Day 3: Bar-Am Forest to the Grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai lived in the era of the Tannaim (scholars of the Mishnah) in the area of what is today Israel during the Roman period, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. He was one of the most eminent disciples of Rabbi Akiva (spiritual leader of the Bar Kochba revolt), and is mainly associated with the authorship of the Zohar, the principal text of Jewish mysticism. Legend has it that when he died his soul ascended to heaven in a great pillar of fire. On the anniversary of his death, hundreds of thousands of Jews ascend upon his gravesite in Mt. Meron and light massive bonfires to commemorate this experience. It is also a custom dating from the time of Rabbi Isaac Luria for Jewish parents to bring their three-year-old sons here for their first haircuts.

And so this was our destination for the day, giving us our first major landmark to look forward to. We had the most amount of traffic today, running into school group after school group doing field trips and day hikes.







Bradley loves to entertain kids by singing crazy Chassidic songs and dancing in the middle of the trail. It was very hilly today, but seeing Shimon bar Yochai’s grave in the distance gave us a new breath of fresh air.



Finally we made it to the grave, grabbing some ice cream and davening mincha. Matthew bade us farewell and we staked out a prime camping spot. There were hundreds of teenagers camping in the same area, while they were on a three month jewish history tour of Israel from the D.C and Atlanta areas of the US. Thankfully they had some food left over for us, and after a hilarious miscommunication of intentions where the staff thought Bradley (a 30 year old man with a beard) was really trying to pose as an American teenager, we settled in for the night, singing songs and lighting a decent fire.



-Jeremy