Why JCHS Students are Growing their Beards Out
“Oh, are you growing your beard out for that Omer challenge thingy?” I heard one upperclassman ask another in the hallway. “Yes,” the second student responded sarcastically, “I’m growing out one more hair each day.” Restraining from cutting one’s hair is one of many customs practiced during the 7-week period between Passover and Shavuot, called the Omer. The Omer is full of rich and interesting meaning in Jewish tradition. Here at JCHS, we have imbued these weeks with our own personal meaning.
Throughout Jewish history, the 50 days between Passover and Shavuot called the Omer, have had different meanings. The Hebrew word Omer literally means “sheaf,” or a bundle of grain that each person brought between Passover and Shavuot to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. In general, this is a time of introspection and growth in anticipation of Shavuot, the holiday where the Israelites received the Torah on Mount Sinai. Many Jews count the Omer out loud every night, numbering both the days and the weeks.
The first 33 days of the Omer, between Passover and Lag BaOmer, have an additional layer of meaning, as this is often a period of grief and mourning in Jewish tradition. During this period, a plague took the lives of 24,000 students of the Mishnah-era scholar, Rabbi Akiva. According to tradition, these deaths stopped after 33 days, on Lag BaOmer. In accordance with Jewish mourning laws, many Jews do not cut their hair and listen to instrumental music, among other restrictions, between Passover and Lag BaOmer.
The JCHS community observes the period of the Omer through different ways. For the first 33 days, we only played a capella music over the loudspeakers (and you may have noticed a literal growth in the amount of facial hair among both students and faculty). On Lag BaOmer we returned to instrumental tunes, and we also marked this holiday by forming a circle in the courtyard to sing and support the seniors as they burned rejection letters. One other way JCHS celebrated the Omer period was through the Omer challenge, instituted by our very own newly ordained Rabbi, Mr Wolgel. He describes this challenge as “an opportunity to measure personal growth during the time between Pesach and Shavuot” and by instituting the omer challenge, he’s “aiming to provide more opportunities to connect to this time period.” In this challenge, one focuses on one positive activity or action and tries to add to this experience every day, for 49 days. ”If the average person were to try and do 50 pushups right now, it'd be difficult,” he says. “But if they started with 1 and added one more each day, they'd be able to do 50 pretty quickly.” JCHS community members have committed to this challenge in fields including exercise, meditation, and creative writing.
At JCHS we have honored the traditional practices of the Omer period, while also making it our own. We have done this through changes in the morning bells, communal Lag BaOmer rituals, and personal commitments of growth and introspection that mirror the journey of the Israelites in preparation of receiving the Torah.
