Gallery: Lag Ba'Omer bonfires light up the night

Residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood Pisgat Ze'ev bring some of their youngest neighbors around the fire for Lag Ba'Omer.

By JONAH MANDEL
lag baomer 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
lag baomer 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Residents of Jerusalem neighborhood Pisgat Ze'ev stand round a traditional Lag Ba'Omer bonfire Saturday night, marking the day of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's death, and the end to the plague that killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva's students. Tens of thousands of believers were on their way to Mount Meron for the main event at Bar Yochai's grave site, this year to be lit only at midnight. To diminish potential Shabbat desecration of security forces and unobservant Jews, the chief rabbis ordered that the bonfires be lit on Sunday. Thousands of police and firemen were deployed in the Meron area, expected to see over 300,000 worshipers over Saturday night and the following day.