I hope people find the blog now that it’s hidden from the URL. I’ve tried to make it pretty obvious.
Lag B’Omer is today. Last night I set up shop with some friends and a mangal (small bbq grill) out in one of the public parks; we dropped the ball on massive accumulation of wood, so hanging out with some coals, some veggie burgers, potatoes (wrapped and thrown in the coals) and s’mores seemed like the next best option. The fun was much less about building our own puny fire than gawking at the blazes constructed around us, anyway. It’s amazing how much wood some of these 5 and 6 year old kids were schlepping to their infernos; I guess one gets stronger and more motivated to work when one has a good cause, and for a kid that age, there is no better cause in the world than getting to build and play with a gigantic fire. And then, of course, there was the one kid (maybe aged 7 or so) eagerly schlepping two IKEA wooden chairs towards one of the big bonfires. One suspects that his parents are going to be a bit dismayed when they realize what happened.
I’ve had “Aish, aish, midurah, tachtonim shel bachura!”* stuck in my head for about three days straight. It’s pretty annoying, actually.
*Fire, fire, campfire, underpants of a girl! No, it doesn’t mean anything, but building a midurah is key to this holiday. And bachura/girl rhymes with that, so of course, you know…lingerie. It’s even stupider when I try to explain it.