During the season of the Counting of the Omer the 33rd day of the Count stands out. It is called Lag B'Omer after the hebrew letters that comprise it's name. It falls on the 18th day of the month of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar.
Though not an official holiday, Lag B'Omer, has been celebrated by Jews for centuries. It is said that the plague that was consuming the students of Rabbi Akiva ended on this day. Thus the day is one of celebration in what is otherwise a period of mourning. Weddings are often planned for this day.
In the Land of Israel great bonfires are lit. The most amazing celebration happens in the north, in Meron at the kever of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who was a student of the great Rabbi Akiva.The bonfires are lit as a rememberance of his soul. Fire can clear away and then renew. The bush can burn unconsumed. This is an aspect of the nature of fire which HaShem wants us to accept if not understand.
Hod is the name of the Sephirah and the middah (quality) associated with this day. It is embodied in the personage of Aaron, Moshe's brother. Fire's terrifying capacity for destruction, it's ability to consume, Aaron experiences when HaShem takes his son's in fire for bringing an offering to the Temple that He did not desire. Aaron's acknowledging and recognizing with humility and devotion the grandeur, splendor and radiance of Gd, in this moment of great personal tragedy, is precisely his gift and his strength, the very essence of Hod.
Sources
"Seasons of Our Joy" by Arthur I Waskow
"A Still Small Voice, correspondence teaching in Jewish Wisdom" by Susan Schneider
"The Burning Bush" from 'The Box of Parshiot (Shemot)' by Chana Elsa Katana
