Yom Hillula - Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

The first Tzaddik whose Yom Hillula was celebrated is that of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, on Lag Be'Omer. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai referred to this day as Yom Simchato ("the day of his happiness") and a spiritual wedding. There is thus a very widely observed custom to visit Meron (the burial place of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) on Lag Be'Omer, and celebrate with torches, song, and feasting. This celebration was a specific request by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai of his students.

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