Officers locked down the area Sunday and were ostensibly keeping non-residents from entering Meron, but nevertheless refrained from vacating those who had already arrived in the area.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, young Haredi men were seen hopping fences late into the night in an effort to reach the area, flouting police restrictions.<\/p>\n
The longstanding tradition at Meron has suffered in recent years amid increasingly frequent flare-ups with Hezbollah on Israel\u2019s northern border, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic. Past closures have sparked fierce clashes between police and Haredi worshipers attempting to break into the site.<\/p>\n
Despite two alternate bonfire lighting ceremonies scheduled to take place in Jerusalem, many Haredi Jews were determined to reach the northern shrine. Some planned to make the journey ahead of the holiday, then return home before Monday evening.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, an anonymous group put up fliers in ultra-Orthodox areas promising special \u201cself-defense\u201d equipment for those who planned to travel to Meron and feared police violence. The advertisement promised \u201chelmets, pepper spray and tasers\u201d to all who arrived at specific locations in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Beit Shemesh.<\/p>\n
The unknown suppliers were also offering airsoft guns, smoke bombs and body cameras for a \u201csubsidized price.\u201d It was unclear whether these fliers were genuine, or served as a scare tactic.<\/p>\n
\t At Meron, two young men recorded themselves attempting to cut holes in fences<\/a> with wirecutters, in an effort to help others sneak into the area through forests and shrubbery.<\/p>\n Northern District police commander Meir Eliyahu said in a Sunday statement that police had identified \u201cextremist actors\u201d who were trying to \u201ccreate provocations in order to incite the public. I am warning these actors: don\u2019t do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Last-minute reversal<\/p>\n Police announced their plans to scale back the Meron festivities just a day prior to Lag B\u2019Omer. Preparations had been nearly completed ahead of the holiday before they became superfluous.<\/p>\n The decision was made in the wake of tightened restrictions<\/a> put out by the IDF Home Front Command, limiting outdoor public gatherings to 200 people and indoor gatherings to 600 people, as opposed to the previous 1,500.<\/p>\n Nearly NIS 100 million ($34 million) was invested in renovating the Meron site for the anticipated influx of worshipers, according to the Ynet news outlet. Most of this infrastructure was taken down on Sunday.<\/p>\n \t Instead of a mass celebration, three officially approved bonfire lightings were scheduled to take place atop Mount Meron this year, each hosting 200 people.<\/p>\n Continuing an annual tradition at the site, the central bonfire was to be lit by the head of the Boyan Hasidic sect, Rabbi Nachum Dov Brayer. A bonfire for the Sephardic Haredi public was to be lit by Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, and a lighting for Israel\u2019s national religious camp was to be led by the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu.<\/p>\n Yaakov Haim Miller, one of the producers of the event, voiced dissatisfaction with the framework put forth by police to enforce the Home Front Command restrictions. Speaking to Kikar Hashabbat, an ultra-Orthodox news outlet, he warned that the very existence of a ceremony would motivate people to come, regardless of the rules put in place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people who will come at any price, even on unpaved routes and even under fire,\u201d Miller told the outlet.<\/p>\n \t \u201cIf the state were really worried about a disaster, it would hermetically close the public transportation and the distant routes, and shut the lights on the mountain. The moment they put into place any sort of official framework, it attracts people to come,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Rabbi Eliezer Carlebach, whose family runs a yeshiva and guest house atop Mount Meron, told The Times of Israel he had opened a hotline for people who want those who are at the site to pray on their behalf.<\/p>\n Ahead of the holiday, Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef rebuked members of the ultra-Orthodox public who planned to travel to Meron.<\/p>\n \u201cPreserving life overrides the entire Torah,\u201d he said, according to a Rabbinate spokesperson. The rabbi stressed that Jewish law requires transgressing even Shabbat and Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, to safeguard human life.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if preserving life overrides Shabbat, would it not override Lag B\u2019Omer?\u201d he said, stressing how the Meron pilgrimage is not even a Torah commandment, but rather a tradition.<\/p>\n In 2021, a crowd crush killed 45 people and injured over 100 as they traversed a narrow walkway at the shrine, marking Israel\u2019s deadliest peacetime civilian disaster to date.<\/p>\n Alternate ceremonies<\/p>\n This year\u2019s changes mirrored the heavy restrictions imposed on Meron in 2024, during all-out war with Hezbollah, in which three small bonfire lightings were held at the site in parallel with ceremonies further from the northern border \u2014 in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.<\/p>\n With Meron ostensibly closed to the general public this year as well, two mass bonfire lighting ceremonies were scheduled to take place in Jerusalem Monday night.<\/p>\n One ceremony was set to be held in Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, which has long been a flashpoint for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/F260503CG153-1.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPosters calling on the public to arm themselves before visiting the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron during Lag B\u2019Omer are seen in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, after the celebrations were canceled on May 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/F260503DC216.jpg\")
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\n\t\tWorkers dismantle signs at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron, northern Israel, after the Lag BaOmer celebrations were canceled on May 3, 2026. (David Cohen\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/F240526DC239.jpg\")
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\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox men try to reach the Tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron after it was declared a closed military zone, during the Jewish holiday of Lag B\u2019Omer, May 26, 2024. (David Cohen\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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