Rely on Rabi Shimon

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he usual throngs won’t be heading to Meron this Lag B’omer, but Rabi Shimon bar Yochai’s power of salvation is surely still potent, wherever a Yid will find himself on 18 Iyar. While everyone knows someone with a miracle story, we asked a selection of entertainers — who are especially attached to the simchah of the day and the reprieve of music in the middle of Sefirah — about Rabi Shimon and their personal yeshuah.

The Baby’s Advocate

Seventeen years ago, the first Lag B’omer after the birth of my special-needs daughter Malky, I wanted to take her to Rabi Shimon. I feel a special attachment to Meron, as I still treasure fragments of memory from my own upsheren, when my father brought me along from London to Rabi Shimon. But with nine-month-old Malky, it wasn’t an easy trip. I flew from London, then rented a car in Bnei Brak, but when I reached Meron, it was impossible to get close to the tziyun. I waited for a while, thinking the crowds would ease up, but they didn’t. After making it all this way, I really wanted to go in and daven with my daughter next to Rabi Shimon. We reached the entrance, but it was too packed. I tried to get in a side door through the balcony, but there was no chance. People started to scream at me, “What are you doing here with a baby?!”

I responded to one of them, a middle-aged Sephardic man, “I’ve come thousands of miles to daven with my daughter here and I’m now two meters away from the tziyun. Can I not go in and daven? She needs a lot of brachah and yeshuos.”

When he heard me, he yelled out to the crowd, “There’s a child here who has traveled from overseas to daven for a yeshuah. Make space for her!”