SLIDE 39 The Cave in the Library: A Lag B'Omer Story
Today is Library Day. When Ella walks through the library doors, she sees a big cave made out of paper where the reading rug usually is. She knows it is just pretend, but the big paper spiders and cotton cobwebs scare her a little. Inside the cave is a make-believe bonfire. Her class sits around the bonfire and waits to hear what this is all about. "Today is Lag B'Omer," Mrs. Sefer, the librarian, says. "Lag is not a real word. It is the Hebrew letter lamed and the letter gimmel. In Hebrew, letters are also numbers. Lag is the number thirty-three. Today is the thirty-third day between Passover and Shavuot. We call the counting of the days between the two holidays the "counting of the
"But why do we have a cave, Mrs. Sefer?" Ella asks. "Long ago when the Romans ruled the Land of Israel, Jewish students were not allowed to study Torah. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai hid from the Romans in a cave where he lived with his son for thirteen years. Students would come to study with him there. To fool the Roman soldiers, the students would pretend that they were going hunting or on a picnic." "In those days, stories were written on scrolls, like the Torah scroll, not books like we have today. It was easy for the students to roll up their scrolls and hide them in the pouch where they kept their arrows." "Before Rabbi Bar Yohai died, he told his students not to be sad but to have a feast day and celebrate the spirit of Israel on the anniversary of his death. He died on Lag B'omer." "In Israel on Lag B'omer, many people visit the cave on Mount Meron where Rabbi Bar Yohai lived. They have picnics and bonfires to celebrate, just as he requested." After the story, Mrs. Sefer gives each of the children a paper bow and arrow. When she checks out the books, she warns them to watch for Roman soldiers. If they see any, they are supposed to hide their books and say, "We are not learning Torah. We are just going hunting." Ella carefully checks the hallway for soldiers before leaving the library. No Romans in sight! She hopes there will be a cave in the library again next year on Lag B'Omer.