The mourning of the Omer
During the Omer we do not hold weddings or cut hair, in memory of Rabbi Akiva's students.
Holidays18 Iyar · The 33rd day of the Omer
The hilula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai: piyyutim, candles, bonfires and a break from the mourning of the Omer.
NextBegins at sundown Monday, May 24 · ends at nightfall Tuesday, May 25, 2027
Between Pesah and Shavuot, twenty-four thousand students of Rabbi Akiva died, and the weeks of the Omer became a time of mourning. Tradition teaches that the dying stopped on the thirty-third day.
The Kabbalists of Safed taught that Lag Ba'Omer is also the hilula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, the day he passed away and revealed the secrets of the Zohar. A hilula is a wedding: the day a tzaddik's soul is joined to its source.
Sephardic communities, especially in North Africa, made it a night of light and song in honor of the tzaddik, alongside the great pilgrimage to his tomb in Meron.
Mourning and its end
During the Omer we do not hold weddings or cut hair, in memory of Rabbi Akiva's students.
Following Maran (Shulhan Arukh 493:2), Sephardim end the mourning on the morning of the 34th day; Ashkenazim, following the Rema, already on the 33rd. When the 33rd falls on Sunday, Sephardim may cut hair on Friday for Shabbat.
Tahanun is omitted on Lag Ba'Omer, and at Minha of the day before.
In honor of the tzaddik
The piyyut "Bar Yohai, nimshahta ashrekha" by Rabbi Shimon Lavi of Tripoli, sung in Sephardic communities on Lag Ba'Omer night and on Friday nights.
Candles are lit in honor of the tzaddik, and bonfires recall the light of the Zohar.
In Moroccan communities, candles and decorated bottles in Rabbi Shimon's honor are auctioned to support the community, a custom carried on at many hilulot.
Many families give a three-year-old boy his first haircut on Lag Ba'Omer, in Meron or at home, with song and celebration.
Many study a passage of the Zohar, and especially the Idra Zuta, which describes Rabbi Shimon's last day.
Across the Sephardic world
Lag Ba'Omer stands among the great hilulot of Moroccan Jewry, with candles, music, auctions and festive meals.
The home of Rabbi Shimon Lavi, author of "Bar Yohai," and of hilula celebrations of their own.
Hundreds of thousands make the pilgrimage to Rabbi Shimon's tomb in Meron, a custom recorded since the days of the Arizal.
Keep learning
Questions
On the morning of the 34th day, following the Shulhan Arukh. Ashkenazim end it on the 33rd.
The anniversary of a tzaddik's passing, celebrated as a wedding of the soul with its source.
Rabbi Shimon Lavi, a 16th-century kabbalist of Tripoli.
In honor of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, whose teaching in the Zohar is called "light."