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 Vayikra
Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
HaShem tells B’nei Israel, “If you follow in my statutes and observe My commandments and perform them, I will give you rain at their proper time…” (26:3-4). Interestingly the shoresh, or root word used for ‘statutes’ is chok, which also means to engrave. What can we glean from these two seemingly disparate ideas: engrave and statues?
Lesson:
The word for statutes, or chok, refers to a Mitzvah that has no logical explanation. While every Mitzvah has an element of a chok, as there are reasons for performing them well beyond our understanding, some are easier to rationalize than others. It is human nature to want to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it – it gives us a sense of control over our lives and surroundings; HaShem programmed us this way. There was once a participant of a Shabbat learner’s service who exclaimed in the middle of the Rabbi’s explanation on something, “This doesn’t make any sense!” To which the Rabbi calmly and lovely responded, “Just because you don’t understand it, does not mean it doesn’t make sense.” This is human nature – it is too difficult to accept things are beyond our grasp and comprehension and as such deflect our inability to understand on the subject matter. Therefore, when we perform a Chok, a Mitzvah whose reason is well beyond the grasp of human comprehension, we are putting aside our own intellect and ego. We are chiseling out part of ourselves that demands to understand and be in control of everything, and instead recognize that we are ultimately performing the Mitzvot because HaShem told us to. The same way a piece of stone gets hollowed out to create the space that will become the letter, we are creating a space for HaShem when we hollow out, or move aside our ego and intellect to perform a Chok. In doing so, a new space is created, a vacuum, and we create a new kli, vessel, for HaShem’s overabundant brachot to flow in. Not incidentally, HaShem’s Schena dwells in shalom. Why shalom? If two people are in a dispute, in order to have shalom, one needs to put his own understanding of the situation, his own views and feelings aside and in doing so, creates a space for HaShem, His Schena, and His brachot.
Exercise:
When you find yourself upset by someone, ask yourself if your ego is getting involved. If so, visualize your ego moving aside and creating a space for HaShem’s brachot and shalom to flow.