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| (Photo: Mount Meron) |
This year (2026) Pesach Sheni falls on Friday 1st May and Lag LaOmer on Tuesday 5th May.[i]
Most readers will connect Lag LaOmer to the celebration of
the end of a plague in the days
of Rabbi Akiva, or perhaps to the Hilula of R. Shimon bar Yohai,
whose Meron shrine-complex becomes a
major site of celebratory pilgrimage on
that day each year.
They will often assume that the Jewish
Meron Pilgrimage originated as
a celebration of the Hilula of R. Shimon Bar Yohai (2nd
century) but, in fact, it originates in a Water Festival that took place near
the supposed cave-tomb of R.Hillel (1st
century) which is also in Meron.
This
brief essay is written for
members of Tariqa Eliyahu Ha Nabi—our Jewish Sufi Order dedicated to the
renewal of the Egyptian Hasidic mesorah in our day—and they might be surprised to learn that both Pesach
Sheni and Meron's Water Festival also have a very special connection to one of the
movement’s leaders and authors: R.David
ben Abraham Maimuni (1222 -1300).
oooOooo
R. Abraham ben Ha Rambam (1186-1237) had two sons: David (d.1300) and Obadyah (1228-1265). David became R.
Abraham’s successor as Nagid (the Leader
of all the Jews in Egypt) and wrote Commentaries on the Torah and
Haftarah, and on Pirkei Avot (in
Arabic)—whilst Obadyah devoted all of his time
to a celibate life of
contemplation and retreat. Obadyah is most remembered for his attendance at the Jewish Sufi retreat
centre at Dammuh and for his spiritual
treatise entitled Al-Maqala
al-Hawdiyya (The Treatise of the
Pool).[ii]
The
Jewish-Sufi Movement of the
Mediaeval Egyptian Hasidim was certainly both strong and popular for at
least three hundred years, but in its
early days it was not supported by everyone in the Cairo Jewish community. Many were suspicious of the movement’s
adoption of Islamic Sufi contemplative practice and the liturgical reforms of
its Maimuni leaders— even though the group
insisted that they were reinstating the lost Jewish contemplative practice of
the biblical prophets, a
tradition they were convinced had been severely neglected in Judaism but which
had been preserved by the Islamic Sufis.
Abraham ben HaRambam and his son David were
not just leaders within the Pietist
Movement, they were both halachic Judges and Community leaders of
the entire Jewish community. In
holding such a highly political and powerful position it is
only to be expected that they would have
encountered both intense rivalry and opposition from competing individuals and community factions. The Maimuni Hasidim therefore prayed their
liturgy and practiced their distinctive
contemplative form of khalwa(hitbodedut) in their
own synagogues and in their own meeting places. It is
true that Abraham Maimuni and
his group wore the
same distinguishing Sufi attire as that worn by the Muslim Sufis—even when they were in public—but they kept their Special
Path and its practices discreetly private.
R. David ben Abraham Maimuni had to
contend with much political opposition and at one point, he was forced to close
his own Jewish-Sufi zawwiya and daven in a “mainstream” synagogue
according to its standard minhag and
nusach. Those who opposed him
had actually reported him to the Fostat Muslim
authorities in order to suppress both the liturgical reforms initiated by his
father Abraham and the Jewish-Sufi
practices that were promoted by David and
Obadyah.
Rabbenu David ben Abraham fled from
this persecution to Akko in 1285. He will surely
have brought with him companions from the Jewish-Sufi group from Fostat, and scholars
have conjectured that the liturgical prostration which was practiced by
some Jews in that coastal city in those days
was initiated by his visiting exiled group.
His residence in Akko is, quite
possibly, the principal channel
through which many of the Egyptian Jewish-Sufi
contemplative traditions found
their way into the mystical
and ascetic practices of the Galil—The contention is that these practices were absorbed by Yitzhak ben Shmuel of Akko (12th-13thc)
and by Abraham Abul’Afiya (1240-1291)
and his
disciples, to become prominent features of their own thought systems—eventually becoming a
significant part of the new and
revolutionary contemplative kabbalistic
systems of the Safed mystics in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.
While in the Galil, in 1285 or shortly
afterwards, Rabbenu David made a very
significant pilgrimage (ziara) to Meron
and that pilgrimage occurred on Pesach
Sheni. To understand its significance we will now
set the scene of what happened there.
The
Water Ritual of Meron
In our times the Meron Pilgrimage on
Lag La Omer is very much focussed on the
person and legend of
R.Shimon bar Yohai. As stated above,
this is
a comparitively recent focus.
In the mediaeval era in question, the centre
of the ziara and its festivities was a actually The cave-tomb of Hillel and
his Disciples that is found slightly
to the west of the
current shrine-complex of
the Rashbi. Even more poignantly—the central ritual of
this pilgrimage was not the lighting of a beacon fire but the
appearance of “water” and the filling of water containers.
There are several accounts of this Water Pilgrimage, ranging from
the account of Petachiah of Regensburg
(in the 12th century) to the Islamic records of Evliya Çelebi (1611
– 1682),but they are all in accordance regarding the central statements that (i) the major Meron Jewish Pilgrimage was held at the Cave
of Hillel; (ii) that this event and
the holiday festivities that
followed it were also attended by
Muslims (in peaceful conviviality); (iii) that they involved a water ritual (that was probably
originally a Canaanite custom also performed at Meron); and (iv) that this ceremony was related to intercessions
for a Divine blessing on the local water
supply.
As is
so often the case where such
rituals of ancient provenance are
concerned, considerable hagiographical elaboration and miracle story-telling has obscured the actual practices and their development over the centuries.
The reader is directed to the ground-breaking essay by Prof.
Elchanan Reiner entitled “Meron’s Miracles”[iii]
for the full story.
In some versions of the story, the ceremony produces actual immediate rainfall,
in some a flooding of the local cisterns, in some a mysterious outpouring of great quantities
of springwater that produces so much water that hundreds were able to fill their pitchers on the day itself.
That "DAY" was sometimes
given as Lag LaOmer, sometimes as Pesach Sheni, and sometimes (erroneously) as Sukkot.
But most usually the date is recorded sometime in the early weeks of
the month of Iyyar when both Pesach
Sheni and Lag LaOmer always fall.
oooOooo
 |
| (Photo: Jews and Muslims at the Meron pilgrimage.. 1930's) |
Our primary concern, in Tariqa
Eliyahu, is the part of the event’s
history that involves R. David and our Movement.
The version of the story which follows comes from Professor
Reiner’s study:
“Around 1285, Rabbi David
Hanagid, grandson of Maimonides, employed the cave’s magical properties against
his opponents, who had tried to remove him from the office of nagid(head of the
Jewish community in the Mameluke state):
“Rabbi David Hanagid would
pray in the cave of Rabbi Hillel and Shammai, and cold water would issue. Then
he excommunicated the slanderers. And on that day five hundred slanderers in
Egypt died and two months later, their wives and sons were taken from this
world”
(Sefer Yuhasin by R.Abraham
Zakut).
The process of what actually occurred in the
cave-ritual is described —as a miracle—by Petachiah of Regensburg (active 1175-1190):
“And in the lower Galilee there is a
[burial] cave, and inside it is wide and
high. On one side is the cave of Shammai and his disciples, and on the other
side, Hillel and his disciples. In the middle of the cave is a sunken stone, a
large stone hollow like a cup,with a capacity of some forty seah [7.3 litres]
and more. And when a truly righteous person comes there, they see the stone
full of beautiful water, and they wash their hands and pray and ask whatever they will.
And the stone is not hollow from below
because the water does not come from the ground, but it will appear if the
person is truly righteous. A person who is not truly righteous will not see the water. And if even a
thousand jars of water will be drawn from the stone, water will not be lacking.
It will be as full as at first, and the water does not issue [from a
spring].”
(emphases mine)
Whatever caused R.David
to flee from Cairo to Akko, he was recalled by his community there in 1290,
having spent five years in the Galil but
always based in Akko itself. Whether his oppressors changed their opinions
is not known and we can only muse
fancifully that any change of heart by
his enemies might have
been influenced by his prayers at
Meron. R. David re-shouldered his role
as Nagid, though his experience of
conflict in earlier years had sapped
his vitality, and thenceforward he chose
to share the role
with his son, Abraham. R. David is reputed to be buried alongside his own father, R. Abraham ben HaRambam Maimuni,
at the kever of the Rambam in Tiverya.[iv]
oooOooo
THE WATER MIRACLE RENEWED
I would like
to conclude this very brief essay with a personal reflective comment.
The Maimuni temperament that inspires
our Order does not incline our members
to be impressed by talk of miracles and magical mysteries. Who knows what
actually happened in the mind of David
HaNagid at Pesach Sheni? Who knows what
really went on in Meron to inspire the
miraculous water-appearances that so many mediaeval accounts testify did
happen at the Cave of
Hillel. My belief is that G-d Alone knows and
that we ought to leave such matters
to Him.
But David’s brother, R. Obadyah, wrote
an entire sefer based on the symbol of a pool of water. He must, surely,
have discussed this pool-symbol many
times with his brother in the context of their shared Judeo-Sufic practice.
Following the example
of P.Fenton and T. Block, I
would like to contrast two related passages. The
first is from Al Ghazali
(1057-1111), who was one of the
three Islamic Sufi authors most
commonly studied by the Cairene Hasidim,
and the
second is from the Treatise
of the
Pool written by David’s brother Obadyah:
Al Ghazali writes:
“The heart is like a pool, and
the senses are like the
five streams by which water
enters the pool from outside. If you want limpid water to rise from the bottom of
the pool, the way to do
it is to remove all of the
water from it...The paths of
all the streams must be blocked so that the water does not come...So long as the pool is busy with
water that comes from the
outside, water cannot rise up from within. In the same
way,then knowledge that comes from within the heart will not be gained until the heart is
emptied of everything that has
come from the outside.”[v]
Obadyah Maimuni writes:
“Imagine a
certain person who, possessing
a very old pool,desireth to cleanse the latter of dirt and restore it...he must occupy himself with its
gradual cleansing until that pool be completely
purified. Only after having ascertained that there remain therein no
impurity can THE LIVING WATERS THAT GO FORTH FROM THE HOUSE OF GOD flow therein...The foregoing is
an allegory alluding to the
purification, cleansing and
purging of the heart, the correction of its defects and
failings and its being emptied
of all but the Most High. He who accomplisheth
this will comprehend invaluable notions which were hitherto hidden from him,
deriving therefrom that which none else can acquire (even) after much
time and with plenteous knowledge.” [vi]
In the Petachiah version of the Meron ritual it is emphasised that the water that fills the
stone, after the Tzaddik has prayed, appears (i) only to a righteous
person; and (ii) does not come from
an underground spring or natural source.
Remembering the above quoted passage in the
Treatise of the Pool might
permit the interpretation that the
“water” of the Meron miracle was
a symbolic rather than a physical effluent, an approximation, or a
reflection of a contemplative event that
was actually taking place in the heart
of the one praying in the cave of Hillel.
It seems to me
that the water-miracle story might be
a fragmented memory of a sufi-type teaching-tale that lies
behind the legend.
With this perspective the reason the water in the Cave
of Hillel is only produced and seen by the true gnostic— and the
reason it bears no connection to a natural spring—might be
because it signifies a visionary experience rather than a physical one.
The reason the prayer of the visionary
is the prelude to the granting of
the tzaddik’s wishes is because what is being described, or hinted at, is
the visionary’s contemplative contact
with G-d.
The
process therefore represents the
gift of prophecy whereby G-d makes the
will of the illuminated-one His Will.
oooOooo
But is it “water” that the gnostic
sees?
Rabbenu Obadyah echoes Al Ghazali’s warning
about distinguishing illusion from
reality. He stresses the importance of
developing discernment in knowing
what is distraction or illusion and what is True.
So often in the early stages of
our development as contemplatives we think we might be divinely inspired
when in fact we are being deluded by our ego. Similarly, we might experience
what seems to be ecstasy when in fact it is little more than
hormonal or cerebral excitement. Experienced contemplatives recognise
that these experiences are like treats or
sweets given to children, like the honeyed alphabet of the
cheder— but soon we learn that we have to grow up.
R. Obadyah writes:
“Be however extremely
mindful that no residue remain in the pool and beware that no impurity seep
into the water that floweth
therein...for any (impurity) remaining
there will be restored to thee by
the imaginative faculty when thou sleepest or when thou
awakest or at times of solitary devotion (khalwa)...Thou wilt think it an
object from without, whereas it is part of the dregs
left in the pool”.
He continues:
“The rabbis
have warned us against this
(error) in the account of the
four who entered Paradise ‘Rabbi Aqiba said unto thee ‘upon reaching the marble stoned floor, do not utter ‘Water,
water’. [vii]
oooOooo
Pesach Sheni is seen as “a second chance” to celebrate the Pesach
redemption. It is, for us, an opportunity to see if we have really and
truly left the pursuing army of Pharaoh behind us.
Maybe on Pesach Sheni—we are being invited not to cross the Sea of Reeds— but to cross a different stretch of “water” — and to separate the dregs that cloud the pool from the true and emerging Living Waters.
Pesach Sheni and Lag LaOmer
Sameach.
Nachman Davies
Safed
Erev Pesach Sheni 11th May
2025
Reposted May 2026
NOTES
[i] Sefardim refer to the thirty third day of the Omer count as Lag LaOmer. Ashkenazim prefer Lag b’Omer.
[ii] Obadyah b. Abraham b.Moses Maimonides, The Treatise of the Pool (al-Maqâla al-Hawdiyya): translated by Paul Fenton;The Octagon Press;London (1981)
[iv] Dr Rachel Sarfati’s groundbreaking research on the Florence Scroll has effectively confirmed the burial of R. Abraham ben HaRambam next to the Rambam in Tverya (see our 2022 essay HERE), but the burial of R. David ben Abraham at that site is questioned by many. The epigraphic plaque commemorating R. David’s burial at the Rambam’s kever is considered by Dr Y. Stepansky (and many others) to be “probably a forgery”. On this see Dr Y. Stepanski: “Fifteenth to Seventeenth-Century CE Hebrew Epitaphs from the Jewish Cemetery at Ẓefat (Safed)..... and.... Hillel M. 2022. Hazon Tavrimon: Forged Documents Produced by the Toledano Brothers of Tiberias. Jerusalem (Hebrew).
[v] Quoted in Chittick,W. Sufism: A short introduction p.143; One World Publishers; Oxford (2000)
[vi] The Treatise of the Pool, P. Fenton p91 (emphases mine)
[vii] The Treatise of the Pool, P.Fenton p92 (emphases mine)
