Alef Kasav (ד"תרפ) writes, "[Reb Mendel Litman from Tzefas] told that the Or HaChaim cried the entire night of Lag b'Omer at the time of the hadlakah. He stood from a distance, saying, 'How can I come to this holy place where Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and all tzaddikim are present?!'"
Rebbe Shlomke of Zvhil zt’l asked his gabbai to awaken him when it was time to begin their trip to Meron for Lag b’Omer. When the gabbai awoke the Rebbe, he saw that the Rebbe's pillow and bed were soaked with tears. As they traveled, Reb Shlomke urged everyone to be happy. He said, "We must be happy even while traveling to Meron." One person in the group was fasting, and Reb Shlomke instructed him to eat because it is a day of happiness. Reb Shlomke would say, "Reb Shimon sends out invitations to his hillulah to everyone. If someone doesn’t come, his invitation didn't arrive."
A family spent a Shabbos in Meron. The head of the family commented, “For the same amount of money we spent on this Shabbos, we could have gone to a luxurious vacation resort.” For the next three years, he didn’t return to Meron. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go. It was just that things didn’t work out. For example, when his son turned three, he wanted to make the chalakah in Meron, but the boy was slightly ill, and they couldn’t go. His wife told him, "It seems that since you said that it wasn’t worthwhile coming to Meron, Reb Shimon isn’t inviting us anymore." He realized she might be right, so he closed himself in a room, cried, and repented for his foolish words. After he washed his face and dried his tears, his neighbor knocked at his door and said, “I just bought a new car. The first time I use it, I want it to be for a mitzvah. Do you want to come with me to Meron?” When he truly wanted to return to Meron, he was invited again.
Reb Shmuel Heller zt'l tells about the time Reb Chaim ben Atar, the Or HaChaim HaKodesh, came to Meron for Lag b'Omer: "When he reached the bottom of the mountain of Meron, he got off his donkey and crawled up the mountain on his hands and knees, and grunted like an animal the entire way. He shouted, 'How can the lowly me enter this awesome place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu, all the angels, and souls of tzaddikim are present?!' And at the hillulah he was very happy."
We wrote above from the Ruzhiner and the Bnei Yissaschar that the joy in Meron exceeds the barriers of nature.
The Maharil of Paltishan zt'l writes, "I had the merit of being in Meron on Lag b'Omer (approximately 175 years ago). Brothers and friends, I cannot express in writing the great simchah experienced there! Fortunate are the eyes who beheld it! Whoever was there felt with certainty that the joy was in the merit of Reb Shimon bar Yochai – because he wants people to rejoice on this day."
Reb Avraham Rozen described the Lag b'Omer he saw (in 1967/ז"תשכ): "Until the morning, no one went to sleep – the joy was so great. Then, the people who were there at night went to sleep, and a new group arrived. The entire day and the following night were the same. I won't burden myself to write the details of the joy I saw there, at every moment, and in various ways. Whoever didn’t see that joy never experienced joy in his life. Some people were jumping like deer, some were singing, some were drinking, and some were clapping their hands and dancing with all their might.... I don’t know how to describe the joy, but I will tell you what I felt at the time. I imagined that Moshiach had arrived, and I was watching the simchas beis hashoevah in Yerushalayim. It was wondrous!"
May we all be zocheh to tap into the hashpaos of this incredible day!
