It’s hard to imagine Lag B’Omer without public gatherings, local bonfires or celebrations or big parades. Nonetheless, the greatest celebration of Lag B’Omer is that of Jewish unity and Ahavas Yisroel! While it looks different this year than on others, we are perhaps even more connected to one another, albeit through alternative means. It might feel a little unusual to make a celebration at home with just immediate family, but it can still be fun and meaningful. Here are some craft and activity ideas to enhance your day using materials you have easy access to in these difficult times.
Every year, my children look forward to bonfires, and “camp ins” (playing about camping at home or in our backyard. Public bonfires aren’t happening this year and not everyone lives in a location that is conducive to having one. Some families may not even have access to outdoor spaces or yards right now and that can be really challenging. So let’s get creative together and make a Family Lag b’Omer Camp-In at home!
Pitch Your Tent: Whether you have an actual tent, build a fort with chairs and couch cushions and blankets or just set some cozy blankets out on the floor, setting up camp is a great activity for kids of all ages. If you do have a yard and the weather permits, you might do this outdoors.
It is just as fun and cozy indoors, too!
Setting Up Camp:
Let’s Go Fishing! To create a camp like atmosphere, you might want to include some fun camping activities. If you have the ingredients, perhaps you’ll make some s’mores in the oven or microwave. Maybe you have the ability to grill at home or prepare some favorite BBQ foods indoors. You might set up a little fishing game indoors with some paper or felt fish shapes and add a paperclip “mouth.” Use a refrigerator magnet, string and some tape to attach it to a stick, dowel, or long cardboard tube to make a fishing pole and you can go fishing right from your living room!
If you’re in the mood to add some waterplay to the mix, you can go fishing in a big bin or bowl of water. You can use what you have on hand. We had a fishing game party favor one year that we used but another year I just set out some bath toys, a colander and some sandbox toys to fish with! If you want to cool off with some ice play, you can make ice cube “fish” in an ice cube tray using colored water. Toss in a couple of googly eyes if you have them, but no need if you don’t. When your water is frozen, pop them out and add them to a bin of water. We did this with waterbeads one year, but those are not a requirement to make this enjoyable. If you have salad tongs, they make great “ice fishing poles,” but a ladle or slotted spoon would also work well!
Remember--children have inherently great imaginations! They can stretch them as wide as need be--just about anything can be a fish and just about anything can be used to catch it.
Build a Bonfire! While a real bonfire may not be feasible in your space, a pretend one can be great fun to think up and build. Perhaps you’ll go outdoors to gather real sticks or perhaps you’ll work from indoors and use blocks or recycled cardboard tubes. Your flames can be made from scarves/tichels, fire colored clothing and linens, crumpled tissue or construction paper. When it comes to project planning these days, it can be helpful to put your kids in the driver’s seat. Let them navigate what materials to use and how to set them up!
Gather Together and CELEBRATE: Next it’s time to cozy up together and celebrate by the “fire.” Sing or listen to some favorite songs. Dance in your living room! Parade around your house or if safely possible, around your neighborhood. Does anyone in your house play an instrument? If you don’t have “real” instruments” at home, maybe you’d like to make some of your own. If my kids have taught me anything, it’s that everything can be a drum! Share some favorite stories together or share some favorite things about each other. Ahavas Yisroel starts at home and this year, we can really celebrate that!
Feeling Crafty?
If you want to get crafty this year, here are some ideas. Use what you have handy! This year we plan to do a family mural using large paper and art supplies. This is a great way to work together with one another (an important theme of Lag B’Omer) and create something beautiful. We will hang it in our front window to bring joy to our neighbors passing by. You can do this with smaller paper as well. Family members can work together or create individual pieces of art to contribute to your window museum. You might add a message of kindness and encouragement.
For some theme related art, you might want to build a tiny bonfire craft. One year we did this with an overturned plastic cup, squares of colored paper, a paper plate and construction paper “sticks.” I used an LED light inside the cup, but this is not a requirement to make it fun! You can even make a marshmallow roasting stick prop using an actual stick, popsicle stick or wooden dowel and gluing a cotton ball marshmallow to one end.
You can also gather twigs outdoors and glue them onto a paper plate or piece of paper and add some crumpled tissue paper or construction paper flames. If you’d like a moveable miniature bonfire rather than a permanent craft, you can use the same materials but leave out the glue! This can be a great addition to a dollhouse or block building for little toys and figurines to celebrate together.
Marshmallows are fun for eating if you have them. They are also fun for painting with. You can use vanilla pudding or yogurt colored red, yellow and/or orange with food coloring to make edible paint. You can also do this with real paint (but make sure your littlest ones won’t eat it!) or substitute in a cotton ball for the “marshmallow.”
This year is different but we can still make Lag B’Omer feel special! It just may be the perfect recipe for a meaningful and memorable experience.
Sefer Devarim
Parashat Shoftim
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Parshat Shoftim
This week’s parsha warns us about trusting HaShem when we go to battle. “When you go out to the battle against your enemy, and you see horse and chariot – a people more numerous than you – you shall not fear them, for HaShem, your Gd is with you, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” (20:1) Interestingly, the word for horse is singular. HaShem is describing a situation where the Jews are outnumbered - the situation looks precarious and intimidating. Why would the posuk then use the word ‘sus’ (horse) in the singular instead of ‘susim’ (horses) when it is describing a situation where there would be hundreds, if not thousands of horses?
Lesson:
Rashi comments on this posuk which reveals a beautiful perspective. He comments that the posuk keeps the word for horse singular because HaShem is telling us that even though there may be hundreds or thousands of horses chasing after you, to HaShem, they are all considered like one horse. To HaShem no problem is too big; saving you from a million horses is the same to Him as saving you from one horse. HaShem can do anything. Easily.
This is idea is also reflected later in the posuk for the words ‘a people more numerous than you’. Rashi comments that in the Jews’ eyes those people seem numerous, but to Hashem, they are not numerous. There is a saying “do not tell HaShem how big your problems are, but rather tell your problems how big HaShem is”. HaShem can solve any problem, big or small. Not only can He, but HaShem wants to! This is reflected in how HaShem relates to us in the end of the posuk – HaShem reminds us that it was He who took us out of the land of Egypt. What does Egypt have to do with the current posuk? In Parshat Shlach, HaShem tells us why he took us out of Egypt, “leheyot lechem lelokim” ‘to be a Gd to us’. When a child, Gd forbid, is in a painful situation, nothing gives the parent more pleasure than to whisk that child away from that situation as quickly as they can. By the parent removing that child from the pain and saving them from further duress, a special bond is created, and the child takes solace, feels love, and places trust in the parent. HaShem is our Father – He put us in Egypt so He could take us out. Why? So the Jewish people, nationally and individually, could know and feel that HaShem whisked us away and that we can take solace, feel love, and place trust in Him. To HaShem, giving someone twenty dollars is the same as twenty million dollars. One might have to create the vessel for HaShem to bless them, but to Hashem no bracha (blessing) is too big to give and no problem is too big to solve. Just like HaShem saved us in Egypt, Hashem will save us now – because He loves us and wants to ‘be a HaShem to you’.
Exercise: Dream big! Think of all the brachot you want in your life and ask HaShem for it. Know that as big as it seems, to HaShem no bracha is too big and He can give you that and more! Please Gd you should see it soon!