But since lighting the fires is such a quintessentially Israeli part of the holiday, what will happen to it if the fires are curtailed? Will new content be poured into the day, and new traditions be created that will enable it to remain a day that has something for everyone across the Israeli Jewish spectrum to grasp onto?
If not, as Rosner noted, it may turn into a day on the calendar like the Fast of the 17th of Tamuz, which only the religiously observant generally commemorate, or Jerusalem Day, marking Israel’s liberation of Jerusalem in the Six Day War, a day, for the most part, only widely celebrated by the religious Zionist camp.The bonfires have been what made Lag Ba’omer a day all segments of Israeli Jewish society could grab onto. What happens when those fires begin to lose their charm?