It was shortly after midnight, the celebration at its frenzied peak. Tens of thousands of people were dancing ecstatically around bonfires to the sounds of a Klezmer band. The traditional festival on Mount Meron in the Galilee, at what is believed to be the burial site of the second century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, was also marking an end to the lockdowns and social distancing that had prevented the ritual last year. All eyes were on the main event, the lighting of a huge bonfire by adherents of the ultra-Orthodox Toldot Aharon Hassidic sect. Suddenly, the band stopped.
Footage of the densely packed crowds aired on television earlier in the evening in what was billed as the biggest ever celebration of the Lag Ba’Omer holiday.