also make sense in this light.

And finally, some rabbis saw it as a time period with a bad omen.^[8] It’s just an unlucky time of the year, so why get married then. Starting with the plague on Akiva’s students, and at later times it was the Crusade massacres, the Khmelnitsky pogroms and constant post-Passover blood libels – the time period between Pesach and Shavuot was seen as an unlucky time of year. Due to the bad omen, women being out of the home after nightfall was deemed unsafe and therefore discouraged. Some even refrained from bloodletting during Sefirah “since these days are disposed towards disaster.”^[9] Since the haircutters were usually the bloodletters in those days,^[10] perhaps this is how the ban on haircutting began.

At first, the ban was on weddings alone, as indicative of the Geonic responsa above and all other rabbinic responsa until the 12th-century. At that point we begin to see a practice of some avoiding bloodletting at this period.^[11] Even later is the prohibition against haircuts,^[12] and even later the ban against music.^[13] Parallel to this development is the leniency of Lag BaOmer and its celebration, to be discussed later. The traditional sources claim that on Lag BaOmer the plague that struck Akiva’s students ceased, and was thus deemed a day of celebration and cessation of Sefirah restrictions for many Jewish communities.

 

Issues with the traditional narrative

So what’s wrong with the traditional narrative of Akiva’s students dying by a mass plague at this time period? What can be the true origins of the Sefirah restrictions and the Lag BaOmer celebrations?

The Akiva narrative has several notable issues:

• There is no reference or illusion to this event anywhere in the Tanaic literature of that time period. This is an important observation, since had such a monumental catastrophe happened, we would expect to find mention of it other than this one legend recorded several hundred years after Rabbi Akiva’s times. (Akiva lived in the second century whereas the Talmud was compiled in the seventh century.)

There are those who explain this event to be a part of the military defeat of Bar Kochba in his rebellion against the Romans (and thus these students of Akiva were actually soldiers fighting for Bar Kochba, whom Akiva supported). If this were the case, then we do indeed find other contemporary references to this mass catastrophe. While this is certainly an intriguing possibility, this isn’t the simplest understanding of the Akiva legend for the purposes of this discussion.

• Even though the Talmud does make mention of the Akiva legend, there is no mention of any sort of restrictions during that time period. There is no ban on marriages, nor haircutting or music. This implies that although the people at that point did recognize a historical/legendary catastrophe that happened to Akiva’s students between Pesach and Shavuot, they had no mourning restrictions to commemorate it.
• Indeed there is no reason for there to be a mourning period for this event, when for other much larger catastrophes there are no such restrictions. Examples of that time period include the Bar Kochba revolt, Kiton Rebellion, Alexandria pogrom, Justinian Plague, Antonine plague, which all killed far more Jews than the 24,000 students of Akiva. Later historical plagues that have no commemorative mourning include the Black Death, the Crusades, Khmelnitsky pogroms, and the Holocaust. It would seem odd that a 49-day mourning custom was instituted for this relatively minor plague of Akiva’s students, when for the other plagues no such commemoration was established.
• The Geonim only mention a custom to refrain from weddings at that time. Only several hundred years later do European rabbis first mention the ban on haircutting and, several hundred years after that, the ban on music as well. This suggests a gradual evolution of the restrictions during the Omer, rather than institutionalized mourning established after the death of Akiva’s students.
• The number of students said to have belonged to Akiva – 24,000 – is a very unrealistic figure, especially for the time. No other teachers are said to have had anything near such figures, up until modern times with our technological abilities. Indeed, unless we redefine what a student actually is, there aren’t the physical necessities to allow for 24,000 students at that time in the whole of Israel. The economic and political hardships at the time would not allow for such a large number of students. The abundant archaeology of that time shows no trace of these masses of rabbinic students. What this suggests is that the narrative of Akiva’s students was a hyperbolic legend rather than historically accurate.
• Another obvious issue with the Akiva legend being the source of the Omer restrictions is that many of the earliest sources give other reasons for it. The Akiva legend as the source for the restrictions is indeed the earliest referenced and the most popular, but by no means the only reason given.
• Another issue to grapple with is the restriction of women working at night mentioned in Shulchan Aruch.^[14] Why is women’s night work seen as something to restrict in times of mourning? Another restriction practiced in the past was refraining from bloodletting.^[15] There is no restriction on bloodletting for mourners, so why was this restriction practiced in Jewish communities of the past during the Omer period?
• A popular element of the Akiva narrative is the idea that the plague stopped on the 33rd of the Omer, thus the annual celebration of Lag BaOmer.^[16] Most communities ease restrictions on that day and/or from that day going forward.^[17] There are two obvious issues with this assumption. The first is that the Talmud states clearly that it was “from Passover until Atzeret (Shavuot),” implying that it was all throughout the Omer. Secondly, there is no mention of Lag BaOmer not in the Geonic responsa that mentions the Omer restrictions, nor in any of the referring rabbinic responsa until the 12th-century where it gets its first mention. More on this particular issue later.

 

A possible origin

So if not the Akiva narrative, what can the origin of the Omer mourning be? Perhaps the most likely explanation is an ancient superstition of that time of year.

The Romans did not marry in the month of May, as it was regarded as a month of a bad omen. There were dead spirits roaming the earth to be cleansed. It was called Lemuralia. This Roman superstition later took hold in Europe with popular sayings like “If you marry in Lent, you will live to repent” and “Marry in May, rue the day.”

It seems that Jewish culture may have borrowed from this superstition, with one Mishnaic rabbi even claiming that the souls of the dead are cleansed in hell between Pesach and Shavuot,^[18] which not coincidentally, consists primarily of the month of May.

“12 months is the judgment time for the wicked in hell… Rabbi Yochanan son of Nuri says from Passover until Atzeret (Shavuot).”

Indeed this is the explanation for the Sefirah mourning given by some early European rabbis.^[19]

“My brother Benjamin explained that the reason why we don’t get married between Passover and Shavuot is based on what it says in Seder Olam that the judgment of the wicked is 12 months (as it is written “and it shall be month by month”), Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri says it is between Passover and Atzeret.”

Some rabbis have said that it’s a time of bad omen:^[20]

“There are those who don’t marry between Passover and Shavuot, since these days are prone to disaster, as we see with the students of Akiva.”^[21]

Indeed this fits a trend of later rabbis connecting the mourning to later historical catastrophes that befell the Jewish people between Passover and Shavuot.^[22] They saw it as a time of bad omen.

Whether or not this superstition originated from the Roman one or was organically developed within the Jewish community is up for debate. But one thing for certain is that there is this strain of thought amongst some of the rabbis. Since there are so many issues with the Akiva narrative, this does seem like the most plausible origins of the Omer restrictions. It is not a time of mourning – it is a time of bad luck, and therefore marriages were banned. Later on, perhaps as a misunderstanding of the ban on marriages, the consensus became that the reason behind the restrictions was due to mourning of Akiva’s students. As a result, a ban on haircutting and enjoying music also developed.

This theory helps explain why women would not work after sunset, as this was seen as a danger to be avoided during the time of the bad omen. Similarly, bloodletting also had its dangers and was therefore avoided in certain Jewish communities during the Omer. Even the legend of the Akiva’s students’ plague fits into the general theme of it being a time of danger and misfortune in the Jewish psyche.

 

Lag BaOmer

Lag BaOmer is now a widely celebrated holiday amongst Jewish communities with a focus on Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and tens of thousands in Israel celebrating the holiday at his alleged gravesite in Meron. What is the reason for the celebration and what is the origin of it?

The traditional narrative is that it is a day that celebrates two things. The first is the that the plague of Akiva’s students ceased on this day and is thus a day of celebration.^[23] The second is that it is the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s death, which he requested to be a day of celebration due to his soul being elevated on that day.^[24]

But when we get into the details, the reason behind the mysterious holiday becomes murky. Did these things really happen on Lag BaOmer?

The earliest sources talking of the Sefirah mourning, cited earlier, make no mention of Lag BaOmer. The first appearance of such a holiday appears in a 13th-century text written by Abraham ben Nathan called Sefer HaManhig. He writes:^[25]

“There are places where they are accustomed not to have hair cuts from after Passover until the 33rd of the Omer (Lag baOmer), and similarly there are those who are accustomed not to marry wives between Passover and Shavuot because these days are weakened since the plague fell on Rabbi Akiva’s students (during them).”

He goes on to explain that the reason for the Lag BaOmer celebration is because the students of Akiva ceased to die on this day. This is at least according to an ancient Spanish text of the Talmud that Rabbi Zachariah HaLevi saw, according to him. The Talmudic text we have says they died until Atzeret (Shavuot), but this particular manuscript said “until peros atzeret” which has been interpreted to mean 15 days before Shavuot (i.e. Lag BaOmer).

While this is certainly a possibility, this alternative Talmudic text is in contradiction to our standard version which says they died “until Atzeret.” Others saw a different reason for Lag BaOmer’s celebration. According to Sefer Minhag Tov (13th-century):

“On the day of Lag BaOmer it is permitted to practice all of these [aforementioned prohibited activities], due to the miracle that took place.”

Without specifying what exactly this miracle was, he seems to reference a known miracle at the time as the reason for lifting the Omer restrictions on Lag BaOmer. It is unlikely that he is referring to the cessation of Akiva’s students’ plague, since that wouldn’t be regarded as a “miracle.” Many later rabbis also disagreed with the notion that Akiva’s students ceased dying on that day.^[26]

In the late 18th century, a new popular meaning took root for the Lag BaOmer celebrations. It started to be seen as the day of the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the alleged author of the Zohar and father of kabbalistic thought. It was said that he instructed his students to celebrate his passing rather than mourn for him, since it was a time of elevation for his soul.^[27] This new meaning was probably rooted in a misprint of an earlier kabbalistic book of Chaim Vital, student of Arizal. The misprint stated that Lag BaOmer was the day of Rabbi Shimon’s passing. This misprint has largely been recognized by scholars as well as Orthodox rabbis,^[28] but the effects have impacted mainstream thought concerning the Lag BaOmer celebration.

Perhaps ironically, rather than being a day of celebrating Rabbi Shimon’s passing, in the times of the Geonim (7th-11th centuries), the day was observed as a fast day to mourn Joshua’s death.^[29] Indeed several fasts were instituted in Talmudic times to commemorate the passing of righteous Jewish leaders.^[30]

In light of this historical context, it seems questionable if Rabbi Shimon actually died on Lag BaOmer, seeing as there is no such source until the 18th-century.^[31] In fact, we see that it was not celebrated during the Geonim period. Additionally, it is questionable if a day of celebration would actually be instituted for his passing rather than a day of fasting, as was done with the other Jewish leaders.

So what is the actual Lag BaOmer celebration? It remains a mystery, but seems to be celebrating some 12th-century miracle that occurred to a Jewish community in Europe. Perhaps they were spared from an imminent pogrom or libel.

Another intriguing theory of the celebration is connected to the Lemuralia superstition mentioned earlier.

The Lemuralia period lasted from the last day of April, Walpurgis Night, throughout the 31 days of May. Totalling a 32-day period, the 33rd day likely saw celebrations of sorts. The 33rd day of the Omer, Lag BaOmer, may have been influenced by this popular Roman, and later European, custom of banning marriages for 32 days and permitting it on the 33rd.^[32]

This connection with Lemuralia may help explain a mysterious custom associated with Lag BaOmer. The most iconic element of Lag BaOmer are those bonfires often danced around, whether it be at Meron or elsewhere. What is the significance of the bonfire? Several explanations have been proposed for it, none satisfactory.^[33] Perhaps an explanation of the origin of this custom is that it originated in the European holidays that overlapped with this time period

On Walpurgisnacht (Walpurgis Night) of April 30th or May 1st (May Day), bonfires were built to keep away the dead and chaotic spirits that were said to walk among the living then.^[34] Jewish communities have borrowed non-Jewish customs for other holidays as well, such as playing dreidel and gifting gifts on Chanukah.^[35]

We can each find meaning in the Omer mourning and Lag BaOmer celebrations in our own unique way. But as far as historical accuracy is concerned, we have little idea what we the origin of the mourning is and what the origin of the celebration is. Though it is very unlikely to be the a plague that killed 24,000 students and the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.