“There is no way to describe the great catastrophe that occurred in our city that day [Lag b’Omer] . . . All the houses were completely consumed by fire, everyone’s faces became disconsolate from the flames, holy books flew into the air, utterly sparks of light. The new and old synagogues, the houses of study, and the hospital went up to heaven in fiery smoke.”
(Folklore Research Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
One might read this and think it was the city of Meron, Israel in 2021. Forty-nine innocents, including many children, died that day.
But no, it was Brody, Austria, in 1867. A day of excitement and uplift turned to tragedy and ash. More than 150 years later, but only two years after the great crush that killed 49 in Meron, the anticipated excitement is mixed with anxiety. Has Israel fixed the logistics that caused the Meron disaster in 2021?
Why the great convergence there on Lag b’Omer, anyway? It comes down to one man: Shimon bar Yochai, the most noted mystic in all of Jewish history, the reputed author of the most important book of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar — and, the belief that Shimon bar Yochai is somehow accessible on the anniversary of his death: on Lag b’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer count. The day when the plague among Rabbi Akiva’s thousands of disciples temporarily halted.
Virtually none of us really knew what a plague was before COVID struck. None of us knew the swift death of the perfectly healthy. None of us could imagine what a relief from the plague might be like, or when it might occur. It occurred in antiquity on Lag b’Omer, and on this same date the soul of Shimon Bar Yochai ascended.
“The Cup of Poison” was the lamentation on another destruction in Brody, by Marcus Strelisker:
Poor turbulent Brody! She almost turned into a wasteland
The fury has not yet subsided, the wrath has not yet abated!
In 2021, children simply expecting a wonderful outing with their father died in the crush in Meron.
We pray that whatever failings that led to it have been corrected, that new precautions will be effective and not dampen the spirit of the day, that the day will pass in peace — in its customary spiritual uplift, vigorous song, blazing barbecues and celebration.
