Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai – Lag BaOmer in Meron

A joy that anyone who hasn’t seen simply cannot understand.
“Yom Kippur” inside the tomb, and “Simchat Torah” outside — that’s how people describe it.

The preparations for the lighting, with all the emotional songs; the moment of lighting itself — a special hour of divine favor! To see the prayers, the dancing, the joy of the chalakeh (first haircut)…
It’s impossible to describe — you have to be there!!!

For so many years I heard these descriptions, but I never merited to be there.

Ironically, the fact that I am a painter is what pushed me to take action and come to Meron on Lag BaOmer. Why? What’s the connection?
I desperately wanted to paint the joy and the atmosphere — but how could I convey to the viewer feelings I had never experienced myself???

So I took action.

About 11 years ago, I decided to travel to Meron on Lag BaOmer and witness everything with my own eyes.

Honestly, I came back “drunk” — not from wine — and I’ll explain:

By nature, I don’t like wasting time. So what do you do when the road to Meron is so long and takes several hours?
I turned that long day into a day of prayer. I didn’t look for companions for the journey — not friends and not family.
That way, I used the travel time well: on the way there I completed an entire Book of Psalms, and again on the way back.

When I arrived in Meron, I didn’t recognize the place at all. On Lag BaOmer, it completely changes its form.

And so, I flowed with the massive crowd of women moving up the mountain — until, unbelievably, I saw from a distance that we were approaching the entrance to the building.
The crowd grew denser and denser, but there was no way to retreat. So I kept moving forward, step by step, until I entered the tomb.

Wow — what emotion! What devotion! How many tears and supplications were poured out there…
Despite the heat! And the suffocating air! (There were no air conditioners back then — only fans.)

I quickly absorbed the atmosphere. I fixed my body in place so as not to move or be pushed (which was possible because the women around me also weren’t moving).
And there, in an almost completely static state, with hardly any ability to move, I merited to finish another Book of Psalms, to pray the afternoon prayer, and to pour out sincere prayers — both general and personal requests…

Only then did I go outside to fill my lungs with oxygen, to breathe the air of Meron, and to search for the joy.

That, too, required great effort because of the heavy pushing.
Eventually, I found myself in an area overlooking the dancing and music in the men’s courtyard at the entrance to the tomb.

It was difficult to look down through the dense bars because of the crowd of women and girls in front of me.
But I extended my hand holding the camera I had brought through the fence bars, photographed and filmed the joy, and watched it through the camera.

Truly — a joy unlike any other.

Every few minutes the scene changed: sometimes young boys celebrating their chalakeh were perched on their fathers’ shoulders; sometimes a group of adults burst into an infectious dance.
There was an elderly man with a walking stick — but instead of leaning on it, he used it to perform tricks, increasing the joy.
Young men tested their strength with kazachok dancing — some with incredible skill, others less so — but all with immense joy.
Everyone — all of the Jewish people, in all their diversity — were there, as one person with one heart!!!

It was very hard to tear myself away from the place.

But it was important to make room for others… so I continued searching for additional focal points, absorbing all the sights.

Already the next day (as I recall), I began transferring the joy of Meron onto the canvas.

Here is the first painting, soaked with the entire experience of the joy I lived through — Meron 2013.

Do you feel the energy that burned within me?
Do you feel it passing through to you from the painting?

The painting was sold to a lovely family from the United States, who felt the energy and couldn’t stop being moved by every detail in the image.

Since then, I have been in Meron on Lag BaOmer several more times… and each time, the experiences returned in a different way.

In 2015, I painted the Vatikin (sunrise) prayer in Meron.
This came following a request from the organization “Arachim” to paint a calendar for the year 5776 (2015–2016).

They chose the theme of the graves of righteous figures,
and this painting was one of the selected images, adorning the month of Iyar.

In 2017, a young man commissioned me to paint Meron for him — similar to the previous painting, but with more purple tones and a few additional changes.

I had various photographs that I had taken, which helped me in the planning process.
Here is the painting.

In 2017, as part of a project painting holy sites in my innovative style — in black and white — for a longtime client, I also painted Meron.

In this painting, the view is from above, overlooking the entire complex.

Happy Lag BaOmer!!! May salvations be brought about!!!
And may we all merit good news!!!