Page 41 - HaMizrachiChayei Sarah AUS 2020

and driven to Chevron to get there festooned with white sheets hang- sheet on which someone had drawn a
first. ing from the balconies. The Chevron blue Magen David.
Municipality and the military forces
I told my driver to advance toward had decided on a self-imposed curfew When the tank arrived, I saw the sol-
Chevron, regardless of what the bat- and ordered that no-one leave their diers had a crowbar. My driver and I
talion was doing. We were two vehi- homes. I wanted to inform them that put the bar into the gate and worked
cles, the one I was in and the escort- the IDF had already conquered Chev- it off its hinges until the gate fell to
ing Military Rabbinate jeep. On the ron, even though the IDF force was the ground and we could enter the
way, we passed the battalion’s recon- only me and the jeep at this stage. Cave of the Patriarchs.
naissance company.
In the center of town was a podium We saw two Arabs inside, trembling
Suddenly, my driver said, “Rabbi, where a policeman usually stood to like a lulav, and one of them was hold-
we’re the first ones here. There are no direct the traffic. I climbed onto the ing the keys to the gate – even though
soldiers ahead of us. The entire bri- they had told me they didn’t have any
gade is behind us. We could get stuck podium and fired a magazine of bul- keys. My driver went over to him,
lets into the air, to notify the residents
in Chevron alone, and who knows took the keys, and we went into the
what they’ll do to us.” that the Israel Defense Forces had
captured Chevron. Cave of the Patriarchs, where I blew
“Drive on,” I told him. the shofar.
My declared goal had been to be the
When we drew closer to Chevron, I first to reach the Cave of the Patri- I took the sefer Torah I had brought
saw white flags waving over all the archs. I saw an Arab boy at one of with me and read the portion of
houses along the way. There would the windows. “Where is the grave Chayei Sara, which relates how Avra-
be no battles here I thought. There of Avraham Avinu?” I shouted up ham bought the Cave of the Patri-
wasn’t a single Jordanian flag, so there to him, but he said he was afraid to archs from the sons of Chet. It was
was nothing to fear. We were entering come down because of the curfew. He still early in the morning and we were
Chevron as victors, without having wouldn’t be able to get back home. I able to daven Shacharit there, the first
fired a single shot. promised him my driver would bring Jews to daven freely in the Cave of
him back, and the boy agreed to show Machpelah in 19 years.
“There’s a Jordanian flag flying from us.
the third floor of one of the houses,”
my driver said as we drove past We reached the Cave and began to
Halhul. “They might fire on us.” climb the stairs toward the gates
at the top of the two staircases. I
“Take the Uzi and cover me,” I said. climbed to the top of the staircase
“I’m going up there to take down the on the north side, where everyone
flag.”
prayed, and saw the gate was locked.
My driver said they might kill me, so “Ifta el-bab!” I shouted in Arabic.
he would go.
“Open the gates!”
“You’re still young,” I told him. “You I heard voices inside.
still have to build a home and a family.
I’ve already lived my life. I’ll go up, “Mefish maftuah,” they said. “We don’t
and whatever happens, happens.” have a key.”

One of the drivers accompanied me If they don’t have a key, I thought to
to the second floor, and from there I myself, how did they get inside? I
went up to the third floor. I reached began firing bullets at the gates, but
the flag and took it down. they didn’t budge. To this day you can
“Salaam Alaikum,” I said to the ten- see the holes I made, which the Arabs Rabbi Shlomo Goren z”l (1917–1994)
served as the first head of the IDF’s Military
ants. I took the flag and they didn’t call “Rabbi Goren’s holes.” For three Rabbinate and was later elected Chief Rabbi
say a word. hours, we tried to break down the of Israel. He was awarded the Israel Prize
gates, until I heard the sound of a tank in Rabbinical Literature. He participated in
We advanced toward Chevron, and approaching. That was the first Israeli the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem
when we entered the city we saw tank to enter Chevron, and it was in the Six-Day War and one day later, he
all the houses along the main road adorned with an improvised flag – a ‘liberated’ Chevron.

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