Glossary
- Lag B'Omer
- According to tradition, the plague which killed many of Rabbi Akiba's students lifted on the 33rd day of the Omer. Thus, while the Omer is observed as a period of mourning, mourning is lifted on Lag B'Omer. It is a popular day to get married (the only one during the Omer, according to Ashkenazic practice: from that day forward, according to Sephardic and Reform practice). The holiday is traditionally celebrated with bonfires, and three-year-old boys receive their first haircut. Today, some three-year-old girls will also have their hair cut amidst celebration on Lag B'Omer.
- Leah
- The eldest of Lavan's daughters whom Lavan tricks Jacob into marrying instead of Rachel, the younger daughter, whom Jacob loves. Leah is fruitful and bears 6 of the 12 tribes as well as one daughter, Dinah, but the Bible records her unremitting grief at not being favored by Jacob.
- Lilith
- In the midrash, Lilith is imagined as Adam's first wife. Because she wanted equality, she wss ultimately banished, and God provided Adam with a more obedient wife. Lilith, according to tradition, lives on as a kind of demon, causing men to have wet-dreams and stealing infant boys from their cribs. Today, Lilith has been reclaimed by Jewish feminists as a symbol of women's equality.
- Lulav
- Palm frond. Also signifies 3 of the 4 species that are bound and waved together – the palm, the myrtle, and the willow, together with the etrog – on Sukkot. The lulav is said to symbolize the spine, while the myrtle's leaves symbolize eyes, the willow's leaves are lips, and the etrog is the heart.