By Nison Gordon
Translated by P Samuels
The point closest to Kever Rochel (Rachel’s Tomb)
On the roof of the water tank in Kibbutz “Ramat Rochel”
A visit to Har Tzion
A symbolic warning from a German monk
Even in Cheder our mother Rochel was considered a tragic figure and her suffering brought out great sympathy by every Cheder student.
The fact that she was beautiful, as the Torah itself bears witness, and her good heart, which was expressed when she gave her sister Leah the signs she had made up between herself and Yaakov so that the older sister should not be shamed, though she was hurt by her own father’s treachery, all of this rendered Rachel’s troubles and pain close to the heart of every Cheder boy.
Her entire life was one continuous thread of tragedies, which, always at the last minute blocked the way to everlasting joy, a hair away from her reaching that goal, but the way was always blocked unexpectedly.
After Yaakov slaved for Lavan for seven years because of Rachel, her own father betrayed her and denied her the joy of being Yaakov’s first wife. The meforshim give one explanation for why she was not buried in Mearas HaMachpeila that after the Torah was given, it was forbidden to be married to two sisters at the same time, and Rachel was the second wife.
She was blessed with a second son, for whom she prayed a lot, and then she died in childbirth.
She was finally home after so many years suffering in foreign places, and then she passed away on the road and she was buried on the way to Bethlehem.
And here we saw a bloody war, in which Jewish children shed so much blood, actually not too far from Rachel’s tomb. Yet in the end, she was left outside of the Jewish border. While loyal to her permanent role, at the last minute she did not take the final step (to remain inside the Jewish border).
So Jews from the whole world come to “Ramat Rochel” a kibbutz run by Mapai (one of the Israeli parties), which is located right by the border in south Jerusalem, on the way to Bethlehem, to look at Kever Rochel.
In Ramat Rochel there were lately archaeological digs, which exposed entire fortresses from the olden days. Time and sand from the surrounding mountains covered the stone fortresses with their secret passageways, which Jewish heroes once erected here, on the road that ties Bais Lechem (Bethlehem) and the mountains of Judah, with Jerusalem. With your own eyes you could see the history infused pillars and caves, and it seems like you are catching your breath as you contemplate all the various episodes that the Jewish people suffered here in this country, and suddenly it all comes to life for you.
Across, approximately five kilometers on the old road, lies the old Bethlehem, where King David, as a young child, pastured his father’s sheep and from where he was taken to become “Dovid Melech Yisroel chai v’kayam” (David, the king of Israel lives on forever).
On the Arab side, automobiles are riding on the way to Bethlehem, to Chevron, all places where a Jew cannot go today. Enough Jewish blood was spilled to keep Ramat Rochel in Jewish hands. The old section of the kibbutz was almost entirely ruined in the fighting, and a new kibbutz with new buildings was erected.
The tall tower on which the tourists stand and look out at Jerusalem on one side, and Bethlehem on the other side, is actually a water reservoir. During the war, the Arabs destroyed all of the pipes, and the kibbutz was left without a drop of water. So, the tank is full of water to be prepared for any calamity. Up on the roof, people stand and marvel at the panorama, like from biblical times, without being aware that here, in Ramat Rochel, a chapter of Jewish heroism played out, which is a proud ring in the golden chain going back to previous generations, who built fortresses against the enemy.
“Over there, behind that mountain, is the Mother Rachel’s tomb,” is written on the sign posted on the roof, which shows what one sees on that side of the outlook point.
You can’t see the actual Kever Rochel, only the mountain that blocks the tomb, and Jews come from near and far to Ramat Rochel, the closest point in today’s Israel to Kever Rochel.
A few steps away from the wire fence that marks the border, there’s a booth full of baskets of cherries and apples from the kibbutz, and the woman who sells the fruit gives it with a wide smile and a blessing, “Be well, from wherever you came.”
On the way home from Ramat Rochel, toward evening, we met a wagon full of kibbutzniks on their way home from a day at work in the fields. They are humming a lively tune, but our ears hear instead, an echo of Rochel’s crying about her children.
Her cries, which she raised while Nebuzaraden was chasing her children into exile, were heard in heaven. Her children survived an exile that surpasses in trouble and pain that exile of Nebuzaraden of the Jews of Jerusalem. But she refuses to be consoled. Here are her children, who come from all over the world, and they can’t even get close to her burial site!
The road that also leads to Chevron, one of the four holiest cities in Israel (Jerusalem, Chevron, Teveriaha, and Tzvas) is blocked. A Jew can’t travel further than Ramat Rochel. So he turns back toward Jerusalem, and goes to Har Zion (Mount Zion) the mountain where King David build a fortress as a watchtower over Jerusalem and where, according to some, King David is interred.
The religious ministry created a series of exhibitions on Har Zion, commemorating the Holocaust, with torn parchments of Sifrei Torah and glass jars containing ashes of those cremated. The “Cellar of the Holocaust” also has a row of plaques with names of destroyed cities and the dates of their destruction engraved on them.
Only after passing the spine-chilling cellars, do you get to a narrow room full of rocks, where there is a large stone, the width of the room covered with a black cloth, and there is the tomb of King David. Above the wide stone, there are fifteen crowns, rescued from destructed European synagogues, a crown for each year that the medina (country) of Israel exists. One of the attendants picks up the black cloth and shows a small stone in the center, which is a whole original stone from the time of King David.
There is a Tehilim on a side table, and which Jew who knows how to read Hebrew won’t recite a psalm or two while standing near the burial place of the Noam Zemiros Yisroel (The singer of beautiful songs), who trod on this mountain, composed and sang his songs and fought against the Jewish enemies.
The attendant does not wait until you open the Tehillim and start reciting. He begins reciting “Mi shebeirachs” and hopes that you will leave him something.
There are religious groups in Israel who are not happy with what they regard as materialistic and not fitting for Har Zion. Even Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zevin, one of the sages of today’s generation and a believer that the Medinas Yisroel is the beginning of the redemption, expressed his opinion to me, very sharply criticizing Dr. Kahane’s acts on Har Zion. Dr. Zanvil Kahane is the director of the religious ministry that has oversight on all holy, historical sites.
On Har Zion I saw a Jew with a black beard wrap a little boy in a tallis and say with him the pasuk “Hamalach Hagoel,” which is said Simchas Torah at the aliyah of Kol HaNearim, when all pre-bar mitzvah boys are called up to the Torah. Later, I saw the same young man put tefillin on the hand of a young man with a kerchief on his head and recite the berachah of donning tefillin.
On his table I saw a siddur, Nusach Ari, “Tehilas Hashem,” which was printed at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Near the siddur, there was a mimeographed talk by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in Yiddish, also published in Brooklyn.
After I allowed him to make a Mi Shebeirach, I asked him how “Lubavitcher literature” gets to be on Har Zion. He did not have time to get into detailed discussions because other tourists were waiting for him, but he did quickly say “Tell the Lubavitcher Rebbe that Aaron Rabinowitz puts tefillin on Jewish children on Har Zion.”
Har Zion also has—lehavdil alfei havdolos (may it be separated a thousand times and not chas v’sholom compared)—quite a few churches. If you are with a professional guide, he will ask if you are interested in seeing the room of “the last supper.”
Monks in brown robes roam the area, and to my surprise one monk warned me, in German, not to go near the fence around which there were burned cinders and charred metal barrels filled with sand, remnants of the war of independence.
The same language that yelled “Heil Hitler” and ordered the murder of millions of Jews, the same impure language is now warning a Jew on Har Zion not to go close to the border because it is dangerous…
There’s a pasuk in Ovadia, and it is said every day in davening “v’alu moshiyim b’hHar Tzion l’shpot es Har Eisav” the prophet is foretelling a day when the helpers will go up on Har Zion and render judgement on the mountain of Eisav.”
The German monk on Har Zion knows that meanwhile, the mountain of Eisav still has a spot there, but there will come a day when there, on Har Zion, Eisav will get what he justly deserves. n
Old and New in Israel is R’ Nison Gordon’s description of a visit to the Holy Land from Friday 27th of Tamuz 5723 (July 19, 1963) until Tuesday, 17th of Av (August 6).