Overdoing is Idol Worship. I prefer soccer but not bonfires. Lag Ba'omer is a time we over do it. Crazy ! next year dont do that idiots ! By the way the rabbis cant play soccer . High time a team of rabbis league of soccer is formed. The Police must have team too. Btw way, you know the Police did try to beat us up, but behind the scean they shook hand an let us off. We continued the havoc. Shouting an d shouting like hooligans. Fun ! United Kingdom is the Place for soccer babe, United Kingdom be it Man U :) These Rabbi boy s only read the torah and torah. It is high time they play soccer :) In fact Pals and Israel should play soccer :) Dont let the Polititians into the stadium. Strictly soccer players and supporters only. Atilla and I will have a couple of cold bir and go Yeh Yeh while the game is on :)))) We can get the Police to join us- enjoy the game relax and join the O YeH O Yeh ! The whole stadium vibrate with the good spirit of Sport only.No race, No religion, No Politics and No Polititians too :) No need for all the bonfire Nonsense, hazard to health and the enviroment.

There he can complain about burning cars.

The whole country was a stinking haze. Pollution does not seem to bother the religious, look how many 1.5 litre bottles are left lying around. (Shas got the 1.5 litre bottle excluded from legislation of 0.25 Shekel deposit - because they use them)

And you can support several Israeli mothers who have home business sewing and selling them. :-) But also I saw notices posted about ba'al tashkhis and taking things to burn and watching out for environmental concerns. Also received e-mail postings from rabbis on the subject. And for the record, most of the bonfires in the immediate area of the one I participated in were *not* by religious people. So maybe there's some knee-jerk anti-religious issues on R' Kalman's part going on here ... And I agree with him about the ecological issues, but he should consider making an issue of it every day, not just with regard to Lag ba'Omer. This country is a mess environmentally, and that needs to be addressed.

quote"Pollution does not seem to bother the religious" now you tell me that not throwing away bottles or even lighting bonfires has anything to do with being religious.... you are a sad hater man lighting bonfires in lag b'omer is more "practised" by non religious than religious from my experience. Seculars build their own medura in small groups and almost everyone does- albeit for barbeque purposes lets say. Having lived in a hareidi neighborhood for some time, I've seen hareidim gather around one medura by the hundreds. Nylon bags from the super market contamine a thousand fold more than lag b'omer. Not to mention the cars that you seculars drive, while hereidim are mostly limited to public transportation the list goes on

That you one and all for the tons of Trash you left behind next door to my house and the playground where the toddlers play. Thanks for the rotting meat and potatoes that are decomposing as we speak. Thank you for the loud fire crackers that sent my little ones crying they thought the war was back. Thankyou for your selfishness and wanton disregard of your fellow residents who have to look at the trash you left behind after your fires! It would have only taken a few minutes for you to clean up after yourselves! GIVE A HOOT DON't POLLUTE!

That you one and all for the tons of Trash you left behind next door to my house and the playground where the toddlers play. Thanks for the rotting meat and potatoes that are decomposing as we speak. Thank you for the loud fire crackers that sent my little ones crying they thought the war was back. Thankyou for your selfishness and wanton disregard of your fellow residents who have to look at the trash you left behind after your fires! It would have only taken a few minutes for you to clean up after yourselves! GIVE A HOOT DON't POLLUTE!

what is the connection between burning down the country and Judaism? its about a weak a connection as the connection between Pesach and giving out gift certificates to the mall. once a year, the whole country goes Lord of the Flies and society looks the other way.

great!! i was just thinking the same. Do them but small ...theres allready so much pollution in this beautiful country. Moderation!! just the ritual not burning down the whole neighborhood!!

I see you are upset. Lag b'omer is a day where all jews unite and participate in an activity. I am sure you can deal with one night of fire crackers. As for the mess that was left behind, perhaps you should be more proactive and organize a clean up day with all of your community. If people come out and clean up, perhaps next year they will start picking up a little more garbage, and the year after a bit more.

The Torah says not to drive cars on Shabbat (Don't light fires throughout your camp, it says explicitly. No rabbinic interpretation here), but the motivating factor for the "rabbi" is concern for the environment. That's a legitimate concern, but how bout getting your priorities straight, Mr Keleman?

Can't see why anyone needs to burn plastic. If all the bonfires were only wood at least it would be tolerable. Every 5 people need a bonfire too. Still Lag B'Omer is a time where both secular and religious light fires which coupled with all the BBQ fires on Independence Day is definitely not friendly to the environment.

goes on in Isreal amongst the Jews is to my mind petty and imaterial. The bigger picture is that we Jews are useless as far as organization is concerned. We all want to be the chief. Having said that I'd rather put up with the goy. With him I know where I stand. Jews in golus are good for Kiddush, Bar Mitzvahs and funerals. It keeps the Rabbis in business. Besides that they are pretty useless as well. They are not organised besides schnorring from one another.

Driving a car is not lighting a fire. The prohibition against lighting a fire was written because there were no matches, and lighting a fire clearly involved work. Driving a car does not involve work, walkking is more work , and turning on the ignition is not, strictly speaking, lighting a fire in the context of that prohibition.

Reform Rabbis have no connection to traditional Judaism reject all holiness of traditional Judaism so basis all their thought on the politically correct nonense.

So now fires destroy our envirement ? thats the most stupid conclusion, what do you think they did 1000 years ago?

How about a "car-free" Shabbat EVERY WEEK you ranting doofus?

In the US the Non-Orthodox Rabbis want to establish and new form of Kashrut, nothing to do with Halacha but they concern themselves with the working conditions of the plant workers, ridiculous, something new.

As some posters have hinted at, the traditional ("orthodox") Jewish lifestyle is environmentally friendly, and the more "strictly orthodox" ven more so. The carbon footprint of the average "hareidi" must be quite small. No driving on shabbat, no cooking on shabbat, no switching on and off lights on shabbat, no laundry or drying on shabbat (that's a biggie), no dish washing on shabbat manually or with machine, no tv on shabbat. Then during the week - how many hareidm have tvs, cars, computer games, adavnced sound systems, etc. If there is a car it is most likely one per houshold. And most places that the family needs to go to on a regular basis is wihtin walking distance - schools, "shuls", grocery, etc. - so the single car doesn't get used as much. So giving all these carbon "saved" by the hareidim, there is perhaps a little to spare on lag b'omer.

Just thinking that perhaps a good way to "offset" one's carbon emiisions is to donate to hareidi charities, thus promoting the hareid way of life which in turn reduces carbon emmisions. Of course you can diversify and also donate to tree planting programs and the development of green technology and power in the developing world.

For these "rabbis" this subject is nothing more than a chance to be heard, to drool about an answer from serious rabbis and to tell the public "here we are". They just compete for attention and beg for being taken seriouly. Or do you reallly believe they care about air polution (while driving cars every shabbat)...?