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What Is Lag Ba’omer?
Lag Ba’Omer is the shorthand way of saying the thirty-third day of the omer. It falls on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, as counted from the second day of Passover until the holiday of Shavuot. This corresponds to the 18th day of the month of Iyar (2007: Sunday 6th May).
“Lag” is not really a word. In ancient Hebrew, letters were used for numerals (and are still used in gematria), and the number 33 was therefore written with the letters “lamed”, ל, (L, value 30) and “gimel”, ג, (G, value 3), making up “Lag” (33) לג.
Sephardim have the minhag (custom) of calling this holiday Lag La’Omer, which has been claimed to be more accurate according to the rules of Hebrew grammar. Lag La’Omer means the thirty-third day “of the Omer”, as opposed to Ba’Omer – “in the Omer.”
This has been disputed with the argument that in Hebrew, the prefix used when counting is “B’” or “Ba”, as in Tu B’Av, Tisha B’av, etc. The “Ba” prefix in Hebrew can mean “relating to”, as opposed to “la”, which denotes “belonging to”
