Whose Temple Mount? By Jerold S. Auerbach Laurel And Hardy’s Jewish Connections By Saul Jay Singer and Unique Sites of Israel: Biblical Hatzor By Nosson Shulman and Lag B'Omer starts tomorrow night and lasts until the night of May 19th and Leading rabbi: Don't visit Meron on Lag Ba'omer
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
We knowthe government has no help from Heaven, I am very very afraid of what will happen on Lag Ba'omer,' Rabbi David Yosef says.
Rabbi David Yosef, a member of the Council of Torah Sages, has urged Israelis to avoid traveling to Meron during the upcoming Lag Ba'omer holiday, Kikar Hashabbat reported.
During a weekly Torah class in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef said, "I really request the entire public not travel to Meron this year. I repeat and reiterate: I ask that each and every person in Israel, please, this year, do not travel to Meron."
"You know very well that my father and teacher, of blessed memory, never believed in this idea of traveling to Meron in our generation. The trip to Meron has a very holy foundation, there is no doubt....but it's a whole generation already that we know that tens of thousands travel there.
"And let's not forget what happens on the way - there are eight-hour delays before you even arrive, you kill an entire day, is that what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) wants? Such great waste of time [which could be used] for studying Torah? Rashbi wouldn't prefer that we dedicate our Torah learning on this day, to his soul having an ascension? ... Why do we even need this whole trip?"
Lag Ba'omer is the anniversary of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's passing, and his gravesite is on Mount Meron.
Rabbi Yosef added: "This year they are trying to do all sorts of things so that what happened in previous years won't happen, so that there won't be a horrible tragedy like what happened last year, G-d forbid. They have found all sorts of 'solutions,' you know that this won't solve the problems.... There will be problems. It's not simple at all, people are going to need to stand in the sun, in the heat, in cramped quarters."
"It could be that they are doing what needs to be done, but we know that the government has no help from Heaven - they don't have it. So I am very very afraid for the results. With G-d's help there won't be a tragedy, we pray that there won't be a tragedy. But even if there isn't a tragedy, is it worth it?"
Rabbi Yosef concluded, "My father told me a few times that he never spent Lag Ba'omer in Meron. I also, thank G-d, never have - it's like a tradition from my father. To go a few times a year, to visit and pray - why not? But specifically on this day? It's better not to."
The Three Musketeers at the Kotel
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
Whose Temple Mount? By Jerold S. Auerbach
photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
The recent eruption of Arab violence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City was hardly a random choice. The holiest Jewish site, it was the location of the First and Second Temples (hence its name). The First, known as Solomon's Temple, was built in 957 BCE and destroyed by invading Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Second, following the return of Jews from Babylonian exile, endured from 515 BCE until the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.
No one calls the Temple Mount the "Mosque" Mount. Its seizure followed the Muslim conquest in 638 C.E. In a similar erasure of Jewish history, Jordan's "West Bank," captured by the Hashemite kingdom during Israel's independence war, was identified in Jewish history as biblical Judea and Samaria. Under Jordanian occupation between 1947 and 1967, it was restored to Israel during the Six-Day War. The boundaries of Jewish statehood finally began to resemble those of its ancient past in the Promised Land.
Israel's stunning victory, when its soldiers returned to Jerusalem's Old City after two decades of Jordanian rule, restored the ancient Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem—the Temple Mount and its Western Wall—to the Jewish people. At the time, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Mordechai ("Motta") Gur, commander of the victorious Israeli military forces, radioed headquarters to exclaim joyously: "The Temple Mount is in our hands." He gave permission for the Israeli flag to be raised over the Muslim Dome of the Rock.
But Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, watching this triumphant historic moment through his binoculars from Mount Scopus, immediately commanded the removal of the flag, lest it trigger Arab fury throughout the Middle East. Far more astonishing was Dayan's meeting with Muslim Waqf officials when he returned the newly liberated Temple Mount to their control. His shocking surrender meant that the Waqf would determine who could pray there. Jews, it turns out, could not.
As Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi wrote: "An unplanned victory ended in a spontaneous concession" that is unlikely ever to be rescinded. It remains unclear, he added, "whether Dayan acted with wisdom or weakness." Whatever Dayan's motive, his capitulation—and its likely permanence—represented a monumental loss for Judaism in the holiest Jewish city.
Dayan was not the only high Israeli official to sacrifice a revered ancient holy site. In Hebron in 1994, with Purim and the Arab celebration of Ramadan overlapping, tension mounted as several hundred Arab men impatiently awaited access to the magnificent Isaac Hall in the sacred Machpelah shrine where the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs are entombed.
The raucous and lengthy Purim celebration triggered Arab rage. They screamed Etbach el Yahud ("Kill the Jews!"). The next morning during Arab prayer in Machpelah, Kiryat Arba doctor Baruch Goldstein, fearing an imminent massacre of Jews, entered Isaac Hall and murdered 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death. To placate Arab fury, the Cabinet under Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin restricted Jewish prayer in Isaac Hall to major holidays. There, as on the Temple Mount, Jewish prayer at these ancient holy sites remains either constricted or prohibited, as ordered by Israeli political leaders.
Several months ago, Israeli Rabbi Aryeh Lippo was removed from the Temple Mount during his silent prayer on Yom Kippur. (Moshe Dayan had prohibited vocal prayer, tallit and tefillin there.) But a Magistrates Court Judge upheld Lippo's appeal, noting that his prayer was solitary and quiet. The Israeli Security Minister appealed the ruling, insisting that Jewish prayer must be confined to the Western Wall below the Temple Mount. Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the Temple Mount must remain exclusively a Mosque Mount. Jews may visit, but their prayer is prohibited.
The Temple Mount has remained volatile. Recently, during the overlapping holy days of Ramadan and Passover, violence erupted when rioting Palestinians carrying Hamas flags barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aksa mosque and threw a cascade of rocks at Israeli security forces. During the closing days of Ramadan, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced that Israel would not permit non-Muslims (i.e., Jews) to pray on the mount.
So in a striking twist of irony, Jews are prohibited—by the Jewish state—from praying at their most ancient holy sites in Hebron and Jerusalem.
Englishman Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) were a comedy duo act during the early classical Hollywood era of American cinema. They started their careers as a duo in the silent film era and later successfully transitioned to "talkies," and for the better part of three decades ranging from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the skinny, clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's rotund and pompous bully. (In Hebrew they were known as Hashamen v'Harazeh – "the fat one and the thin one.")
Laurel and Hardy got their start in film working with a variety of Jewish slapstick comedians and, prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established movie careers; Laurel had acted in over 50 films and he was also a writer (see discussion below on his noteworthy Jewish scripts), while Hardy appeared in more than 250 productions. One of the most beloved comedy duos in cinematic history, they appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. In 1932, the duo won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) for The Music Box, an uproarious performance in which they attempt to move a piano up a long flight of stairs. (For the younger generation who may not have seen it, you must; it may currently be viewed on YouTube.) In 1961, Laurel was presented with an Honorary Academy Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of American comedy."
When Hardy moved to Atlanta and took a job as a variety hall singer, he met and married Jewish pianist Madelyn Saloshin. As the story goes, his mother Emily was outraged by Ollie's relationship with a Jewish woman (and also because he was 21 and Madelyn was several years his senior), so the couple eloped and married in Macon, Georgia, on November 13, 1913.
According to many authorities, however, the significance of his audacious marriage to a Jewish woman was that it took place in the shadow of the trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta on August 1913, which is broadly recognized as the worst antisemitic incident in American history. Frank was falsely accused of the rape and murder of a Catholic female employee, 15-year-old Mary Phagan and, in a trial where the prosecution emphasized Frank's Jewish identity, he was convicted, sentenced to death and, before his appeal could be decided, dragged from jail by a huge crowd and lynched in 1915.
By marrying a Jew in this environment, Hardy was making a bold statement to both his family and the public regarding his independence and determination to set his own course. The couple immediately left Georgia – Hardy never again set foot there – but the marriage lasted only six years. In his divorce papers, Hardy characterized the marriage as "a sham."
Although Laurel is renowned as a performer, he displayed his early comedic chops as a writer in Jewish Prudence (a lovely pun on "jurisprudence"), a 1927 short comedy film he wrote in which neither he nor Hardy appeared. Characterized as a "kosher courtroom caper," it tells the story of Papa Gimpelwart, a Jewish father burdened with three indolent adult children including his daughter Rachel, who wants to marry Aaron, a handsome newly barred lawyer, but he will not sanction the marriage until Aaron establishes himself and wins his first case. When Gimpelwart and his younger son, Junior, witness a road accident, Gimpelwart, ever on the lookout for a get-rich scheme, tells Junior to sneak into the overturned vehicle and pose as a passenger who had sustained a serious leg injury in the crash, and some hilarious scenes ensue.
Junior files what we know to be a nonsense suit against the driver, who is defended by Aaron, who humiliates the plaintiffs and exposes them as frauds. After winning his case, Aaron assures Gimpelwart that he zealously pursued the case only because of the condition Gimpelwart had imposed for allowing him to wed the beautiful Rachel, but a furious Gimpelwart drives away angrily and strikes a passing truck. Aaron enthusiastically offers to represent him in a suit against the truck driver – who, it turns out, is Abie, Gimpelwart's other son.
Gimpelwart is played by silent-movie comedian Max Davidson, a Jewish actor with strongly Semitic features who tended to play stereotypical Jewish characters on screen. While it is reasonable to view Gimpelwart as an antisemitic stereotype, Laurel drew him comedically as a sympathetic character who is resourceful and frugal rather than cunning and cheap.
In Why Girls Say No (1927), another film written by Laurel and in which Hardy has a bit part as a comic police officer, Papa Whisselberg (played by Davidson) wants his very popular daughter, Becky, to marry "a nice Jewish boy." Papa declares one suitor as "kosher" after seeing his big Jewish nose, but Becky falls in love with "an Irisher," a young Irish-looking boy. She invites him to a birthday party for her father but tells him that he will have to pass as Jewish – which he does by wearing a hat several sizes too small. Trying to be helpful, the well-intentioned lad opens the oven door, but the birthday cake deflates; desperate to cover up his error, he secretly pumps the cake up with air from a bicycle pump, but things go comedically awry and Papa throws him out of the house.
Announcing that she is going to marry him, Becky runs out after him and, after a riotous chase scene through the streets of Los Angeles, Papa finally catches the couple just as they enter the young man's house. While screaming at the boy that he will never permit his daughter to marry an Irish boy, Becky's beau introduces Papa to his parents – who turn out to be obviously Orthodox Jews – and the couple lives happily ever after.
Laurel "reading" a Yiddish newspaper (from Blotto).
At the beginning of Blotto (1930), Laurel puzzles over an issue of Yiddishe Welt (the "Jewish World"), a Cleveland Yiddish newspaper with a headline about a Charles Lindbergh 1928 goodwill flight to Latin America and featuring a story about adverse weather conditions on his flight from Cuba to St. Louis. Laurel milks the Yiddish paper for hilarity as his character studies it with confusion for some time before realizing that it is written in a foreign language. Some commentators suggest that the character's irked, skeptical, critical wife was Jewish, but there does not seem to be any support for that proposition.
Antisemitism and racism in March of the Wooden Soldiers? "Bogeys."
In the much beloved March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934), starring Laurel and Hardy, the characterization of Silas Barnaby, the villain of the piece, is overtly antisemitic. The creepy Barnaby, the wealthiest resident of Toyland, owns the mortgage to the Old Woman's shoe and threatens to evict her and her tenants if Little Bo Peep marries Peter Piper instead of him. He exhibits virtually every antisemitic caricature: his swarthy features are exaggerated in a manner that would make Der Sturmer proud: he moves around with a hunched posture; both affluent and cheap, he uses his wealth to exercise power over Bo Peep (whose striking blond hair could not have been accidental); he is a crooked, cunning and unscrupulous villain who manipulates the situation to serve his own selfish ends; he is the consummate outsider, alone and isolated with no friends or family; and he has no interest in the community around him and is in turn shunned by it.
When his evil plan to marry Bo Beep fails, Barnaby summons "the Bogeys" from the underworld and enlists these brown afro-haired half-animal creatures who grunt, cannot speak, and are known for hunting, terrorizing, and devouring all unfortunates who cross their path, in his effort to destroy the peaceful white town. At the end, the goose-stepping, boot-crushing Aryan-looking soldiers march in fearlessly to save the white townspeople from the hateful Jew and his black minions. In sum, Jews and blacks are portrayed as less-than-human undesirables to be destroyed at all costs, just classic Nazi tropes.
In this July 31, 1963 correspondence, Laurel, then living in a Santa Monica apartment, responds to William Brown, a Canadian super-fan who engaged him in extensive correspondence, regarding an antisemitic incident at Winnipeg Beach:
That anti-semitism situation sounds pretty bad. I don't know why those swasticka [sic] groups are allowed to function should'nt [sic] be allowed PERIOD. A bunch of trouble makers – this discrimination business is shocking.
Then, responding to Brown's complaint that he could not decide where to go on vacation, Laurel writes with his characteristic tongue-in-cheek humor:
Note you do'nt [sic] know where to go for a holiday – why don't you make up as a 'Heeb' & spend a month at Winnipeg Beach?!!!! change your name to Irving Brownski!"
Laurel's letter re swastikas at Winnipeg Beach.
The antisemitic Winnipeg Beach event to which Laurel refers did not begin in a vacuum. In the early 1960s, Canada experienced a wave of pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish activities accompanied by antisemitic vandalism. In particular, three weeks in May 1963 marked a period of extreme hate in Toronto, where Shomrei Shabbat and Anshe Apt synagogues in downtown Toronto were disfigured with slogans such as "Jew Die" painted on the buildings; black swastikas were plastered on the Borochov Center, which was known to house Jewish cultural and educational institutions; and marauding swastika gangs roamed the boardwalk at the Toronto waterfront. The Canadian Nationalistic Party printed a series of antisemitic and libelous statements against Jews and disseminated them throughout Canada.
In the early 20th century, Winnipeg Beach, known as "Manitoba's Coney Island," was a world-class resort, which some came to sarcastically characterize as "the Jewish Beach" because of generally accepted unwritten covenants prohibiting Jews from owning or renting property there. It was a center of antisemitism, which some experts attribute to the presence of a large Ukrainian population and, when the vacationers would return home at the end of the summer, the locals would regularly congratulate each other on the Jews finally being gone.
On June 30, 1963, a group drove through the streets of Winnipeg Beach in a car covered with placards inscribed with antisemitic slogans from which they announced through a loudspeaker "Jews get out of the beach! You will be killed. This is Adolf Eichmann speaking." The Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded forcefully and arrested several antisemites, including the leader, Brian Isfeld, who claimed that he was only trying to advertise a dance and that he was merely advising Jews not to attend. He plead guilty to disturbing the peace and was fined $500.
Jews feared that the incident might trigger an attack on Jewish campers at a nearby Camp Massad. ("Massad Gimmel," which is still in existence, is the only Hebrew immersion Massad outside Israel.) Particularly traumatized by the event were the many Holocaust survivors who had found their way to Canada and made a new life for themselves there; better than anybody, they saw the analogy between Winnipeg Beach and the beginning of Naziism in Germany and feared another Holocaust in their adopted country.
Interestingly, shortly after the Winnipeg Beach episode, Lawrence E. Tapper was elected its first Jewish mayor. In an interview following his election, Tapper, who was active in Jewish and communal affairs for many years, served as president of the local B'nai B'rith Lodge 650, and was a member of the Shaarey Zedek synagogue, made a point of crediting his victory to the support of non-Jews, "who are very much ashamed and revolted by the recent defacing of the synagogue and the swastika contagion at the Beach."
In a subsequent event at Winnipeg Beach a few weeks later in July 1963, a Jewish store was smeared and a synagogue was painted with swastikas and, when Harvey Davis, a 14-year-old Jewish boy, bravely spoke out against the gang's antisemitic rants, he was grabbed by the neck and choked. The perpetrator was charged only with disturbing the peace, and the police announced that no charges of assault would be filed because "no bodily harm was caused to the youngster, [who was] able to go home on his own." Incredibly, the law enforcement authorities characterized the brutal attack as "a prank that got out of hand – rather than a serious act of racial prejudice."
Finally, it is interesting to note that in a subsequent letter to Brown dated June 5, 1964, Laurel wrote that "Yes, [Charlie] Chaplin is Jewish that's no secret." Although Nazi propaganda denounced Chaplin as a "foreign Jew" after the success of his The Great Dictator (1940); and although in his first stage debut at age 18 (an unmitigated disaster), he billed himself as "Sam Cohen, the Jewish comedian," Chaplin was raised Anglican and he was personally an agnostic, which leaves us wondering whether Laurel was mistaken or if this was an example of his sense of humor (almost certainly the latter).
Many people do not know that, early in their careers, Laurel and Chaplin were friends who toured together. The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel tells the story of Laurel sharing a cabin with Chaplin on the ship sailing from the United Kingdom to New York in 1910, serving as his understudy in Fred Karno's Army, and spending two years with him touring across North America. Within a few years, Chaplin had achieved international renown while an unsuccessful Laurel returned home, only to later achieve world fame with Hardy. Interestingly, Laurel, who always spoke fondly of Chaplin, received nary a mention in Chaplin's comprehensive autobiography.
According to kabbalistic tradition, this day marks the hillula (celebration, interpreted by some as anniversary of the death) of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, "the Rashbi", a Mishnaic sage and leading disciple of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century, and the day on which he revealed the deepest secrets of kabbalah in the form of the Zohar (Book of Splendor, literally 'radiance'), a landmark text of Jewish mysticism. This association has spawned several well-known customs and practices on Lag BaOmer, including the lighting of bonfires, pilgrimages to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the northern Israeli town of Meron, and various customs at the tomb itself.
Another tradition that makes Lag BaOmer a day of Jewish celebration identifies it as the day on which the plague that killed Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 disciples came to an end, and for this reason the mourning period of Sefirat HaOmer concludes on Lag BaOmer for some believers.[3]
Lag BaOmer is Hebrew for "33rd [day] in the Omer". (The Hebrew letter ל (lamed) or "L" has the numerical value of 30 and ג (gimmel) or "G" has the numerical value of 3. A vowel sound is conventionally added for pronunciation purposes.)
Some Jews call this holiday Lag LaOmer, which means "33rd [day] of the Omer", as opposed to Lag BaOmer, "33rd [day] in the Omer". Lag BaOmer is the traditional method of counting by some Ashkenazi and Hasidic Jews; Lag LaOmer is the count used by Sephardi Jews. Lag LaOmer is also the name used by Yosef Karo, who was a Sepharadi, in his Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 493:2, and cf. 489:1 where BaOmer is inserted by a glossator).[4] (The form Lag B'Omer ["33rd day of an Omer"] is also sometimes used, though it is not grammatically correct in this setting.)
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, writes in his Likkutei Sichos that a deeper reason for the term Lag BaOmer is that the Hebrew words Lag BaOmer (ל״ג בעמר, spelled without the "vav"), have the same gematria as Moshe (משה, Moses). He writes that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whose yahrzeit is traditionally observed on this day, was mystically a spark of the soul of Moses.[5][6]
Kabbalistic significance
Lag BaOmer has another significance based on the Kabbalistic custom of assigning a Sefirah to each day and week of the Omer count. The first week corresponds to Chesed, the second week to Gevurah, etc., and similarly, the first day of each week corresponds to Chesed, the second day to Gevurah, etc. Thus, the 33rd day, which is the fifth day of the fifth week, corresponds to Hod she-be-Hod (Splendor within [the week of] Splendor). As such, Lag BaOmer represents the level of spiritual manifestation or Hod that would precede the more physical manifestation of the 49th day (Malkhut she-be-Malkhut, Kingship within [the week of] Kingship), which immediately precedes the holiday of Shavuot.[citation needed]
While the Counting of the Omer is a semi-mourning period, all restrictions of mourning are lifted for Ashkenazim on the 33rd day of the Omer. The Sephardic custom is to cease mourning the following day, celebrations being allowed on the 34th day of the Omer, Lad BaOmer (ל״ד בעומר).[14][15] As a result, weddings, parties, listening to music, and haircuts are commonly scheduled to coincide with Lag BaOmer among Ashkenazi Jews, while Sephardi Jews hold weddings the next day.[16] It is customary mainly among Hassidim that three-year-old boys be given their first haircuts (upsherin). While haircuts may be taken anywhere, if possible, the occasion is traditionally held at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel, or at the Jerusalem grave of Shimon Hatzaddik for those who cannot travel to Meron.[17]
Families go on picnics and outings. Children go out to the fields with their teachers with bows and rubber-tipped arrows. Tachanun, the prayer for special Divine mercy on one's behalf, is not said on days with a festive character, including Lag BaOmer;[18] when God is showing one a "smiling face," so to speak, as He does especially on the holidays, there is no need to ask for special mercy.[citation needed]
Bonfires
Religious
Israeli boys collect wood for a Lag BaOmer bonfire. A wood pile awaiting Lag BaOmer celebration
The most well-known custom of Lag BaOmer is the lighting of bonfires. The custom symbolises the "spiritual light" brought in to the world by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who according to tradition, revealed the mystical secrets found in the Zohar.[19]Bnei Yissaschar writes that the reason bonfires are lit is because on the day of his death, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said "now it is my desire to reveal secrets... The day will not go to its place like any other, for this entire day stands within my domain..." Daylight was miraculously extended until Rabbi Shimon had completed his final teaching and then died. This symbolised that all light is subservient to spiritual light, and particularly to the primeval light contained within the mystical teachings of the Torah. As such, the custom of lighting fires symbolizes this revelation of powerful light.[20]
Throughout the world religious Jews gather on the night and during the day of Lag BaOmer to light fires. The main celebration is held at the Tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Eleazar in Meron, where hundreds of thousands usually celebrate with bonfires, torches, song, dancing and feasting. In 1983, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz of Boston reinstated a century-old tradition among his Hasidim to light a bonfire at the grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiberias on Lag BaOmer night. The tradition had been abandoned due to murderous attacks on participants in the isolated location. After the bonfire, the Rebbe delivered a dvar Torah, gave blessings, and distributed shirayim. Later that same night, the Rebbe cut the hair of three-year-old boys for their Upsherin.[21]
For many years, New York based Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of Satmar discouraged bonfires saying it was not the custom to light them outside of the Land of Israel.[22] However, when his father Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum instructed him to organise a large bonfire in the Satmar enclave of Kiryas Joel tens of thousands turned up.[23]
Zionist
For Zionists (see section below), the bonfires are said to represent the signal fires that the Bar Kokhba rebels lit on the mountaintops to relay messages,[24] or are in remembrance of the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans, who had forbidden the kindling of fires that signalled the start of Jewish holidays.[25]
Bows and arrows
Religious
Historically, children across Israel used to go out and play with bows and arrows, reflecting the Midrashic statement that the rainbow (the sign of God's promise to never again destroy the earth with a flood; Genesis 9:11–13) was not seen during Bar Yochai's lifetime, as his merit protected the world.[19][26]
Zionist
In Israel, Lag BaOmer is a holiday for children and the various youth movements. It is also marked in the Israel Defense Forces as a week of the Gadna program (youth brigades) which were established on Lag BaOmer in 1941[dubious – discuss] and which bear the emblem of a bow and arrow.[24]
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, encouraged Lag BaOmerparades to be held in Jewish communities around the world as a demonstration of Jewish unity and pride.[27] Chabad sponsors parades as well as rallies, bonfires and barbecues for thousands of participants around the world each year.[28]
Songs
Several traditional songs are associated with the holiday; these are sung around bonfires, at weddings, and at tishen held by HasidicRebbes on Lag BaOmer. The popular song "Bar Yochai" was composed by Rabbi Shimon Lavi, a 16th-century kabbalist in Tripoli, Libya, in honor of Shimon Bar Yochai.[29][30] Other songs include "Ve'Amartem Koh LeChai", a poem arranged as an alphabetical acrostic, and "Amar Rabbi Akiva".[31]
Tish meal
Most Hasidic Rebbes conduct a tishon Lag BaOmer, in addition to or instead of a bonfire. A full meal is usually served, and candles are lit. It is traditional to sing " Bar Yochai", " Ve'Amartem Koh Lechai", and " Amar Rabbi Akiva". Among the Satmar Hasidim, " Tzama Lecha Nafshi" is sung at the tishin addition to the other songs. Teachings of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, both from the Talmud and the Zohar, are generally expounded upon by Rebbes at their tishen. In some Hasidic courts, the Rebbe may shoot a toy bow and arrow during the tish, and three-year-old boys may be brought to have a lock of hair cut by the Rebbe as part of their first haircut.
"Joshua…Conquered Hazor and struck it's king by the sword…Hazor…The Leader of all those kingdoms. (Only) Hazor he burned in fire… All of the others…Israel did not burn(Joshua 11: 10-13)."
Biblical Hazor is one of the premier archeological sites in Israel. Many of the most epic events of the Bible took place here, and even UNESCO listed it as a world heritage site in 2005. Such a world-class treasure must surely be on the "must-see" portion of itineraries, right? The shocking truth is that few tourists (even veteran tourists who are Bible literate) have ever even heard of it. Despite my vast knowledge of Hazor, I have only guided here twice, both times to tourists who annually visit Israel, and only because I recommended it to them. On the first visit, tears streamed down my tourist's cheeks when she realized that she was literally standing in a place where G-d led His people in battle.
When people read about the "Land of Canaan" in the Bible, they think of a large kingdom encompassing most of modern Israel, but actually, Canaan was made up of city-states with their own kings who were often at war with each other. According to the Bible, Hazor was the most powerful one. In fact, excavations have shown Hazor to have been the largest Tel (archeological site) in Israel at 820 Dunams (or over 200 acres). To put this into perspective, David's Jerusalem was only 61 dunams (15 acres).
An aerial shot of the excavated ruins of the ancient walled city. Only 1/8 of the city has been excavated, with the agricultural fields of nearby Kibbutz Ayelet (as partially seen on the right hand side) covering the rest. Photo Credit: AVRAMGR – Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
The Al Armana letters (a series of ancient letters written between Pharaoh and other Kings) were discovered in 1887 by an Egyptian peasant. These letters back up the Biblical account of Hazor being the most powerful Canaanite city-state. Egypt controlled the land of Canaan (at the same time the Hebrews were enslaved) and the local kings were the Pharaohs' tributaries. Whenever powerful kings of empires like Pharaoh or the King of Mesopotamia wrote to each other, they always greeted each other as "Brother", a sign of equality. Whenever a Canaanite king wrote to Pharaoh, they would start the letter with "To the king, my lord, my god, my Sun, the Sun from the sky, at your feet I bow 7 times forward and 7 time's backwards…". There was only one Canaanite King who dared call Pharaoh "Brother": The mighty king of Hazor.
One of many ancient letters between kings found in Egypt. Photo Credit: Public domain
Furthermore, Hazor is the only city in the entire Levant (i.e. the modern-day countries of Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and Southern Turkey) mentioned in the famous Mari Archives of Mesopotamia.
Mari Archive Letter, written in ancient Cuneiform, mentions Hazor
Upon G-d's command, Joshua will bring the Jewish people into Israel by crossing the Jordan River. The Canaanites were aware of G-d's promise to His people (see Joshua 2: 9-13), but the city-states in Northern Israel were not yet ready to submit. King Jabin of Hazor was placed in charge of mobilizing an army composed of the citizens of the different cities. He successfully recruited a formidable force of warriors, horses, and chariots "As numerous as the sands of the seashore (Joshua 11:4)". This military was so intimating that even though G-d had promised to deliver Israel into their hands, He felt it necessary to remind Joshua "Do not fear them (Joshua 11:6)."
The battle resulted in a decisive victory for the Jews. In most cases, the infrastructure of conquered cities was not to meant be destroyed. Instead, the fields, workshops and homes were to be left intact for the benefit of the Children of Israel to live. Hazor was an exception, and it was the only city that Joshua burned. Indeed, excavations revealed this to be the only city destroyed in its entirety during that time. Today when visiting the well-preserved ruins of King Jabin's palace, the burn layer is clearly visible.
The Green circle marks the spot in the Canaanite palace where the burn marks are clearly visible. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
G-d also commanded Joshua to destroy the chariots (and make unsuitable for war) the powerful warhorses he captured. Why would G-d want them to be destroyed instead of being used by the Israelites in future battles? According to Jewish sources, G-d did not want the Israelites to believe in the power of their arms, but to put their faith in G-d. This was a supernatural war. If the battles were conducted according to natural law, the Jews would not have been able to win. The people needed to know that if G-d was fighting this war, the extra weapons were not going to be their key to victory.
Centuries after the city was destroyed, King Solomon came and rebuilt it on the charred, Canaanite ruins. King Solomon built many walled cities, but three cities are mentioned by name in the verse: Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer (1 Kings 9: 15). In the latter 2 mentioned cities, excavators found city gates which have only been found in cities Solomon built. Archeologists call them "6 Chamber Gates".
Diagram of an aerial shot of the 6 chambered gates mentioned in the Bible Photo Credit: MadainProject
Therefore, when digging Hazor, Yigal Yadin (the famous Archeologist who dug Masada and also the second IDF chief of staff) expected to find a similar gate, which he eventually found and dug up.
Impressive remains of Solomon's gate in Hazor. Photo Credit: MadainProject
The city was eventually destroyed permanently during the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Today one can visit Hazor's impressive ruins, but people seldom do. The silver lining is that when exploring this treasure, you are likely to be one of the few visitors here and will have this fascinating site mostly to yourself!
