May 5, 2011
Delaying Lag B'Omer Celebrations To Avoid Chilul Shabbos
For five years now I have been writing about how it is unacceptable for Lag B'Omer celebrations to be the cause of chillul shabbos. Lag B'Omer is basically a made up holiday with no actual injunction requiring anybody to light a bonfire or to travel across the country to celebrate by a grave, so one who desires to do so must be careful to avoid desecrating the shabbos in the process.
One of the beautiful things the State of Israel does is it delays its main national holiday, Independence Day, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, along with Memorial Day - Yom HaZikaron, when it falls out on the calendar on Saturday night. They delay it so as to avoid causing any desecration of shabbos by preparing for the various ceremonies, along with people who might need to travel a distance to get somewhere for a ceremony. Can you imagine pushing off Independence Day and Memorial Day for that reason? If you look at the stats (I have to wait for Torah Tidbits to come out this week to know for sure) you will probably find that Independence Day, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, probably is pushed off more frequently than being celebrated on the proper day of 5 Iyar.
Yet Lag B'Omer celebrations have never been pushed off from a Saturday night. Despite the fact that preparing for the estimated 250,000 people going to Meron, along with people at other events around the country, causes tremendous chillul shabbos, by the security forces, by bus companies, by regular people, even masoratim, who might not be careful enough and prepare on Shabbos for the big night ahead, people planning food for the event, people planning the event, etc., nobody sees the need to push off the celebrations to avoid chillul shabbos.
Where are all the askanim who fight all year round with El Al, Shefa Shuk, Egged and every Tom, Dick and Harry, butting into their private business to stop them from being mechalel shabbos, or to stop them from supporting those who are - where are they when the religious celebrations of a holiday that is not even rabbinic in nature, and its modern day form of celebrations are not halachically required, trample the shabbos? Why is this not important to them, that shabbos is being desecrated completely because of them?
There is no reason that the main bonfires cannot be held on Sunday night instead of Saturday night.
Actually, Rabbi Metzger is once again trying to promote this idea, as he did last year. It is likely that he will be completely ignored by those who set the tone for religious celebration in the country nowadays, though he has the support of the Tzohar organization. Another interesting opponent is the Ministry of Education.
The MoE is opposed to the proposal because Lag B'Omer is a day off of school. Pushing Lag B'Omer to Monday means teachers lose their long weekend, along with the fact that some bagrut examinations are already scheduled to be written on that Monday. Rescheduling the exams will be a big headache for some people.
One of the beautiful things the State of Israel does is it delays its main national holiday, Independence Day, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, along with Memorial Day - Yom HaZikaron, when it falls out on the calendar on Saturday night. They delay it so as to avoid causing any desecration of shabbos by preparing for the various ceremonies, along with people who might need to travel a distance to get somewhere for a ceremony. Can you imagine pushing off Independence Day and Memorial Day for that reason? If you look at the stats (I have to wait for Torah Tidbits to come out this week to know for sure) you will probably find that Independence Day, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, probably is pushed off more frequently than being celebrated on the proper day of 5 Iyar.
Yet Lag B'Omer celebrations have never been pushed off from a Saturday night. Despite the fact that preparing for the estimated 250,000 people going to Meron, along with people at other events around the country, causes tremendous chillul shabbos, by the security forces, by bus companies, by regular people, even masoratim, who might not be careful enough and prepare on Shabbos for the big night ahead, people planning food for the event, people planning the event, etc., nobody sees the need to push off the celebrations to avoid chillul shabbos.
Where are all the askanim who fight all year round with El Al, Shefa Shuk, Egged and every Tom, Dick and Harry, butting into their private business to stop them from being mechalel shabbos, or to stop them from supporting those who are - where are they when the religious celebrations of a holiday that is not even rabbinic in nature, and its modern day form of celebrations are not halachically required, trample the shabbos? Why is this not important to them, that shabbos is being desecrated completely because of them?There is no reason that the main bonfires cannot be held on Sunday night instead of Saturday night.
Actually, Rabbi Metzger is once again trying to promote this idea, as he did last year. It is likely that he will be completely ignored by those who set the tone for religious celebration in the country nowadays, though he has the support of the Tzohar organization. Another interesting opponent is the Ministry of Education.
The MoE is opposed to the proposal because Lag B'Omer is a day off of school. Pushing Lag B'Omer to Monday means teachers lose their long weekend, along with the fact that some bagrut examinations are already scheduled to be written on that Monday. Rescheduling the exams will be a big headache for some people.
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With all the Chillul Shabbos that is being done, especially to celebrate him, I can't imagine that Rashb"i is not turning in his grave...
ReplyDeleteI heard that if you donate enough for 702 drinks (preferably shoko b'sakit) which is the gematria of Shabbos you will be forgiven for any chilul Shabbos connected to Lag B'Omer celebrations
ReplyDeleteMisrad HaChinuch (the Ministry of Education) seems to me to be the only group with an almost legitimate reason for not pushing off the Lag BaOmer bonfires to Sunday night.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in my opinion, the way to resolve the difficulties which Misrad HaChinuch raised is as follows:
To allow teachers to have a long weekend make the days off include both Sunday and Monday (when the actual date of Lag BaOmer falls on Sunday). One extra day of school vacation can't hurt the education of our children that much, after so much time off is given for Pesach.
To avoid conflicts with bagrut examinations, plan the postponement of the bonfires well in advance (after all, anyone can find out what day will be Lag BaOmer long in advance), so that the bagrut examinations will be scheduled for another day!
It seems to me that these are not such abstruse solutions that they require such a genius as me :) to suggest them! I would hope that our government and religious leaders could work this out without my help!
Heh. Anything that increases teacher vacation time will trump all logical argument.
ReplyDeleteJust a small correction. Actually, Chassidim keep hilchos aveilus of sefira for ALL of sefira except the actual day of lag ba'Omer and shloshes yimei hagbala, so it really doesn't work for them to push it off a night. However, I agree with what you're saying overall and suggest that they just SKIP the whole darn thing!
ReplyDeleteNah. I say keep [the made up holiday of] Lag b'Omer where it is, and move Yom HaZikaron back to the preceding Thursday to prevent hillul Shabbath, and keep Yom HaAtzma'uth on 5 Iyyar.
ReplyDelete