ZAKA is happy to report that a new 4X4 All Terrain Vehicle was delivered to our headquarters in the Northern Israeli town of Meron today. This impressive machine is equipped with state-of-the-art medical and rescue technologies that will aid the crew stationed there to be prepared for the Lag Ba’omer holiday. The holiday, held every year on the thirty fourth day after Passover, commemorates the end of a weeks-long mourning period for the students of the famed first-century teacher, Rabbi Akiva. One of his most renown students, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, is said to be the father of Kabbalah and entered on Mount Meron. Tens of thousands of pilgrims make the journey to the village of Meron each year to celebrate Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s miraculous survival of the plague that ended the lives of so many of Rabbi Akiva’s students.
With such a huge population suddenly swelling throughout the Galilee area around Lag Ba’Omer, the Meron-based ZAKA crew needs all the help it can get to be prepared for any emergency situation that may arise before, on, and after the holiday. That is why the new 4X4 was gratefully received in a small inauguration ceremony at the ZAKA headquarters in Meron today. The new technology was graciously donated by the Mogen David Congregation of Los Angeles, California, led by Rabbi Mosez. The donation was carried out by ZAKA representative Kamran Manuel. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Police Chaplin Rabbi Rami Brachiahu and by the commander of ZAKA’s northern volunteers, Rabbi Chaim Weingarten.
