This film was produced by the Jewish Music Research Centre along with the National Sound Archives at the Jewish National and University Library and the script was written by Pamela Kidron, Yaakov Mazor, and Edwin Seroussi.
It follows the Lag B'omer hillula (festive celebrations in honor of late rabbis, important scholars etc. More information can be found in the LINKS section below) celebrations on Mount Meiron. Every year thousands of pilgrims flock to this site to sing, pray, and rejoice in honor of Shimon Bar Yohai (Rashbi) and his son Elazar whose tombs are on the mountain. The pilgrims are mostly comprised of two streams of Judaism: Hassidim and North African Jews. Even though the two groups assemble in close proximity to one another, each tradition maintains its own unique characteristics and music. During the day before the hillulah, the North Africans sing prayers and songs that are not unique to this specific hillulah and at night sing popular songs in Moroccan Arabic. The Hassidim spend much of the night singing and dancing to religious and klezmer music which moves from deeply meditative music to fast spiritual dance music.
Songs that appear in the film: Bar Yohai, Romanian Hora, a Bottle Dance to the tune Nigun Shefer.
Complete film on Youtube, courtesy of the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive Virtual Cinema:
