Tickets Required: New Rules For Lag BaOmer in Meron

By COLlive reporter

Israel’s Ministry of Religious Affairs announced that the annual Lag BaOmer celebrations on Mount Meron would be tightly supervised following last year’s fatal disaster.

45 people were crushed to death this past Lag BaOmer as an overflow crowd came to commemorate the yartzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), 2nd-century tannaitic sage and author of the Zohar.

The calamity was one of the worst civilian disasters in Israeli history. Government officials vowed greater oversight over the celebrations, which is one of Israel’s largest annual gatherings.

Lag BaOmer 2022 will begin in the evening of Wednesday, Iyar 17 / May 18 and ends in the evening of Thursday, Iyar 18 / May 19.

“There were voices calling for the celebrations not to be held this year, but we thought otherwise,” said Brigadier-General Tzviki Tessler, who is supervising arrangements at Mount Meron.

“There is a large public that is concerned, but it was important for us not to compromise on the issue of safety and we met with Chassidim and communities.”

He said new safety measures would be put in place for the celebration, which runs for about 40 hours. He acknowledged that “we will not be able to satisfy everyone’s wishes.”

Entrance only with a ticket

Participants in the festivities will be able to enter the area only using pre-purchased tickets and these will be used both for public transport travel and as a permit to stay on the mountain.

Getting there will only be possible by orderly buses and shuttles so that the organizers and the police will be able to know at any given moment how many people are in it in real-time and regulate the amount of the crowd as needed.

Each ticket will allow a stay on the mountain for a different period of time. Tessler stressed that it would not be possible to reach the event by private car, but only by public transport, nor will it be allowed to enter the mountain without a ticket, which must be purchased in advance (not at the place itself).

There will also be a limit on the number of tickets that each family can buy, depending on the size of the average frum family. The price of tickets, it was explained, would be similar to that of public transport.

Only 1 bonfire

Tessler estimated that over the course of Lag BaOmer, a similar number of participants would reach the mountain to that of each year, i.e. several hundred thousand.

The restriction, he emphasized, is on the number of people at any given moment, but it has not yet been determined how many will be able to attend – although it is estimated that there are about 20,000 people.

Lag BaOmer will open with a single bonfire lighting (the one long-held by the Boyaner Rebbe) instead of about 20 in previous years.

At the conclusion of Lag BaOmer, there will be a memorial service for those who perished in the disaster last year. Attending will be the survivors of those who were killed.

No food, no tents

One of the most notable changes that will apply this year is the ban on food distribution on the mountain.

For many years, there were hachnosas orchim “hospitality” associations that took care of providing food and drink to the crowds that flowed during the festivities.

Another significant change is in the ban on building tents around the tomb, as has been customary for many years, in order to prevent prolonged stays at the site.

Some families and communities used to arrive a few days in advance. They will have to find another place in the Meron area.

Tessler stressed that the plans are only applied to this upcoming year as interim recommendations while the full investigation of the disaster is being completed.