Page 27 - HaMizrachi #14 2019 Chayei Sarah USA

Rabbi Yishai Fleisher

hebr n, city ofLove

hen you want to really con- people has anything like it. Therefore, designed in such a way as to reflect the
nect with the founders of under any agreement Jews will live in equality, partnership, and love of the
Wthe United States, you can Hebron.” founders of the Jewish peoplehood.
go to the Jefferson or Lincoln Memo-
rials in Washington, or go the extra TWO BY TWO WHAT TO PRAY FOR IN HEBRON?
mile to Mount Rushmore, where you In Parashat Chayei Sarah, the Torah If Jews can pray in Jerusalem – the
can see the busts of America’s great describes how Avraham came to holiest place in Judaism, understood
presidents, who proudly gaze out at Hebron to bury his beloved wife Sarah to be “G-d’s Abode” – then what
the prosperous country they erected. and “to eulogize and cry for her.” is the purpose of the Machpela in
These are all amazing men. After the purchase of the Cave of Hebron?

But they are all amazing men. Machpela and the burial was com- Jerusalem’s power is theological – it’s
pleted, the rest of the parasha is ded- the place where you meet G-d.
In contrast, the founders of Israel are icated to Avraham’s efforts to secure a
not just men. They are couples – hus- wife for Yitzchak, a woman worthy of But Hebron’s strength is genealogical
bands and wives, mothers and fathers, being Sarah’s successor. – the place where you meet the found-
who came together to create a family ers of a holy nation, the people who
and give birth to a nation. Finally, after Rivka is found, and jour- walked and forged the path of G-d, in
neys to join Yitzchak in the Land of His service.
When you want to connect to them, Israel, the Torah relates one of its most
you can journey to the 3,800-year-old romantic verses: So what do we pray for here? To con-
monument to their love, devotion, tinue along the path our founders and
and dedication to building the Jewish “And Yitzchak brought her [Rivka] to then all our ancestors walked – and
people – at the Tomb of the Patriarchs the tent of Sarah his mother, and he hopefully, to pass it on to our children
and Matriarchs in Hebron. took Rivka, and she became his wife, and our children’s children.
and he loved her. And Yitzchak was
THERE ISN’T ANYTHING LIKE IT comforted for [the loss of] his mother.” THE FIRST FAMILY OF ISRAEL

In 2006, journalist Ari Shavit inter- Where did Yitzchak and Rivka first Throughout the year, hundreds of
viewed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel connect? In the field of Machpela in thousands arrive in Hebron to cele-
Sharon – one of his last interviews Hebron – where that love is still felt brate family-building lifecycle events
before his death – and asked him if he today. like Brit Mila, and Bar and Bat
could “conceive that one day Jews will Mitzvahs.
not live in Hebron?” WHAT DOES ‘CENOTAPH’ MEAN? Indeed, the vow that G-d made to the
Sharon retorted. “Ben-Gurion called The building atop the Tombs of the founders, that He would ingather their
Hebron Jerusalem’s elder sister. If we Patriarchs and Matriarchs is a large children to inherit the Holy Land and
were a normal nation, when a visitor shrine built 2,000 years ago by King be a holy nation there, is coming to
arrived here we would take him not to Herod. The mammoth building has fruition in our generations.
Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial never been destroyed – only added on When we, the children, come to
Museum) but, rather, to Hebron.” to. Hebron, we give nachas to the First
“We’d take him to the place where our Inside the building, six large tomb Family of Israel, the founders of the
roots are,” he continued. “No other markers, or in Greek, cenotaphs, are Jewish people, who love to see their
people has a monument like the Tomb arranged symmetrically, two by two, children thriving and following in
of the Patriarchs, where Avraham to represent the venerated couples their holy footsteps.
and Sarah are buried. And Yitzchak buried in the cave complex below. Rabbi Yishai Fleisher is the International
and Rivka. And Ya’akov and Leah. Even 2,000 years ago, the Tomb of Spokesman for the Jewish Community of
There isn’t anything like it. No other the Patriarchs and Matriarchs was Hebron

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