The Holy Tana – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai’s Hilloula (Yartzeit) is this Saturday Night, April 27th and Sunday, Apr 28 (Iyar 18).

R. Shimon Bar Yohai is credited with writing the Zohar – the book of Kabbala (Jewish Mysticism). He hid away from the Roman Government for 12 Years in a Cave in Meron with his Son, Elazar. There they studied Torah day and night. They were nourished by a spring of Fresh Water and a Carob tree that grew nearby. For Shabbat, the tree would grow figs instead of carobs, that they would pick before Shabbat to eat on Shabbat.

He reached such a high level of being, due to his study of the Torah, that he told People to celebrate his death – for he accomplished his potential in life.

Thus we, and Hundreds of thousands celebrate the Hilloula Celebration of Lag BaOmer (the 33rd Day of the Omer) by lighting candles in his memory, learning his Torah and visiting his tomb in Meron, Israel. In Israel, children collect scraps of wood to make a large pyre in order to burn on the day of his Hilloula.

Light a candle in his memory on Lag Ba’Omer and say a prayer to Hash-m that in his merit you will be answered.