Thursday, May 22, 2025

Lag Ba’omer Memories

 

Musings

 

Do you remember years ago?

When Lag Ba’omer came

The only thing that’s similar

We hoped it would not rain

 

But otherwise in ‘64

Things were different then

At least for me, as a young kid

In times of “way back when”

 

We thought that Lag Ba’omer

Was like any other day

A bit of music and a trip

In old time USA

 

I know we said no Tachanun

But that’s about it all

I think we ran around the park

And played a little ball

 

They handed us some arrows

With flimsy crafted bows

Exactly what it meant back then

I think that no one knows

 

We always took a school bus

On a hot and bumpy ride

Our rebbi did not hit home runs

For the “bums from the East Side”

 

‘Cause I lived in Long Island

In 1964

There were no boys yeshivos there

Against whom we could score!

 

But we never gathered wood

Compete who’d make it higher

My parents surely would not like

If we would play with fire

 

I do not remember much

I am not sure just why

We did not sing the holy song

Rav Shimon Bar Yochai

 

We hardly heard of Zohar

Kabbolah was not “a thing”

And so the music teacher

Had other songs to sing

 

We sang about good middos

And “Amar Rabi Akiva

V’ahavta lerei’acha

What we sang in yeshiva

 

Those born in the ‘50s

Will sing along with me

The second half that quotes the verse

Of sheloch and sheli

 

The world is very different

You youngsters do not chap

The only crowds we had back then

Were in the barber shop!

 

But Klal Yisroel’s grown so large

The simcha’s now on fire

And zemiros! Rebbes! Hadlakos!

Thousands do inspire!

 

And now my smile widens

When fires burn so bright

And thousands of talmidim

Dance into the night

 

A new world in America

Not 1964

The only hope I can express

That it grows more and more

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