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Each Lag BaOmer (33rd day of the Omer), thousands of Tunisian Jews and their descendants converge on a small island in the Mediterranean, Djerba, for the Hilula at the El Ghriba synagogue. Pre-2002, the pilgrimage drew over 5,000 souls. The synagogue itself, by tradition, was founded in 600 BCE by priests fleeing the destruction of the First Temple, who carried with them a stone from the altar. This lesson covers the legend, the customs, the famous Menara candle ceremony, and how Lag BaOmer in North Africa connects to the broader Sephardic and Israeli traditions of bonfires and Bar Yochai veneration.
Cultural note, El Ghriba ("the strange one" or "the marvelous") is one of the oldest continuously functioning synagogues on earth. The Hilula commemorates Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), traditional author of the Zohar, who died on Lag BaOmer. Twansa (indigenous Tunisian Jews) and Grana (Livornese Jews who arrived 17th-18th c.) jointly participate. Muslim Tunisian neighbors traditionally accompany the candle procession through the streets, a rare and beautiful interfaith custom that has survived terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2023. Today, Israeli pilgrims with second passports and French Tunisian Jews still come, though numbers have dropped to a few hundred.
El Ghriba Synagogue Legend
Hilula Pilgrimage Customs
Menara Candle Ceremony
Egg Blessings & Mitzvot
North African Lag BaOmer Tradition
The Pilgrimage Story: A Tunisian Family Recounts
A grandfather in Toulouse tells his grandson, on the eve of Lag BaOmer, why the family still goes back to Djerba, and what was lost, and what remains.