"I can listen to music again!" I cheered. Mark looked at me quizzically.
"Why couldn't you listen to music?" he asked.
"Since Passover, I have not been able to listen to music because it is a sad time in Jewish history. The students of Rabbi Akiva were not showing proper respect to each other and putting each other down so they were struck by a plague. This day, Lag B'omer, is the day they stopped dying."
"That's so sad," Ten said. I nodded. "But that's not why we celebrate Lag B'omer," I said smiling, as I handed each of them a toy bow and arrow and led them to a nearby park.
"We commemorate the life of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on the day he passed away. On the day he died, he told his students it should be rejoicing and not mourning because his soul was being reunited with God. He wrote the Zohar which is a book about the mysteries of the universe."
We shot the bows and arrows at the targets and I explained that, during Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's life, a rainbow never once showed. In Judaism, rainbows signify God's anger because after the great flood God showed Noah a rainbow to promise that He would never bring such a flood again.
As the night fell, I started lighting the bonfire in the pit. I had brought marshmallows and we roasted them. "Why the bonfire?" Taemin asked.
"To commemorate the great spiritual light that was brought to the world by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai."
Taeyong looked into the fire. "I wish I had such cool traditions," his voice was wistful.
"You could always convert," I joked, "but the rabbi's will try to dissuade you, so I don't know. But if you did convert, these traditions would become yours."
Taeyong shook his head. "I'm not going to convert, it's just really cool."
I started singing some Lag B'omer songs, everyone humming along when they picked up the tune. When the bonfire burned out, the boys headed home and I headed back to my apartment, ready for bed. The next day I started planning what I would do for Shavuot. It was only sixteen days away.
