Lag Ba’omer is a minor holiday that occurs on the 33rd day of the Omer, the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot. A break from the semi-mourning of the Omer, key aspects of Lag Ba’omer include holding Jewish weddings (it’s the one day during the Omer when Jewish law permits them), lighting bonfires and getting haircuts (since they are usually not done during the semi-mourning of the first 32 days of counting the Omer). School children picnic and play outdoors with bows and arrows, and in Israel plant trees. It is customary to light bonfires, to symbolize the light Simeon bar Yohai (who many believe wrote the Zohar) brought into the world. And every year numerous couples wed at this happy time.

It's a great time to go outdoors (not light bonfires, given the forest fires currently blazing in New Mexico), but appreciate nature and being outdoors.

This week of counting the Omer (starting this coming Saturday evening) focuses on the sephira of Yesod: foundation, the basis of thought and action upon which everything else depends. Foundations, whether physical or spiritual, must be both strong and flexible, well suited to their terrain and purpose.