Context
A stampede at the religious annual festival Lag B’Omer, which was attended by more than 1,00, 000 of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed dozens of people and injured around 150.
What is the Lag B’Omer festival?
- Jewish festival: It is an annual Jewish festival which is observed during the Hebrew month of Iyar.
- Homage: People pay homage to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second century sage and mystic.
- He is believed to have died on this day.
- It is believed that he shared the knowledge and wisdom on the same day.
- That is why bonfires are often lit on the day to represent it.
- Occasion: It is celebrated on the 33rd day of the Omer that is the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot.
- This is the only day during the 49-day period when the celebration is permitted.
- Celebrations: Jews usually schedule weddings on this day every year.
- The hair, of young boys who reached at the age of three, is cut for the first time on this occasion.
- Location: To mark the celebration every year, tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish pilgrims reache to the base of Mount Meron.
- The Rabbi’s tomb is a revered holy site in Israel.
Rabbi Shimon
- Rabbi Shimon was a Talmudic scholar and a disciple of Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest Jewish sages.
- Work: Rabbi Shimon wrote the ‘Zohar’, which is the main work of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.
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