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Rabbi Seth Mandel has sent me an email regarding these topics and given
me permission to disseminate what he wrote. <br><br>
He began by referring me to a post of his dated 5/21/2003 on Avodah. It
is available at <br><br>
<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol11/v11n014.shtml#17b>http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol11/v11n014.shtml#17b" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol11/v11n014.shtml#17b>http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol11/v11n014.shtml#17b</a>
<br><br>
In this post Rabbi Mandel begins by discussing the origin of the term
bonfire. It comes from the terminology bone fire. Such fires using bones
were made by Christians and this is where the term bonfire comes
from. <br><br>
He then goes on to discuss the origin of cutting a child's hair, and its
relationship to bonfires. He writes in part:<br><br>
<pre>Can the custom of bonfires on Lag Ba'omer have arisen among the
Jews
separately and independently from the non-Jewish sources? Theoretically
it's possible. Books like Minhag Yisroel Toyre he brings all sorts
of reasons from various chasidic rebbes and from the book Ta'amei
haMinhogim for the origin of the bonfires on Lag Ba'omer. The problem
with all the explanations is that a) they are all of recent origin, and
b) they somehow ignore the fact that the custom was completely unknown
to any Jews up until the time when it is recorded in EY in the 16th
century. Furthermore, it was the custom there of only one group of Jews,
the Musta'ribim, about whom other Jews complained that they had adopted
a lot of Arab customs (the very name mean "Arabicized).
From contemporary documents we learn the Muslims (and a few Jews)
cut the
hair of children as well as lit a bonfires on the yohrtzeit (28 of
Iyyar)
of non other than the aforementioned Shmu'el haNavi. However, in the
1560s the Arab authorities forbade Jews to go there. Shortly afterwards,
we have the testimony of R. Chaim Vital that he was told by R. Yonatan
Sagiz that a year before he started learning by the Ari, in the Ari's
first year after he immigrated from his homeland of Egypt (also 1570),
that "Mori v'Rabbi Z'L took his small son and all of his family
there
[to the celebration on RaShBY 's yohrtzeit in Meron] and there he cut
his hair in accordance with the custom." R. Chaim Vital is careful
to
note, however, that "I do not know whether at that time he was
expert
and knowledgeable in this wondrous wisdom [Qabbolo] as he became after
that." IOW, R. Chaim Vital himself is cautioning the reader that he
has
doubts about whether the Ari did this in accordance with his views in
Qabbolo, or just because it was a popular celebration, and he might not
have participated had he already been an expert in Qabbolo.
Some historians believe that once the Musta'ribim were forbidden to go
to the qever of Sh'muel haNavi, they transferred their celebration to
Meron and the date to Lag Ba'Omer. Others claim that the custom at Meron
predated 1570. But both groups agree that both of these customs, cutting
the hair of the children and making bonfires, were practiced by the
Arabs
and the Musta 'ribim, but not by any of the Ashk'nazi and S'faradi Jews
in Israel. Of great interest is that the local rabbis in Tz'fat, who had
the practice of going to the all the known q'vorim of the Tano'im from
the middle of Iyyar until Shavu'os and having a seder in learning there,
opposed the celebrations of the Musta'ribim on Lag ba'Omer and tried
to forbid it. They made little headway, and once it became known that
the Ari participated one year, any opposition was swept away. We know
from travelers to EY in the 18th and 19th centuries that the
"hilula"
at Meron on Lag Ba'Omer with bonfires and the cutting of children's
hair had become an affair of the masses. A well known talmid chochom
from Europe, R. Avrohom Rozanes, writes that in his visit to EY in 1867
he saw an Ashk'nazi Jew who had taken his son to the "hilula"
and was
giving him a haircut. R. Rozanes says that he could not restrain
himself,
and went to that Jew and tried to dissuade him but was unsuccessful, and
that most of the Ashk'nazi and S'faradi Jews of EY participate in this
"craziness," with "drinking and dancing and fires."
</pre>Please see all that Rabbi Mandel wrote at
<a href="http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol11/v11n014.shtml#17" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol11/v11n014.shtml#17</a><br><br>
In a message to me today, Rabbi Mandel added:<br><br>
As you can see, both the bonfire and "opsheren" are probably
borrowings from other religions, which should be problematic due to
"uvhukkotehem al telekhu." The fact that these customs
were not known to the BeShT or R. Berel Mezricher or to anyone in Europe
has not stopped the chasidim from making a bid deal out of it. The source
for the date of LaG Ba'Omer as the yohrtzeit of RaShBY is the
Zohar. The identification of his grave in Meron is attributed to
the Ari. However, there are other holy graves in Meron that predate
the Ari and, as I state in the article, the celebration was moved to
Meron only after Jews were prohibited from going to anNabi Samwil.
And the importance of these customs being known only among the
Musta'rabim (Jews who adopted Arab customs) cannot be overemphasized; the
S'faradim themselves did not know them, let alone the m'qubbalim, who
would have been expected to be most scrupulous about customs relating to
the Ari. For a linguist, the importance of the ceremony being
called "halaqe" (Arabic for "shaving, haircut") also
cannot be overemphasized. As most people are aware, Jews have
always used Hebrew words for old Jewish minhogim, even if there was a
suitable term in the spoken language (e.g. Shabbos rather than Sabbath,
or bris rather than circumcision), because the Hebrew term carried with
it the connotations of the Jewish dinim and minhogim associated with
it. Arabic (and Germanic/Yiddish) were only used for customs that
did not have a Jewish background (e.g. shtreimel or yarmulke or
farbrengen). What I did not put in the article, because it was too long
already, is that there is historical evidence that in the years after the
Ari, this celebration became a bone of contention. The m'qubbalim
used to gather at the grave of RaShBY (as identified by the Ari) on his
yohrtzeit, fasting and saying over things from the Zohar (in accordance
with the authentic Jewish custom, mentioned in the G'moro, of giving
honor to someone niftar by saying things in his name). They used to
quarrel with the Jews coming to do the Arab celebration, trying to stop
it. But, as I have said many times: Jews (or Gentiles), given the choice
between two practices, one involving fasting and studying, and the other
involving music, singing, dancing, and other frivolities, will inevitably
chose one. And I scarcely need to tell you which one.
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