Israel Police announced Sunday that the annual pilgrimage to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s tomb in Meron will not take place this year due to the security situation. Large forces from the Northern District Police, Traffic Division, and Border Police are preparing to enforce the decision and prevent crowds from reaching the tomb site and the town.
Before the event was cancelled, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of Tzfat, issued a strong endorsement of security restrictions for this year’s Lag BaOmer celebrations. Rabbi Eliyahu leads the annual religious Zionist lighting ceremony at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron.
“I support the restrictions,” Eliyahu said. “We know that our enemies across the border prefer death over life—the opposite of us—and they would be happy to see anarchy.”
While the religious public is accustomed to seeing Meron as a site of mass pilgrimage, Eliyahu stressed that the restrictions designed to protect human life are essential. “Jewish law says ‘danger to life is more severe than prohibition’—if there’s a life-threatening situation, you can’t say ‘I’m coming to the hillula anyway.’ It’s not worth it, it’s not right. Meron is very close to the border, about 10 kilometers away—and that’s a real danger to life.”
He added: “We know that our enemies across the border prefer death over life, the opposite of us, and they would be happy to see anarchy. They don’t need a missile to hit—panic is enough and it’s a disaster. So I support the Home Front Command in making the right decision that saves lives.”
Eliyahu also reassured celebrants that they can connect to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai from home. “You can connect to Rabbi Shimon from home too, study his Torah, the Zohar, light a candle and celebrate anywhere. You don’t have to be specifically in Meron. I say this as someone who has never missed Lag BaOmer in Meron, and I say it clearly: life is more important. If we were to ask Rabbi Shimon—he would tell us to protect life and come next year.”
On the spiritual significance of the hillula, he explained: “Rabbi Akiva’s students are students who lived redemption—unlike his first 24,000 students who were swept up in the baseless hatred of the Second Temple period and the atmosphere of a culture of destruction. The five students: Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Nechemia—they lived redemption. They understood the importance of combining Torah with work, like the famous story of Rabbi Shimon who at first doesn’t understand but eventually learns and understands, and like Rabbi Yehuda whose hillula is today, who understands the importance of connecting heaven and earth, and that’s the State of Israel.
“That’s why we hold so tightly to their Torah—because it’s a Torah that has lasted thousands of years and is as relevant today as it was in their time. That’s tremendous genius. There’s nothing like it in humanity—values whose relevance you can see both then and now. It’s something refined, something true, and we connect to it in this hillula—with Rabbi Yehuda, with Rabbi Meir, with Rabbi Shimon.”
He concluded with an encouraging story: “I once heard from my father, of blessed memory, Rabbi Eliyahu, that it was in 1967, the Six-Day War. On Lag BaOmer he was also accustomed to going every year to Meron, even when not many people went. And that year on Lag BaOmer, instead of arriving at Meron to Rabbi Shimon—he arrived at a staging area for soldiers who were then on the Egyptian border.
“When they asked him ‘why are you going there?’, he explained ‘that’s where Rabbi Shimon is.’ Rabbi Shimon is with the soldiers, he’s with them, he strengthens their spirit, he’s with them in battle. If someone wants to meet Rabbi Shimon on Lag BaOmer that year—they’ll meet him with the soldiers. I think that’s true this year too.”