According to the website of Chabad, Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty, it traditionally features bonfires and parades as well as the pilgrimage of tens of thousands of Israelis and people from around the world to Meron. It is the 33rd day of the Omer, a period starting on passover and lasting for 49 days. Because of COVID-19, this year’s event was less crowded, but even so, over 100,000 people were packed into a space with a capacity for perhaps 15,000.
The holiday falls on the 18th day of the month of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar and is recognised as a school holiday in Israel. The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel attracts as many as half a million visitors every year. Before he died, he asked that his followers celebrate the date as “the day of my joy.” The holiday is held on the anniversary of the death of Bar Yochai, who is believed by some to be the author of the Zohar, one of the foundational texts of Kabbalah.
Bar Yochai’s tomb is considered one of the holiest sites in Israel. Lag Baomer (the 33rd day of the Omer) is a Jewish holiday honouring Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second century sage and mystic who is buried at the foot of Mount Meron. Local media reported police might have unknowingly exacerbated the situation by blocking the rushing crowds from dispersing, unaware of the squeeze further back. Israeli media published an image of a row of bodies covered in plastic bags on the ground and videos posted on social media showed chaotic scenes. Another video showed a crush at a barricade. Some of my fondest memories from my youth are of collecting firewood a month before Lag ba-Omer, competing with friends to build the biggest bonfire, and singing and playing around the fire from dusk till dawn on the actual holiday. In one video, a crowd of men could be seen being funnelled through a narrow walkway, with some falling. From a very young age, my experience of Lag ba-Omer in Israel was something I looked forward to each year. He added: “I felt like I was about to die.” A 24-year-old man, identified only by his first name, Dvir, told Army Radio “masses of people were pushed into the same corner and a vortex was created”. Mobile phone reception crashed at Mount Meron as families tried to reach missing loved ones. Israeli television published the photos of seven boys, appealing for help in locating them. An emergency rescue officer told Channel 12 news: “There are more than 30 children here right now … whose mothers and fathers aren’t answering the phone.” Footage from the night showed men frantically pulling down corrugated iron walls to escape.Ĭhildren were separated from their parents in the confusion. The cause of the crush in the early hours of Friday was not confirmed, but witnesses said people were asphyxiated or trampled in a narrow passageway while trying to exit. If one will find himself there, as well as in many other places in Israel, he or she will witness the large amount of bonfires scattered throughout the country.This custom is in memory of the bonfires that were lit by the Jewish fighters to announce the coming of the Roman soldiers during the time of the Jewish rebellion about two thousand years ago.01:24 Chaotic scenes as crush kills dozens at religious festival in Israel – video Since Shimeon bar Yochai is buried in Meron (a small village in the Galilee, northern Israel), every year on this day literally hundreds of thousands of people go there. Today is the 33rd day in the count of the Omer (Hebrew for ‘splendor’ or ‘radiance’) and are the basis of Jewish mysticism.
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