H ave you ever built your own bonfire? For cheder boys in Eretz Yisrael bonfires and Lag B’omer go hand-in-hand. For weeks before the big day they’re busy combing the neighborhood for any scrap of wood they can possibly find and come Lag B’omer they’re out there building the biggest best bonfire you’ve ever seen. Come along and join the fun! 

Haman Potatoes and All

Name: Yosef G.

Age: Almost 13

Neighborhood: Neve Yaakov Yerushalayim

Years in the bonfire business: 6

Number of kids in group: 8-10

We start collecting wood for our fire… the day after Pesach. We only have half a day of school on Isru Chag so that’s when we start collecting.

We go down to the forest around our neighborhood after school and gather fallen branches and sticks. We also look for old wooden beams broken furniture cardboard and paper. We put it all in a secret hiding place so no one takes it by mistake. Then around two or three days before Lag B’omer we start setting up the fire on an empty hill in an area without any trees or buildings nearby.

When we’re ready to build it we… first put up a middle beam which is called the klotz. It’s the strongest and longest beam we have. We make a small hole in the ground stick the klotz into it fill up the hole and make a small pile of rocks around it to hold it in place. Then we start putting the other beams on the sides so the klotz will stay up. We add whatever broken furniture we have and then the cardboard and the paper so it’ll catch fire easily.

Then we put a Haman doll at the top — we take an old shirt and pants stuff them with dry leaves and straw and pin them together. We add socks and a head made out of a shmatteh with a face drawn on it. If we have an old hat we add that too. We connect it with safety pins and stick it up on a beam.

When we’re ready to light… we’re a group of five families so one of the fathers of the group comes to light it right after the first Maariv.