Lag B'Omer.

It's time's like these that leave me pining away for the Holy Land. Tonight is Lag B'Omer, which commemorates several things. First of all, there was a lapse in the deaths of Rabbi Akiva's students; on Lag B'Omer, no one died. It's also a commemoration of Rabbon Shimon Bar-Yochai, and his emergence from the cave where he and his son lived an ermetical lifestyle for many years, while in hiding from the emperor. The gemara describes how God bestowed blessings on them, making a spring open up and a carob tree to grow, therby providing them with sustenance during their time in hiding.
When they first came out, the gemara continues, they were on such a high spiritual level that when Rashbi ( an acronym for Rabbon Shimon Bar-Yochai ) glanced around and saw a farmer tilling his soil, the farmer was engulfed in flames. Rashbi had been immersed in nothing but Godliness for so long that when he saw someone working to develop this world, as opposed to the world to come, it was too much.
The story continues that they went back into the cave for another year, and came out on a Friday afternoon. They saw someone running with two sprigs of hadassim and asked him what they were for. The man explained that he was going to burn them for shabbos, one for the verse V'Shamor, and the other for the verse V'Zachor ( this is also a reason for two candles being lit on Friday night, the eve of Shabbos), Appeased by the enthusiasm they saw a simple Jew putting into his avodah, Rashbi was able to enter back into the world again.
The fires of the madurot (bonfire) remind us of what we are capable of, if we work for it. According to Chasidic and Kabbalistic texts, each Jew has a spark of holiness within him/her. We can kindle this spark into a blazing fire if we strive to elevate and transcend.
Is it any wonder that on Lag B'Omer, we dance around bonfires together, hand in hand with strangers, with friends, with loved ones? Right in the middle of a time when we mourn the passing of so many scholars ( who died because they didn't treat one another in the proper way ), we celebrate a festive day by dancing together, as one.
May this be the last lag B'Omer in Galus.
Below I've posted pictures of the madura I went to. It was small, intimate, and meaningful, and a blast as well. I really miss the Holy Land...