 Painting by Gustave Doré depicting the burial of Sarah in the cave.
(larger image)"He bought a plot of land near Hebron from Ephron the Hittite, the Cave of Mechpelah, for 400 shekels of silver.
(see also Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement) There he buried his wife Sarah." Later Abraham himself, Isaac and Rebekah, then Jacob and Leah were buried there. (Rachel was buried near Bethlehem). This site is now known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs or Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and is a holy site for both Jews and Muslims.
According to the Midrash, the Patriarchs were buried in the cave because the cave is the threshold to the Garden of Eden. The Patriarchs are said not to be dead but "sleeping". They rise to beg mercy for their children throughout the generations. According to the Zohar, this tomb is the gateway through which souls enter into Gan Eden—heaven.
There is a Jewish tradition that praying at the Tomb will bring good fortune in finding a proper spouse. There are Hebrew prayers of supplication for marriage on the walls of the Sarah cenotaph.
A cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον (kenos, one meaning being "empty", and taphos, "tomb"). Although the vast majority of cenotaphs are erected in honour of individuals, many of the best-known cenotaphs are instead dedicated to the memories of groups of individuals, such as the war dead of one country or empire.
Judaism
Judaism considers the site the second most sacred site after the Temple Mount, as well as the first material purchase of real estate by the Hebrew Abraham in the Land of Canaan (the "Promised Land").
There is a Jewish tradition that there is good luck to pray at the tomb in order to get married and find the proper spouse. There are Hebrew prayers on the walls of the Sarah tomb of prayers to God to get married.
Islam
It is known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, as Abraham is a revered prophet of Islam who, according to the Qur'an, built the Kaaba in Mecca with his son Ishmael. Today, the city of Hebron is populated mostly by Palestinian Muslims. A large structure built by Herod the Great is on the site, and after the conquest of the city by Umar it was rebuilt as a mosque under the control of the Muslim Waqf, a traditional "trust" holding land for Islamic religious purposes. During the Crusades when Christians were in control of the site, it was a church.
Status
Both Judaism and Islam agree that entombed within are the Biblical and Qur'anic patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) as well as three matriarchs (Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah), as well as Adam and Eve. Their graves are made inaccessible by the cenotaphs that cover them. Jews are not permitted to visit Isaac and Rebekah's Tomb in Isaac Hall except for about 9 days a year on special Jewish days because Muslims control 81% of the building. One of these days is the Sabbath of "Haye Sarah", when the Jews read the Torah portion of Abraham and Sarah's death, and Abraham's purchase of the plot of land from Ephron the Hittite. The Israeli authorities (who are mainly Jewish secular authorities) also don't allow Jewish religious authorities the right to maintain the site and only allow Muslims to do so. The tombs of Abraham and Sarah are synagogues, whereas the tomb of Isaac and Rebekah is a mosque. There are many Israeli tour buses that escort tourists to the building and the Jewish section of Hebron daily.
The cave is the second holiest site in Judaism (after the Temple Mount) and holds considerable theological significance to Islam and Christianity as well.
Conflict
When the city was under the control of the Ottoman Turks, Jews were forbidden to enter and were only permitted to pray outside seven steps up the entering stairway.
When Israel captured the area during the 1967 Six Day War, it is said that then Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was given the keys and was supposedly shown the actual secret hidden passageways that lead to the below-ground tombs.
In February 1994, Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian Muslims during prayers at the site. (See Cave of the Patriarchs)
The Wye River Accords provided a temporary status agreement for the site and Hebron itself.
Current situation
Since the eruption of the Intifada, the site has allegedly been the subject of many attacks, directed towards Jews in prayer. The Israel Defense Forces have surrounded the site with soldiers and controls access to the shrine. There is a small yeshivah in the building for Jewish children.
Citations and notes
- Joan E. Taylor, Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins, Oxford University Press, 1993 pp.129-130
- The Sefer Ha-yashar has the head buried ‘in that place where the battle had been in Hebron’ (Kiryat Arba, before the cave of Machpelah) Mordecai Manuel Noah (tr.) Book of Jasher, M.M. Noah & A.S. Gould, 1840, chapters 56,50: 57:4, pp.184-5
- Shalom Goldman, 'The Wiles of Women/the Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore,SUNY Press, 1995 pp.126-7
- Genesis 22
- "Genesis 22:17-18", Holy Bible. "So Ephron's field in Machpelah near Mamre--both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field--was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city."
- Biblical Archaeology Review, Patriarchal Burial Site Explored for First Time in 700 Years, May/June 1985
- "a floorplan".
- "A wider image of the same side.".
- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
- "photograph of Michal descending through the grated shaft".
- Joseph Free and Howard F. Vos (1992) Archaeology and Bible History Zondervan, ISBN 0310479614 p 62
- Zohar 127a
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