ISRAEL: THE JEWISH FESTIVAL OF HILULA IN NORTHERN ISRAEL DRAWS AN ATTENDANCE OF SOME THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE

Record ID: 397913

  • Title: ISRAEL: THE JEWISH FESTIVAL OF HILULA IN NORTHERN ISRAEL DRAWS AN ATTENDANCE OF SOME THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE
  • Date: 8th May 2004
  • Summary: (L!1) MOUNT MERON, ISRAEL (MAY 8, 2004) (REUTERS) HAS/PAN: ACROSS SITE WHERE THOUSANDS HAVE GATHERED FOR RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL LV: CROWD OF JEWISH MEN WATCHING FROM BEHIND POLICE BARRIER MV: OLD JEWISH MAN DANCING WITH CANE IN HAND HAS/WS: CROWDS DANCING WS: CROWDS STANDING ON TOP OF BARRIERS CU/LV: OF MAN POURING OIL ONTO A PILE OF RAGS IN PREPARATION FOR A FIRE GV: OF GATH
  • Embargoed: 23rd May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOUNT MERON, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVACTWA58AFIJ37GX0RB7OBG63GY
  • Story Text: Some 300,000 people attended the spiritual ceremony at Roman era miracle worker site The site of a Roman era miracle worker in northern Israel drew some 300,000 visitors from across the country and around the world on Saturday (May 8).
    The spiritual ecstatic annual "Hilula" ceremony takes place on the Jewish holiday of Lag Baomer when hundreds of thousands come to light bonfires near the grave of the author of the Zohar book of mysticism, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Jews flocked to the area of Mount Meron in the northern Galilee to attend the spiritually uplifting experience.
    The visitors were mostly Orthodox Jews but some secular Jews also came to pray for blessings of health, fertility and happiness.
    The celebrations consist of several rituals including the throwing talismans into a fire, dancing and praying around the grave and slaughtering animals. Some Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a special ceremony at sunrise where boys who have reached the age of three have their first haircut. Traditionally, in the Kabala, the haircut symbolises the first stage in the cycle of life.
    The holiday commemorates the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans and the end of a plague that killed thousands of students of renowned sage Rabbi Akiva in approximately the same period.
    Nassin Rodhen, a Yeshiva (Jewish college) student from Canada, said Lag Baomer is a "very, very powerful time because of ahavas (love of) Israel."
    "Like the Rabbi says - the Rabbi of Lubavitch says - one should always act of goodness and kindness to bring the messiah whether Jewish or not Jewish which will be the time of the messiah when there's going to be only good. No more pain for anybody and everybody will live together in peace and harmony," Rodhen said.
    Thousands gathered to dance and sing around a big bonfire until reaching a sense of spiritual ecstasy while others held different religiously uplifting ceremonies. The celebrations were scheduled to continue for three days.
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