שלושים ושלוש לעומר

Well, I attended the ל"ג בעומר bonfire at Shor Yoshuv, as I've done for the past few years since I stopped attending the yeshiva. I considered not attending at all this year, but if it has to be once a year or not at all, I prefer the former.

I found myself, as usual, getting somewhat passionate about the bonfire/singing/dancing mood, although I'm mostly critical of the bonfire ritual. I mean, I don't like when it becomes "a vague minhag on top of a vague minhag on top of a vague minhag", until no one can tell where it all originated from (the bonfire is obviously strictly Pagan, but I mean the whole ceremony in general as well). That's the stuff that turns Judaism into empty tradition, or even worse, superstition.

I was sort of inspired by the fire though (as I usually am by fire); not in connection with the whole Bar Yochai aspect, but from the simple chemical reactions involved. What fire does to an object (which itself is kind of a misnomer, since the fire itself is the effect) is turn most of it from a solid to vapor. Or in religious terms, from the obtuse (physical) to the abstract (spiritual). It is the heat of the flames which serves to purify the earthiness of the object, and only heat can disintegrate an object. The analogy is obvious (well, maybe not that obvious), the only thing that can separate us from our earthy nature is discomfort (spirituality) and the only thing that can free our souls from our bodies (so to speak) is the ultimate discomfort; death. ...well, that's what I got from it.. ..call me morbid!

On a more social note though, it seems my blog has gained me a bit of recognition in the real world; a friend of mine told me by the bonfire that he had seen comments of mine on a blog called "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (G6) who seems to be some sort of relative of his. Neat.