Past the seventh step
David Wilder
March 03, 2010
The Jewish Community of Hebron
POB 105 , Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100 hebron@hebron.org.il

It's difficult to know where to start: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, King
David, the Maccabees, Herod the Great, Bar Cochva, Rabbi Malkiel Ashkenazi,
Menucha Rachel Shneerson Slonim, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, or perhaps my three
month old granddaughter Hadar.

Actually, probably the best beginning is with Baibars, Sultan of the Mamluks
in the middle 1200s. In 1260 the Mamluks conquered Hebron, expelling the
occupying Crusaders. In 1267 Baibars barred Jews and Christians from Ma'arat
HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron. This
monument, considered the 2nd holiest site to the Jewish people in the entire
world, remained off-limits to anyone not Moslem for 700 years, until
finally, during the 1967 Six-Day War, again Jews accessed this most holy of
places.

The history of Ma'arat HaMachpela is well known and documented. According to
the holy Zohar, it was here where Adam and Eve, the first man and woman were
buried. Called the 'entrance to paradise,' it is written that souls of the
deceased travel through the caves of Machpela on their way to the next
world. Thousands of years later the first Jew, the irrefutable revealer of
monotheism, Abraham, discovered these ancient caves and purchased them for
400 silver shekels, as is recorded in the Bible. Here Sarah was interred, as
were all the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, excepting Rachel.

Over the centuries Ma'arat HaMachpela was not only a place of worship. It
was also viewed in visionary terms, a symbol of the yearning of Jews to
return to Zion. So much so that the revered Jewish scholar Moshe ben Maimon,
the Rambam, records in his introduction to the Talmudic tractate Rosh
HaShana: "And on the first day of the week, the ninth day of the month of
MarCheshvan, I left Jerusalem for Hebron to kiss the graves of my
forefathers in the Cave of Machpela. And on that very day I stood in the
Cave and I prayed, praised be G-d for everything. And these two days, the
sixth (when he prayed on Temple Mount in Jerusalem) and the ninth of
Mar-Cheshvan I vowed to make as a special holiday and in which I will
rejoice with prayer, food and drink. May the Lord help me to keep my vows."

One needn't have been a religious intellectual to comprehend the essence of
Machpela, or of Hebron. Writing in January, 1970, Israel's first Prime
Minister, David ben Gurion records: "Three cities hold a great and unique
place in the ancient history of our people: Shechem, Hebron and Jerusalem,"
and proceeds to detail the glorious history of Hebron, from the days of the
forefathers, through the reign of David, who ruled in Hebron for seven and a
half years before establishing Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the
Jewish people. He concluded, "we will make a great and awful mistake if we
fail to settle Hebron, neighbor and predecessor of Jerusalem, with a large
Jewish settlement, constantly growing and expanding, very soon.Hebron is
worthy to be Jerusalem's sister."

A journalist from a distinguished American newspaper asked me if perhaps it
might have been wiser to allocate Ma'arat HaMachpela a government-funded
budget without adding this site to the national "Heritage program." I
responded, of course, under no conditions would this be acceptable. Why?

Following the beginning of violent riots in Hebron in reaction to Prime
Minister Netanyahu's announcement, the former minister of information for
the PA, Mustafa Barghouti visited Hebron. I asked him, on camera, who may
worship in Ma'arat HaMachpela: only Moslems or also Jews and Christians? He
refused to directly answer the question, finally saying that "G-d is
everywhere; people can pray wherever they want."

Isabel Kersher, writing in the NY Times, quotes Zahran Abu Qubeita. the
mayor of the Arab city Yatta, in the southern Hebron Hills as declaring,
"[Ma'arat HaMachpela] is an Islamic site, not a Jewish one."

These answers must be viewed not only in the light of present politics, but
rather on the background of seven centuries of Jewish inaccessibility to the
building atop the Machpela caves. And accordingly, Israel, at the highest
levels, must express in no uncertain terms: Ma'arat HaMachpela, in the city
of Hebron, is a JEWISH holy site. This does not negate accessibility to
anyone and everyone, of any and every race and religion, to visit and
worship here. However, first and foremost, the Jewishness of this site must
be acknowledged.

Why do Islamic political and religious leaders refuse to accept any Jewish
legacy at Machpela? For the same reasons they reject any Jewish birthright
at Joseph's tomb, Rachel's tomb, and Temple Mount. In fact they renounce any
Jewish roots in all of Israel, preferring to espouse the 'Palestinian
foundation' of the land we know and call Eretz Yisrael. Of course, the
easiest way to change history is to rename and reidentify such sites, as did
the Romans two thousand years ago, when following destruction of the Second
Temple and expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem, they renamed that city 'Aelia
Capitolina' and changed the name of the entity known as Israel to
'Palestina.'

But history, in reality, cannot be erased, and truth will prevail. For
should Hebron and Machpela be blotted off the inventory of Jewish culture
and tradition, surely the rest of Israel will soon follow because all of
Jewish history is enrooted in the heritage which began in Hebron almost four
thousand years ago.

Hebron, 2010 has moved past the 7th step.