[Avodah] Meron live

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 05/07/2015 10:01 AM, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
>
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> The Sefardim hold one is not allowed to take a haircut the entire 33rd day, and they wait until the 34th day to take a haircut.  Does this not imply that the entire 33rd day is part of Sefirah and the restrictions hold the entire 33rd day?
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> Ashkenazim hold "micktzas ha Yom K'kulo," when it comes to the last day of aveilus for someone sitting shiva.  However,  the micktzas starts in the morning of the 7th day,  not on the night of the 7th day.  Thus, even according to Ashkenazim the night of Lag B'Omer is bound by the restrictions of Sefirah. So how can they make such gatherings on the night of the 33rd day?


That all applies if you regard Lag Ba'omer as simply marking the end of
mourning.  But as we discussed a few weeks ago, that doesn't really make
sense.  According to both shitos quoted by the BY there is no such thing
as Lag Ba'omer -- the last day on which they died was either the 34th of
the Omer or the 49th.  Even according to the Tosfos as the Bach quotes it,
that they only died for 33 days, Lag Ba'omer was one of the 33, and not
the last one!   And even if one will find a shita somewhere that they died
only on the first 33 days, who makes a party on the last day of shiva?
You stop active mourning, you don't go dancing!

All of which points to the fact that Lag Ba'omer is *not* about the end
of mourning, but a happy day in its own right, the simcha of Rashbi.
(The silly discussion over whether the word is "simchas" or "shemeis" is
irrelevant here.  Either way it's his simcha, which he asked people to
celebrate.)  This simcha *overrides* the mourning of sefira, no matter
which shita one follows.

This way of looking at things also explains whether one should say tachanun
at mincha of erev Lag Ba'omer.  If it's just "the end of shiva", that starts
in the morning, so one should say tachanun at the previous mincha, just as
one does on erev Pesach Sheni (which also starts in the morning), erev
Erev RH and erev Erev YK, and if we said tachanun in Nissan we would also
say it at mincha of erev Erev Pesach, because it too starts in the morning.
But once we regard Lag Ba'omer as a day of simcha in its own right, then it
starts at night, and so we omit tachanun in the previous mincha.

-- 
Zev Sero               I have a right to stand on my own defence, if you
zev at sero.name          intend to commit felony...if a robber meets me in
                        the street and commands me to surrender my purse,
                        I have a right to kill him without asking questions
                                               -- John Adams