Leonid Katsis

May 23, 2024 | jewishreviewofbooks.com | Elli Fischer |Akiva Schick |Brian Horowitz |Leonid Katsis

Last year, and as far back as anybody can remember, though perhaps not as far back as many think, hundreds of thousands of Jews flocked to the town of Meron in Northern Israel on Lag BaOmer, the thirty-third of the forty-nine days that are counted from the second day of Passover until Shavuot. They light huge bonfires; binge on free food; and drink, pray, and sing themselves through the night into a kind of group ecstasy. It is the world’s largest annual Jewish pilgrimage festival.