Tens of thousands celebrate Lag B’Omer at Meron, year after site closed amid rocket fire

Lag B’Omer revelry returned in full swing to Mount Meron Thursday as tens of thousands of celebrants packed the mountain tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai to the brim come nightfall, singing and dancing in honor of the 2nd-century Jewish sage.

After authorities closed the site to the public last year for fear of Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon, the massive event seemed to have bounced back to its pre-2024 numbers.

Expansions to the tomb complex enabled authorities to up the number of people allowed at the site at a given time, amid perennial overcrowding concerns.

After mostly Hasidic men completed the maariv evening prayer, the first bonfire was lit next to Bar Yochai’s resting place. The exuberant crowd then began jumping up and down to a song sung in Yiddish-inflected Hebrew, extolling the mystic on the anniversary of his death.

Simcha, who studies at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, was one of many attendees hearing music for the first time in weeks, he told The Times of Israel, as many observant Jews observe a period of quasi-mourning between the Passover and Shavuot holidays that is lifted on Lag B’Omer.

With a plastic bottle of Arak in one hand and printed lyrics of the kabbalistic “Bar Yochai” hymn in the other, he lost himself in the 16th-century song, dancing shoulder-to-shoulder with other students from his yeshiva.

Alongside the song and dance, some celebrants played with mock bows and arrows, another Lag B’Omer tradition, shooting a target with the word yetzter hara — Hebrew for “evil inclination” — at the center.

Securing the massive celebration has proven a yearly struggle for authorities, particularly when trying to prevent overcrowding.

In 2021, a crowd crush killed 45 people and injured over 100 as they traversed a slippery walkway at the shrine, in Israel’s deadliest peacetime civilian disaster to date.

Before celebrations began Thursday evening, Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Meir Porush, the government official tasked with helping organize the event, conducted a memorial ceremony for those killed.

He told the crowd that organizers had “made every effort” to prevent another disaster, citing expanded areas for lighting bonfires and improved safety measures based on prior experience of the chaotic event.

A state commission of inquiry report issued three years later addressed authorities’ failings in the lead-up to the incident, holding many high-ranking figures in government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, personally responsible for the disaster. That said, the document did not issue actionable recommendations for most politicians.

The report did issue several institutional recommendations for police, though, and found that officers had been aware of severe overcrowding in prior years but declined to act on it.

Speaking to The Times of Israel earlier this week, organizer and event spokesman Yehuda Hershler said attendance would be limited to 63,000 people at any given moment. Attendees, who had to pre-book tickets to attend the event, were only permitted to stay up to five hours at the tomb.

The Transportation Ministry said Friday morning that 95,000 people had arrived at the religious festival via public transit, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

Haredi ushers, under the auspices of the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, were made to intermittently check attendees’ tickets, and ask them to leave if five hours had passed since their arrival time. It is unclear whether the enforcement mechanism was successful.

While it was possible to traverse the throngs of people in most areas, bottlenecks in enclosed spaces — like the tiny passageway where event staff hurriedly handed out kugel and fruit juice — were packed tight, making it impossible to move in any direction.

Early Friday morning, the Magen David Adom emergency service said it had taken 33 people to hospitals in northern Israel from Meron throughout the night, all in mild condition. Paramedics also treated an additional 125 people at the site.

Among those hospitalized were two pregnant women who went into labor, a child hit by a vehicle, a person injured in an overturned ATV accident and various others lightly injured during the unruly festivities.

The holiday’s hallmark custom of lighting bonfires was also a major concern in light of the massive wildfires that wreaked havoc on the outskirts of Jerusalem weeks prior.

Ahead of the festival, the Fire and Rescue Service ordered a nationwide ban on lighting fires in most open areas, except if the site had been approved by the agency.

Fire officials intended to limit all bonfires at Meron to the central stage near the tomb, the site’s Bnei Akiva yeshiva or Area 89, a large asphalt lot that organizers expanded this year to accommodate a larger crowd.

But attendees lit bonfires in other locations anyway, flouting restrictions that went largely unenforced.

At around midnight, some revelers openly defied firefighters as they tried to extinguish an unlawful bonfire.

“Get out of here!” shouted a young man, as a larger group that had been dancing in a circle around the flames began to crowd the three firemen.

The firefighters backed down, quickly giving up. One of the red-vested men unloaded the extinguisher he had been lugging around off his back as they sat down to watch the flames from a distance.

“Nothing can be done,” said one of the firefighters to The Times of Israel following the brief spat. “Even though we want to put it out, we can’t.”

The fireman, who wished to remain anonymous, lamented that police were not doing their all to enforce the fire chief’s nationwide ban on unapproved bonfires announced last week.

Though thousands of police participated in securing the Meron event, they were nowhere to be seen in the crowded areas of the tomb site, amid worries of friction between revelers and law enforcement.

Most cops were stationed on the perimeter of the complex and on roads leading up to the mountain to block passage for unregistered cars.

In addition to the central bonfire lit by Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer, the spiritual head of the Boyan Hasidic sect, a total of 26 other lightings were held.

Among them was a bonfire assigned to convicted sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland and his ultra-Orthodox cult, Shuvu Bonim, after the High Court rejected a petition against his participation in the ceremony.

בניגוד לחוק: עבריין המין המורשע הרב אליעזר ברלנד לקח חלק מרכזי בהדלקה של קהילתו במירון. בהפקה של ההילולה בניהול השר פרוש מחקו את שמו של הרב ברלנד מכל הפרסומים על ההדלקות שמתקיימות בהר, ולא הפיצו שום תיעוד מההדלקה בהשתתפותו, בניגוד לתיעודים שנשלחו משלל הדלקות אחרות@danabetzalel pic.twitter.com/zfDocxgT2E

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 16, 2025

Berland, 87, has served separate prison sentences for sex offenses and fraud, and in 2021, was implicated but not charged in the decades-old murder of a teenager.

The High Court’s rejection of the petition, penned by several rights groups, including the Movement for Quality Government, cited procedural issues, stating there was not enough time to hold a hearing on the matter.