What Will Israelis be Celebrating Tonight?

Wednesday, May 06, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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The grave of Talmudic sage Shimon Bar Yochai will tonight (Wednesday) be the venue for one of the more festive holidays in Israel - Lag B’Omer.

Lag B’Omer is celebrated on the 33rd day of the Count of the Omer, which begins on the second day of Passover and ends on Shavuot, as commanded in the Bible (Leviticus 23:15–16).

Lag B’Omer is itself an extra-biblical holiday the origin of which remains something of a mystery. There are numerous myths, such as the story of Rabbi Akiva, a first century CE religious leader whose disciples were dying by the thousands to a mysterious plague, only to have the plague disappear under equally mysterious circumstances on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer.

Another tale is that Lag B’Omer marks the passing of Bar Yochai, Rabbi Akiva’s greatest disciple and the supposed author of the Zohar, the chief work of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.

For Orthodox Jews, the main event takes place in the small Galilee community of Meron, where Bar Yochai’s grave is located. Given the large number of people who usually show up, over 1,000 police and several helicopters are deployed at Meron to prevent forest fires.

Elsewhere across the country, Israelis will gather to light bonfires, creating a fun family atmosphere for most. Israeli children begin collecting scrap wood already weeks in advance in anticipation of Lag B’Omer.

Within the Messianic community, Lag B’Omer is a subject of some controversy. Many Jewish believers take part in the celebrations as it is a time of warm fellowship with a patriotic Jewish theme. But many feel it is wrong to mark the holiday due to the anti-Messianic side story that accompanies Rabbi Akiva’s activities in the Holy Land two thousand years ago.

Rabbi Akiva was the primary backer of the Bar Kochva Revolt against Rome, going so far as to declare the uprising’s leader, Simon Bar Kochva, to be the promised Messiah.

Obviously, Jewish believers in Yeshua at the time had a major problem with this, even if they wanted to support the revolt. When Yeshua’s followers refused to follow another “messiah,” Rabbi Akiva and the majority of the Jews who looked to him for leadership are said to have labeled the Jewish believers in Yeshua as traitors.

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The Site of the Tabernacle When the Israelites Arrived in the Holy Land

Before There Was Jerusalem, There Was Shiloh
-- The Site of the Tabernacle When the Israelites Arrived in the Holy Land


Interior of old Temple at Shiloh (1908, Library of Congress).

The building is now closed. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the Tabernacle there, and the land was subdued before them. (Joshua 18:1)

When Joshua brought the children of Israel across the Jordan River he was really leading a new nation, born in Egypt and Sinai but forged for 40 years in the furnace of the desert.

Their journey had started hundreds of years earlier when Jacob's sons, grazing their flocks near Shechem (Nablus), sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Their descendants returned to the same area in Samaria bearing Joseph's body for burial in Shechem. They chose the nearby village of Shiloh as the resting place for the Tabernacle which housed altars, the menorah, the ark of the Covenant and more.



Ruins of Shiloh (circa 1910, Library of Congress)

There the Tabernacle would remain for almost 400 years, the place for pilgrimages and sacrifices. In Shiloh, Joshua drew lots to divide up the land among the Israelite tribes. Eli the High Priest officiated.

A woman named Hannah came to Shiloh to pray for a son and promised he would serve the Lord if he was born. Samuel was born to Hannah. He served in the Tabernacle and was the prophet who anointed Saul and then David as kings. David shifted his capital first to Hebron and then to Jerusalem.

Archaeologists today have little doubt that the area known as Sailun was the location of biblical Shiloh. Evidence



Tourists/pilgrims at Shiloh (1891, with permission of the

  New Boston Fine and Rare Books) of early

  synagogues, churches and mosques can be found there.

In the Talmudic period and the Middle Ages Shiloh was a destination for pilgrims.

We recently discovered online an antique book, "A Month in Palestine and Syria, April 1891," posted by the New Boston Fine and Rare Books. The book includes a travelogue and several dozen photographs of tourists and pilgrims. They also visited Shiloh.

Unfortunately, the antique book shop does not know the name of the photographer or author. We would welcome suggestions from our readers.

Today, religious pilgrims are usually found in the south, in a place called Jerusalem.


Group from the American Colony visiting the
"sacred circle" in Shiloh (1937, Library of Congress)


Ancient Shiloh today (photo courtesy of Yisrael Medad)

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Click on caption to view the original picture.

New Pictures Added to Shiloh Feature,
Snapped 135 Years Apart



Ruins of ancient Shiloh (circa 1870, Palestine Exploration Fund, 

taken by British Sgt. Henry Phillips)



Shiloh today (picture by David Rabkin, 2006)