Page 4 - HaMizrachi #14 2019 Chayei Sarah USA

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itself: “The Jews are the most tena- to them. It is perhaps the first pas- human history: the remarkable return
cious people in history. Hebron is sage in the Bible which records an of a people to its Land as designated
there to prove it. It lies 20 miles south actual event, witnessed and described by G-d at the very dawn of Creation.
of Jerusalem, 3,000 feet up in the through a long chain of oral recitation
Judean Hills. There, in the Cave of and so preserving authentic details.” 12 1 Bereishit 12:7.
Machpela, are the Tombs of the Patri- 2 Ibid 13:14-17.
archs. According to ancient tradition, Thus the Jewish people’s connection to 3 The Covenants of the Pieces in Chapter 15
one sepulchre, itself of great antiquity, Hebron is a microcosm of our people’s and of Circumcision in Chapter 17.
contains the mortal remains of Abra- unparalleled relationship to the Land. 4 Ibid 26:2-4.
ham, founder of the Jewish religion The mainstay of Bereishit is the 5 Ibid 29:13 and 31:13.
and ancestor of the Jewish race. Paired concurrent singling out of a particular 6 Ibid 35:12.
with his tomb is that of his wife Sarah. people and a particular Land for 7 Ibid 47:29-31.
With the building are the twin tombs a unique spiritual mission and the 8 Avraham settles – ב ֶ ׁש ֵּי ַ ו – in Hebron, con-
of his son Isaac and his wife Rebecca. ineradicable connection between noting a permanent settlement as opposed
Across the inner courtyard is another them. to a previous place where he only pitched
his tent (Bereishit 13:18). See Rashi’s com-
pair of tombs, of Abraham’s grandson Today we are privileged to be partic- mentary (21:34), where he quotes Seder
Jacob and his wife Leah... This is where ipating in and witnessing the mirac- Olam regarding Avraham’s sojourning in
the 4,000-year history of the Jews, in ulous return of our people to our the Land and shows how Hebron is his and
Sarah’s primary dwelling place. Although
so far as it can be anchored in time Yitzchak spent many years in Eretz Pelish-
and place, began.” 11 Land. This remarkable reunion is a tim he also settled in Hebron (35:27). Upon
fulfillment of the promises made to returning to the Land from Lavan’s house,
He also pointed out what the city our forebears in the book of Bereishit Ya’akov moves from place to place eventu-
teaches about the nature of Jewish and is bringing us closer to fulfilling ally settling in Hebron as well (37:14).
spiritual history: “Hebron is thus an our historic destiny. At the same time, 9 Bereishit 49:31. Rachel was buried along
the way to Efrat, Beit Lechem (35:19).
example of Jewish obstinacy over there are anti-Israel forces from with- 10 Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, pub-
4,000 years. It also illustrates the curi- out and within who wish to sever this lished by George Weidenfeld & Nicolson in
ous ambivalence of the Jews towards link, with disastrous consequences. 1987, page 19. It is fascinating that Rabbi
the possession and occupation of Without integrating the foundational Jonathan Sacks has mentioned that this
land. No race has maintained over so principles of Jewish particularism as a work is arguably the most important work
of Jewish history and should be in every
long a period so emotional an attach- people intertwined with the Land, any Jewish home.
ment to a particular corner of the attempt to create either a religious or a 11 Ibid, page 3.
earth’s surface… Hebron is the site humanistic Jewish identity betrays the 12 Ibid, pages 3-4.
of their first recorded acquisition of essence of the Jewish mission. 13 It is also true that fixation on the people/
13
land. Chapter 23 of the Book of Gen- Land without being tempered with reli-
esis describes how Abraham, after the It is my hope and prayer that the gious, ethical and universalist values does
the same and has the potential to create a
death of his wife Sarah, decided to great religious and universal values of coarse and destructive brand of national-
purchase the Cave of Machpela and Judaism will always remain inherently ism. The Torah ideal, explains Rav Kook
the lands which surrounded it, as a connected to the inseparable (Orot HaTechiya 18), is a blend of reli-
burying-place for her and ultimately foundational principles of Jewish gious, universal and nationalist ideals that
form a wholesome Jewish identity. This
for himself. The passage is among the Peoplehood and Nationhood – the deep and fundamental idea will be elabo-
most important in the entire Bible, Land and people at the heart of rated on, G-d willing, in a future edition of
embodying one of the most ancient Bereishit. It is a privilege to be part of HaMizrachi.
and tenaciously held Jewish tradi- a breathtaking drama unfolding today; Rabbi Doron Perez is the Chief Executive of
tions, evidently very dear and critical an unrivaled phenomenon in all of World Mizrachi

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