Israeli Chief Rabbis Tell Pilgrims Not to Visit Mount Meron on Lag B’Omer Holiday

The Israeli military’s Home Front Command canceled this year’s traditional celebrations on Mount Meron following a security assessment.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israel’s two chief rabbis instructed worshipers not to travel to a holy site on Mount Meron during the upcoming holiday of Lag B’Omer because of the war.

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Rabbi David Lau instead told pilgrims to follow the instructions of security services.

The Israeli military’s Home Front Command canceled this year’s traditional celebrations on Mount Meron following a security assessment.

That assessment has taken added gravity with recent Hezbollah rocket barrages.

The mountain, located in the Upper Galilee, is the location of a sensitive military air traffic control base which has been a special target for Hezbollah rockets and drones.

The mountain is better known as the burial site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the Second Century rabbinic leader who wrote the Zohar, Judaism’s foundational book of kabbalah or mysticism. The anniversary of Rabbi Shimon’s death, Lag B’Omer, is celebrated with bonfires and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to his grave.

This year, Lag B’Omer begins at sundown on May 25.

Forty-five people were killed and 150 people were injured in a stampede at the grave during Lag B’Omer celebrations in 2021.

The tragedy, Israel’s worst civilian disaster, was triggered by a combination of overcrowded conditions and a faulty walkway in a narrow passage.

A state commission of inquiry’s report released in March held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally responsible.