Jews Celebrate Lag B'Omer This Week.

Jews Celebrate Lag B'Omer This Week 

How was it commemorated 90 years ago?

Today Jews around the world are celebrating Lag B'Omer, 

the end of a month-long mourning period when traditional Jews 

refrain from weddings or joyous gatherings.  The mourning remembers 

the thousands of students of Rabbi Akiva, a reknowned spiritual 

leader at the time of the Talmud.  They died in a great plague 

that ended on Lag B'Omer. 

Dancing at the Meron tomb (Central Zionist Archives, 
Harvard Library,  1925) 



Meron and tomb of Shimon BarYochai

 (circa 1930) 

I

The tomb on the hill (enlarged)

In Israel, Lag B'Omer is celebrated with bonfires, 

hikes along nature trails, and gatherings at the 

tombs of of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in the Galilee 

town of Meron and of Shimon the Just (Hatzaddik) 

in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. 

Bar Yochai, a student of Rabbi Akiva's, was known 

for his opposition to the Roman rule in the Land of Israel.  

He and his son were forced to flee to the Galilee where

they hid in a cave for 12 years.  Lag B'Omer is the 

day of his death, but it is actually celebrated in recognition 

of the Torah teachings he gave over to his students.

Hundreds of thousands of celebrants are expected to 

visit Shimon Bar Yochai's tomb in Meron by Wednesday night.

Shimon Hatzaddik was a High Priest of the second Temple 

in Jerusalem for 40 years.  

Jewish women praying at the Shimon

Hatzaddik tomb (Central Zionist

Archives, Harvard Library, c. 1930)




According to Jewish tradition, Shimon clothed 

himself in his High Priest's vestments to receive 

Alexander the Great as he marched toward Jerusalem.  

Alexander stepped from his chariot and bowed to Shimon, 

who, he said, had appeared to him in a dream 

predicting his victories. 

Jews gathered at Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb in Sheikh Jarrah,
Jerusalem (Central Zionist Archives, Harvard Library,
c. 1930)

Children's Lag B'Omer procession
near Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb (1918)



Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb today

Many traditional Jews who cannot travel to Meron 

in the Galilee celebrate Lag B'Omer at Shimon Hatzaddik's 

tomb located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. 

 

Jewish homes around the tomb had to be evacuated 

in the 1948 fighting.  In recent years Jewish families

 have returned to the neighborhood. 

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