Scholars have argued for over a century about whether the book most associated with the sage buried at Meron was actually written by him, a dispute that has nothing to do with why pilgrims still come.
An authorship the pilgrims do not need settled
Tradition credits Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a second century sage, with authoring the Zohar, the foundational text of Kabbalah. Modern scholarship, following the work of Gershom Scholem, has instead traced the text's actual composition substantially to the thirteenth century Spanish writer Moses de Leon, who is thought to have presented an original work as an ancient rediscovered manuscript. The scholarly consensus has done essentially nothing to reduce the devotional significance of Bar Yochai's grave itself.
Bonfires and a first haircut
The Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron centres on large bonfires lit at the site, associated with the joy Bar Yochai's teachings are said to have brought into the world, and on upsherin, the traditional first haircut given to three-year-old boys, performed publicly at the tomb by some families as a milestone marked specifically at this location.
What the crowding cost in 2021
In April 2021, a crush during the festival killed forty-five people, one of the deadliest civilian disasters in Israel's history, prompting subsequent changes to crowd limits and site management at an event whose scale had grown for years without matching investment in safety infrastructure.