The teacher who revealed the secrets
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi) was one of the greatest sages of the Mishnaic era, a student of Rabbi Akiva, who lived in the 2nd century. Tradition attributes to him the book of the Zohar — the central work of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah.
His teaching is of the hidden light of the Torah, of the secret meaning behind the outward. Lag BaOmer is associated with the day of his passing; he himself, by tradition, called this day “the day of my joy.”
Thirteen years in the cave
Tradition relates that for sharp words about Roman rule Rashbi was condemned, and together with his son Elazar he hid in a cave. There, the Talmud tells, they spent thirteen years, sustained by the fruit of a carob tree and the water of a spring.
All that time they studied Torah. From the depth of the cave, from deprivation and concentration, was born, by tradition, that teaching of the hidden light which the world received later.
Hillula
The day of Rashbi’s passing became not a day of grief but a hillula — a celebration, the wedding of the soul with eternity.
What happens on the mountain
Mount Meron in the Galilee, where by tradition Rashbi is buried, becomes on this night the site of an immense pilgrimage.
Hillula
The celebration of Rashbi’s day of remembrance — with prayer, study, and joy at his tomb.
The great bonfire
On Meron the main bonfire of the festival is lit; from it the fire spreads across the whole country.
Songs and dancing
All night long niggunim sound on the mountain, and people dance by the fire until dawn.
First haircut
Three-year-old boys have their hair cut for the first time on this day (halaka); many come to Meron for it.
A sea of fires on the slope
Today, on the night of Lag BaOmer, hundreds of thousands ascend Meron. The mountainside is covered with bonfires and candles, and from afar it looks like a sea of fires under a starry sky.
For many it is a night of hope and prayer; the pilgrimage to Rashbi has become one of the most crowded traditions of the Jewish year.