Today is the holiday of Lag ba-Omer, which celebrates the end of the plague that ravaged the students of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century CE. Later, the holiday also became associated with another 2nd-century sage, Shimon bar Yohai, whose grave is located in the Galilean city of Meron. Chaim Strauchler discusses the origin of what has become the day’s most prominent ritual:

Bonfires are the primary custom associated with Lag ba-Omer. This custom is not recorded in the Talmud or [medieval rabbis]. While the lighting of candles upon the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai was first recorded in a letter from 1742 describing Rabbi Hayyim Ibn Atar’s visit to Meron, later travelers describe the extensive fire ceremony on Lag ba-Omer (e.g., the travel journal Sefer Ahavat Tsiyon from 1764).

Rabbi Moses Schreiber (1762–1839) criticizes the initiation of a “new” holiday that neither appears in the Talmud nor results from a modern deliverance from danger. Likewise, Rabbi  Joseph Saul Nathanson (1808–1875), in a responsum concerning events that took place in 1842, expresses frustration with Lag ba-Omer fires. He specifically focuses on the custom of burning clothing on Lag ba-Omer, a practice that also gains prominent mention in travel journals (although largely unfamiliar today).

The great cost of textiles at the time and the extravagant descriptions of some of the garments used in the Meron ceremony suggest an anti-materialist asceticism tied to these ceremonies. They weren’t simply creating fire; they were destroying sartorial ostentatiousness.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.