| Yesterday I saw a 10 year old pulling a tree down the street. |
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Yesterday I saw a 10 year old pulling a tree down the street. Today I saw a group of kids with strollers, thinking how nice it was that they were helping with babysitting, I bent down and looked into the carriages, no babies, twigs and branches. Yup, I said to myself, Lag B'Omer cannot be far away. Here Lag B'Omer is a SERIOUS affair. The bonfires are citywide and, if you come from the States (or anywhere else on the globe) somewhat ‘frightening'. When else (well besides Erev Pessach and Biur Hametz) do police turn a blind eye to fires on every available space!_option
I smile at my naivete when we first came on Aliya, I noticed my kids and their friends ‘eying' a wooden chair that I had put on our porch. "Ma, this chair doesn't look safe", said my son to the fervent agreement of his pals. "It is a bit rickety", I noted, no sooner had the words come out of my mouth, when the ‘gang' took the chair out of the house and down the steps. They were not this helpful with garbage, what was up? I followed and found that this ‘dangerous' chair was added to the ‘stash', wood being collected for the Medura- Bonfire. Erev Lag B'Omer the city is filled with patches of light. Kids stay up until the wee hours waiting for their potatoes and onions to cook in the fires -I never tasted one that was edible! They sing, but mostly they just watch as these huge fires burn themselves out. The next day the city smells like Atlanta, Georgia might have after General Grant was 'done' with it. The air is hazy and full of ashes for days. I remember Barbeques in the States. Charcoal ‘brickets', smelly chemical liquid and burnt hot-dogs, on someone's fire-escape or cement porch, or if you were lucky in the back yard (not available in my hometown, Manhattan). Not here. Go to any public green (or sandy) space and you will see a tableau of a REAL picnic unfold. Tents, carpets, Mangal - local BBQ- and don't forget the Naf-Naf. The Naf-Naf can be a cardboard, large leaf or anything in-between, and is THE fan for the Mangal fire's. Hot-dogs, no way! Think meat hanging on a nearby tree, shishlick- chopped meat, and meat and turkey cubes marinating on shipudim -skewers on a card-table (yup, I once even saw a couch being unloaded from a small flatbed truck!). Home was never as airy or friendly. All over too, you see brides and grooms in decorated cars -ribbon-ed and festooned in other ways, going to scenic sites, especially the Kotel, to be photographed on the way to and from their weddings. And finally, of course Lag B'Omer would not be complete without the ‘goings-on' at Meron and Zefat. They are expecting a hundred thousand people, camping, and doing Halaka -Upsheering- their three-year-old boys. I always enjoy hearing (on the radio, I'm nowhere near there!) the police politely requesting NOT to ‘borrow' neighboring sheep, nor even bring your own to Shechkt (slaughter) and mangal there! So this year, don't let Lag B'Omer go by quietly, and don't forget your Naf-Naf.
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