Mt Meron, from Now to Then

In April 2021 Mt Meron made the headlines with the tragic deaths of 45 Hasidic orthodox Jews during an important pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain. The accident took place during a pilgrimage to celebrate the festival Lag B'Omer or the counting of the 1st omer, which falls between Passover and the wheat harvest festival of Shavuot. It is also a day of celebration for the life of the 2nd century rabbi, Simeon ben Yochai founding father of Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical tendency. He understood his death to be "the day of my joy". Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai had spent twelve years in the study of the Torah, or the five books of the Jewish Law, in a cave on Mt Meron in Upper Galilee. His tomb on Mt Meron became the focal point of much religious devotion.

There are other burials on Mt Meron, most notably those of Rabbi Hillel (?-10CE) and Rabbi Shammai (50BCE-30CE) which takes us to the era of Jesus. These rabbis were both Pharisees and extremely important to the early development of rabbinical Judaism. Their graves also became the focal point of religious devotion. Miracles in particular of healings have been associated with the graves of which a spring of water situated in the burial cave of Rabbi Hillel is of notable significance.

However Mt Meron has a much longer and quite complex history of diverse religious practice which needs to be understood within the context of the regions' own quite complex ancient history, understanding the ebb and flow of powerful empires and how these, in particular impacted upon Galilee within which Mt Meron is situated. This is the Galilee in which Jesus lived out most of his life, walked it's bye-ways, taught and prayed in its' synagogues, by the lakeside and mountain.