Lag baOmer

This very weekend I was going to sit down and write my post about Ezzie's question, 'why are you frum' - after I had written on mominisrael's modesty meme, but Lag ba'Omer came in the middle and messed everything all up! I started a job last week on a special project which is two-and-a-half-weeks long, and because I get up around 5:30 a.m. and get back after 5 p.m., I am usually too exhausted to compose a post, especially since I need to 'turn in' between nine and ten p.m.

Then Lag ba'Omer arrived, and I was determined to celebrate it, despite the fact that I am here, and not in Yerushalayim with my kids or in Meron, the burial place of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai--where I should be! So the (only) kosher Italian Restaurant in our neighborhood was having a "Lag ba'Omer Night" celebration, with (canned music and a fish/salad buffet-so we went and brought some friends with).

It actually was very enjoyable. Each of the participants lit a candle on a table filled with candles (Sephardic minhag?) as a memorial and to enhance the holiness of the holiday commemorating Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who we attribute to writing the Zohar, the great Jewish mystical work; we ate, we drank "leChaims," we connected with old friends and acquaintances, and we listened to (mainly Sephardic) Israeli music, returning home close to 1:00 a.m.

This morning, there was a "Walk for Israel" which I wanted to try to participate in, but two factors prohibited it:
1) last night I was IMing with Toodles after returning from the restaurant; it was 11 a.m. there, which meant of course that it was 2 a.m. here. Oops. By the time I got to bed it was close to 3:00 a.m. Woke up at 7:48 a.m. (help! am majorly sleep deprived!), and, to top that off--
2) As I got out of the shower into the bedroom to dress for the walk, the phone rings: Yep. It's my younger son (the one who is getting married next month!), calling me from the tahanah ha-merkazit (central bus station) in Tel-Aviv, waiting for a bus to Yerushalayim.

Then, while I was still talking to him (and already glancing at the clock knowing they were starting on the walk at nine a.m.), my youngest daughter Tzipi calls (and that alone is good for half an hour!). So at that point, I plain gave up! As much as I support Israel, I will not cut phone conversations with my kids short for a short walk (I'm supporting Israel plenty! I've sent four of my kids there...)
Yes, my kids rule me. Guilty as charged (and loving every minute of it- :- )

To make a long story longer (as a friend of mine always says), I missed the walk, but met my husband coming home from shul, and we both walked to the fair which was essentially right behind our complex. Tonight, in about one hour, our Chabad will have a Lag ba'Omer medurah and barbeque event at Chabad House, in their playground area, and my husband has lready left to help them cook the hotdogs and hamburgers. I am fading fast, though, and don't know if I'll make it.

And I so wanted to hear/sing the Bar Yochai song, the way we used to do it on Lag ba'Omer in the Old Days.
I guess Ezzie's question will have to wait a while. . .