JEWISH MOMENTS IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL 

c.1490. Bonfires at the Tomb: Lag BaOmer Celebration at Meron

In the late fifteenth century, R. Obadiah of Bartenura described Jews ascending to Meron on Lag BaOmer, gathering at the tomb of R. Shimon bar Yochai with bonfires, charity, and prayers for healing and children. His letters offer the earliest surviving written testimony of a Lag BaOmer celebration at Meron with these distinctive features. Across centuries, this celebration would evolve into a uniquely massive public event.

Today, Meron, a small village in the hills of the Upper Galilee to the northwest of Safed, is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Israel, drawing hundreds of thousands of Jews each year on Lag BaOmer for what is often described as the country’s largest annual religious gathering. Bonfires blaze across the hillside, music and dancing fill the night air, and families celebrate rites of passage, most famously the traditional first haircut for three-year-old boys. Yet, the roots of this vast modern gathering lie in a small, fragile Jewish community of the late fifteenth century, as described in the letters of one Italian rabbi who chose to settle in the Land of Israel.

R. Obadiah of Bartenura (c.1450-c.1516), an Italian scholar best known for his enduring commentary on the Mishnah, reached the Land of Israel in 1488. From Jerusalem, he wrote three letters to his father and brother in Italy, describing both the hardships of life and the religious practices he encountered. In one of these letters, dated to the........

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