Thousands of people have already gathered at the gravesite of the Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, in northern Israel, for the traditional Lag BaOmer celebrations this evening and tomorrow. The celebrations began this afternoon with the traditional parade of Torah scrolls from the home of the Abu Evron family, in the Old City of Tzfat, towards Meron. Rabbis, residents of Tzfat, and visitors young and old from all over the country took part in the 170-year-old tradition.
The minor holiday of Lag BaOmer - the 33rd day of the Omer period - is marked most notably with traditional bonfires throughout the country. It marks the anniversary of the death more than 1,800 years ago of Rabbi Shimon, whose teachings comprise the text of the primary Kabbalah sourcebook, the Zohar. The bonfires - a tradition kept by Jewish children of all backgrounds in Israel - are said to represent the light of Torah disseminated by Rabbi Shimon. Lag BaOmer has also halakhic significance as a cessation in the semi-mourning observances that obtain between Passover and
Shavuot.
Large police contingents are deployed in the Meron area, and ZAKA volunteers will also be on the alert for possible attempted terrorism, as the crowd grows to the expected tens of thousands. A ZAKA spokesman explained that the ZAKA volunteers, who are all from the religious community, are better versed in the subtleties of behavior and dress of the various Jewish religious groups than the average security personnel not from that sector. The ZAKA security detail took on a special urgency when two of the three most recent Arab suicide bombers were revealed to have disguised themselves as religious Jews in order to mingle with their Jewish targets.
The minor holiday of Lag BaOmer - the 33rd day of the Omer period - is marked most notably with traditional bonfires throughout the country. It marks the anniversary of the death more than 1,800 years ago of Rabbi Shimon, whose teachings comprise the text of the primary Kabbalah sourcebook, the Zohar. The bonfires - a tradition kept by Jewish children of all backgrounds in Israel - are said to represent the light of Torah disseminated by Rabbi Shimon. Lag BaOmer has also halakhic significance as a cessation in the semi-mourning observances that obtain between Passover and
Shavuot.
Large police contingents are deployed in the Meron area, and ZAKA volunteers will also be on the alert for possible attempted terrorism, as the crowd grows to the expected tens of thousands. A ZAKA spokesman explained that the ZAKA volunteers, who are all from the religious community, are better versed in the subtleties of behavior and dress of the various Jewish religious groups than the average security personnel not from that sector. The ZAKA security detail took on a special urgency when two of the three most recent Arab suicide bombers were revealed to have disguised themselves as religious Jews in order to mingle with their Jewish targets.