SCOTT FRIEDMAN

Middlesex County to celebrate Lag BaOmer with cookout

Chabad Jewish of South Brunswick will host a grand Jewish
community BBQ, complete with a grand raffle, archery, marshmallow roasting, moonwalk, games and activities and a fire juggling show.

The BBQ will be held on the Chabad Jewish Center grounds, 1 Riva
Ave. North Brunswick, at 6 p.m. April 29.

Lag BaOmer, this year April 29 and 30, is a festive day on the
Jewish calendar, celebrated with outings, bonfires and other joyous
events. Many visit the resting place of the great sage and mystic
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel, whose Yahrzeit (anniversary
of his passing) the day marks. On the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon
instructed his disciples to mark the date as “the day of my joy.”

Lag BaOmer also commemorates the cessation of a plague that occurred
in the weeks between Passover and Shavuot among the disciples of the
great Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva “because they did not act respectfully
toward each other.” The dying ceased on Lag BaOmer, which thus carries
the theme of Ahavat Yisrael, to love and respect one’s fellow.

Chabad invites the public to attend.

For more information, call Rabbi Levi Azimov at 732-398-9492 or visit
www.chabadsouthbrunswick.com.