Lag B’Omer or Lag BaOmer means the 33rd of the Omer^[1.1], referring to the counting of the days after the offerings of “sheafs” or “omers” of first-grown grain during Pesach/Passover  (The Offering of First Fruits). Seven complete sabbaths (seven weeks) or 49 days are counted from that offering, and the 50th day is the celebration, the Festival of Shavuot, known as Pentecost by the church (Leviticus/Vayikra 23:15; see Shavuot or Feast of Weeks or First Fruits for more about this holiday).

Lag B’Omer refers to the 33rd day in the wait for Shavuot. There’s no mention of singling out this day in the Bible, but during the first and second centuries, some significant and tragic events happened on this day for Judaism. So in the centuries afterwards, Judaism has a type of mourning period from the day of offering up to Shavuot and has come to commemorate the 33rd day or Lag B’Omer with more significance.

Because I know the number 33 has significant meaning for HaMashiach (The Messiah) and because the historical events related to Lag B’Omer are related to failures of Judaism as well as failures of observing Torah (the laws given through Moshe/Moses), I can see God hid a very significant miracle but also a hidden message in Lag B’Omer that directly correlates to HaMashiach. That miracle goes with the end of a major plague that killed 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva in the 1st Century, sometime after the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD^[1.2].

Jewish texts state that all the disciples of Akiva died at the same time because they did not treat each other with respect or “kavod” in Hebrew^{[1.2, 1.3]}. It is presumed the lack of kavod came from severely disrespectful and shameful arguing about what was proper interpretation and teaching of Torah and the scriptures. This was certainly exacerbated by the ancient Jewish tradition of coming together to debate the scriptures and all things spiritual, which is still common today in Judaism.

God’s plague curse upon the students of Akiva was for violations of commandments to love and respect one another and not to cause harm, and so Judaism commonly assumes there was nothing wrong with constant debate about spiritual teachings and the subsequent churning out of myriad interpretations of Torah and the Tanach (Bible) that they were arguing about. However, in my walk with God, He has reinforced that only the interpretations God intended for His words and guidance, like the Torah, are the ones that matter, while everything else is akin to corruption, and in fact, the foundations of false teachings are built with bad, misconstrued, and falsely twisted interpretations of scripture and the truth.

Wasn’t it Yosef/Joseph that said, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Genesis/Bereishit 40:8). But then, you respond, “Yosef was simply a man like any other chosen to speak for God. Who’s to say the sage rabbis of the ages could not do just as good as Yosef? And in fact, one of the rabbis honored on Lag B’Omer is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai from the 2nd Century, whose anniversary of death is remembered on Lag B’Omer, and who was even a disciple of Rabbi Akiva that helped to revive Torah.”

Surely, both Rabbi Yochai and Rabbi Akiva are exalted by Judaism, so much so that it is said, Rabbi Akiva was a key link in the oral tradition stretching back all the way to Moshe/Moses and that if there is any anonymous statement in sacred Jewish texts, it must have been one of Rabbi Akiva’s students recounting teaching from their master Akiva^[1.2]. Truly they are honored, but were they truly anointed to speak for God like Yosef or the prophets?

In my review of Halacha (Jewish body of text supplementing scripture), I will have to affirm that they were not anointed as Yosef, giving interpretations as if directly from God, but I will affirm there is a reason God linked them and their deaths to the 33rd Day or Lag B’Omer. It goes with the plague that killed 24,000 disciples of Akiva ending on Lag B’Omer and the number 33 linking to HaMashiach, the true Messiah. It also goes with those 24,000 being referred to as pairs of 12,000 in Jewish texts[^1.2]. The number 12 often refers to rule and government.

And moreover, Lag B’Omer often remembers a temporary, but victorious, Jewish revolt against ancient Rome that was led by Simon Bar Kochba, whom Rabbi Akiva believed was the true HaMashiach, the King Messiah, promised by God through the prophets^[1.4]. However, the Bar Kokhba Revolt lasted only a handful of years before it was destroyed by Rome along with much of Judaism in the Middle East. Obviously, Kokhba was not HaMashiach foretold by Yeshayahu/Isaiah, the child born to us, the government on his shoulders, and in whom the throne of David would be secured with justice and righteousness, henceforth and forever (Isaiah 9:6-7/Yeshayahu 9:5-6).

The Bar Kokhba Revolt was the last major Jewish revolt against Rome and brought horrendous losses to the Jewish people that it is considered one of the ancient “holocausts”^[1.4]. How could HaMashiach have come with the Bar Kokhba Revolt and such disastrous results for the people of God? A twister of truth would say the revolt established a government that even minted their own coins. That fulfills the prophecy of government on the shoulders of HaMashiach.

But then there is every other piece from the mouth of God that needs fulfilment by HaMashiach. The child born to us, a son given to us will also be called Pele Yoetz, El Gibbor, AviAd, and Sar Shalom, that is, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6/Yeshayahu 9:5). It is He, God Himself, that is embodied in HaMashiach, and surely, Simon Bar Kochba was not Him.

But there was One whom fulfilled all the prophecies of HaMashiach. He was the One who took the government on His shoulders and throne of David and established it in an everlasting kingdom. And He is One whom 33 is often linked to, because His death fulfilled the prophecy given to Daniel in the 70 Sevens or 70 Weeks that included the exact timeline that HaMashiach was cut off and have no one or nothing (Daniel 9:26). It is a timeline I confirmed myself to exactly match that number 33 in There was not enough oil but the menorah remained lit - Proof most of Daniel's Sevens fulfilled.

A clever twister of truth cannot fake what is truly of God. See for yourself if my timeline calculations or references were wrong. If your eyes see and your ears hear, then you will understand why God pointed to the true HaMashiach bringing an end to death for the disciples of Akiva on the 33rd, and why the death of another exalted Jewish sage was on the 33rd, and why the Kokhba Revolt was disastrous but remembered on the 33rd. They all point to the death of one age and the birth of a new age in which HaMashiach saves, even unto an eternal kingdom.

It even happened in the time of Rabbi Akiva and his disciples, for he saw the destruction of the Second Temple and walked when HaMashiach was among the people of God. May you not stumble as they, having all this before their eyes but choosing instead to bind themselves so inextricably to the Torah that they could not see it was simply a foundation that God built upon with something new. Praise be to our One True God.

Shema Yisrael! HaAdonai Echad, HaMashiach Echad, HaMelek Echad, HaShem Echad

I talked about the significance of 33 being linked to God's hidden message about HaMashiach (The Messiah) in the original post, and today, on the day of Lag B'Omer, I noticed God had yet another 33 pop up during the raucous celebrations at Mount Meron, where the unruly mob thought to do everything their own way, sending 33 people to the hospital^[1.1]. And despite legal bans for bonfires, they lit a few dozen for the occasion, even letting a convicted sex offender rabbi have his own lighting when the court did not approve his petition for the celebration^[1.1]. Never mind the massive wildfires around Jerusalem the previous week, the Lag B'Omer revelers appear to say. They'd rather revel and honor the death of their exalted rabbi sages with fiery passion than be peaceable or law abiding.

The bonfires of Lag B'Omer remind much of other pagan festivals that light huge fires for their revelries, and the unruliness today at Meron brought to mind the raucous celebration of the people with the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. God was sure to make them know their sin in that day, and Moses made them drink the ashes of the golden idol (Exodus/Shemot 32:19-20). But today, there was no lawful intervention because law enforcement did not want to cause conflicts with the revelers. Another case in today's subjection to letting the mob rule.

And for my part, because I knew God had another 33 come up in the hospitalized so that I would make public comment in The Times of Israel article, I was prevented from telling the people that God had linked the salvation of The Messiah to Lag B'Omer and that their exaltation of corrupted Torah (teachings/law) is idolatrous. I found The Times made some kind of account changes so that I could no longer make comments. It appears that only paid subscribers can comment now, and so once more, they have shut God's guidance from being heard [a couple weeks after I posted this update, I noticed The Times of Israel bought back public commenting to some articles but not others, like the Lag B'Omer news I refer to here].

Because they would honor and exalt the dead of those on the 33 rather than the Living God, and because they stop their eyes and ears further so as to prevent God from being heard and so their idolatries may persist, in the name of El Elyon, God Most High, let them drink the ashes of their idolatries as at the foot of Sinai, let their idolatries be known to them all, for they dance and exalt as with the golden calf, except today, they exalt in teachings and sages not from God, spiritual idolatries that have plagued the people of God from the beginning. Your idols are no longer of wood, stone, and metal, Israel, but are still as corrupt as those idols of ages past.