Lag B’omer for Litvaks

If it’s your thing, you listen to music first thing in the morning (it’s mine, and my kids planned out an entire playlist of songs starting with “Al Abba Lo Shoaylim Sheilos,” by Moti Weiss, then “Fire,” by Shmueli Ungar, followed by “Brighter,” by Zusha). There are haircuts and maybe a wedding; my boys’ yeshivah takes them to a park to play baseball. But Rabi Shimon bar Yochai, the bonfires, the bows and arrows… not a thing.

Except for kids in the younger grades. Probably because it’s more fun to have a celebration, and there’s a story that comes with it, and which little boys don’t get excited about fire, weapons, and food? So when my four-year-old came home and asked about our bonfire, I smiled, thought it was cute, and moved on.

I moved on so thoroughly that I didn’t think about it again until we were finishing our supper on Lag B’omer and my four-year-old started crying. “It’s a big aveirah if you don’t have a bonfire,” he announced.

Oh, the way that little ones classify what’s right and wrong. It’s so cute and misguided, but there’s a purity to it that I didn’t want to ruin.