How A Shabbos In Chevron Changed My Life

That particular Motzai Shabbos I just wanted to stay in Chevron.

Printed in the Jewish Press - See: http://tinyurl.com/69we7c

By: Miryam Yerushalmi Wednesday, April 30, 2008

As an American girl studying in seminary in Jerusalem, I get the unique opportunity of spending Shabbos in many different neighborhoods, and I have the opportunity to observe how different kinds of Jews live.

In each home I gain a deeper appreciation for different aspects of Yiddishkeit: the beauty of family dynamics, the emphasis on kavod Shabbos above materialism, the pure and sincere belief that Torah is emes – truth.

One Shabbos in particular stands out in my mind as being a rare combination of all these different aspects: Shabbos Parshas Vayakhel, which I spent in Hebron, or Chevron in Hebrew.

My friends and I took a 2:30 bus on erev Shabbos and the ride itself was fascinating. We rode through primarily Arab neighborhoods, stopping in the Gush, and then in Kiryat Arba, before arriving in Chevron.

Kiryat Arba is a beautifully developed city whose paved streets and storefronts resemble those of Yerushalayim.

But the difference as we entered Chevron was unbelievable – in a matter of seconds we had left a typical modern city and entered a scene straight out of three hundred years ago.

In this city, Arabs, who comprise 80 percent of the population, are visibly dominant. While in Yerushalayim it is rare to see an old Arab wearing a keffiyah, here they abound.

As we drove through the narrow streets we felt their piercing stares, which conveyed the unequivocal message that we were on their turf.

We arrived at the neighborhood called Shechunat Avraham Avinu, where our hosts, Rav Simcha Hochbaum and his family, live and the feeling again changed.

Within this small enclave it was easy to feel totally secure and comfortable – to forget we were in what some consider a war zone. Women were preparing for Shabbos; children
were laughing and playing. Sandbags and soldiers in camouflage were the only reminders of where we were.

After we settled in, Rav Hochbaum, or, as he referred to himself, Rav Simcha, took us to visit Ramat Mamre, where he introduced us to a frum farmer whose property is complete with horses, goats, roosters, and a full litter of puppies. When we arrived he was in the middle of last-minute Shabbos preparations, which were slightly different from our adjusting of Shabbos clocks and air conditioners. He was milking his goat now in order to avoid the halachic issue of milking on Shabbos.

Rav Simcha spoke about the mitzvah of acquiring land in Eretz Yisrael and how the concept of "mipnei chata’enu galinu me’artzeinu" (because of our sins we were exiled from the land) does not refer strictly to our physical separation from Eretz Yisrael but to our internal alienation from it. This man wanted to preserve that connection between Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

What we did next took only a few minutes but it framed my whole Shabbos and completely shifted my mindset. Rav Simcha took us to a field where we sat on rocks as he spoke. He talked about how, in many frum homes, the last hour before Shabbos is an extremely stressful time, filled with yelling and accusations about who forgot to open the packages of tissues.

How sad, he said, that we waste the opportunity to embrace what is supposed to be the most serene and holy time of the week, a time that if utilized properly could change the way we experience Shabbos.

He continued, "The chassidim used to go out to the fields and welcome Shabbos; let us do the same." He spoke in a soft voice as we sat with our eyes closed.

"Think about yourself. Are you body or are you soul? During the week you are both, but on Shabbos you are just soul. Feel your body and neshama separating. Feel the wind of the week blowing out and the wind of Shabbos blowing in. See the clouds of the six days of the week rolling out and the clouds of Shabbos rolling in. Feel the holiness of Shabbos enveloping the world."

We remained seated in silence for several minutes, thinking about the power and holiness of Shabbos. Then Rav Simcha sang "Lecha Dodi" and we left, prepared to greet the Shabbos Queen in the manner she deserves.

We proceeded to walk toward Maaras Hamachpela for Kabbalas Shabbos. As soon as one leaves Shechunat Avraham Avinu, one is acutely aware that indeed he or she is in a war zone. Soldiers are everywhere, guns cocked in the direction of passing Arabs. It’s really touching to walk by these soldiers, some of them frum with tzitzis lying over their guns, say "Shabbat shalom" to them and watch their eyes light up as they respond with their own warm "Shabbat shalom."

Knowing we could walk freely and proudly through the Arab streets and daven at Maaras Hamechpela because these Jewish heroes are risking their lives to protect it – and us – engendered such deep feelings of gratitude.

Some of these boys were my age. It was hard to see their faces because of their protective gear, but one soldier was so striking. He was incredibly young. While some looked weather-beaten, the toll of their tour of duty evident on their faces, this soldier had such a baby face under his camouflage. It was scary to think that his reality was one of war and danger and not basketball and summer camp.

Again, I felt a deep-seated sense of hakaras hatov to these young Jewish soldiers for enabling me to feel safe in so dangerous a place.

Overwhelmed by these feelings, I found myself reflecting on the hakaras hatov owed to Hashem, Who allows me to breathe, walk and live a secure and protected life. It is a good way to begin to comprehend everything for which one should be grateful.

Davening
was like nothing I had ever seen or heard. I thought the room was going to collapse. The singing was so passionate and so loud, it sent chills down my arms every few minutes. The men were jumping out of their skin, bouncing out of happiness until they finally broke out into real dancing and just sang and sang and sang. I didn’t want it to ever end.

The worshipers davened and recited pesukim like "hareu b’goyim" and "imru ba’goyim Hashem malach." They are living lives of complete mesiras nefesh, with total faith that Hashem is stronger than all the Arabs in the world and with the conviction that the enemy can’t defeat them. They don’t just recite these pesukim, they live them.

The men walked out of shul dressed in white, their talleism over their heads and their three-foot guns underneath.

It is so powerful to know that there are people who have such emunah and such intense dedication to Eretz Yisrael. It’s not mere lip service. They are willing to make do with little or nothing, to live in constant vigilance, because they are devoted to keeping Chevron.

As we walked back with Rav Simcha, we spoke about the davening. It is at a time like this that you wonder why you live in chutz l’Aretz – outside the Land of Israel. We in the Diaspora go searching around for a bit of inspiration in our lives – a shiur here, a class there – when here, in Eretz Yisrael, they have davening like this every Shabbos.

I am obviously not suggesting that everyone move to Chevron, but Eretz Yisrael in general offers an elevated plane of living. When we go back to New York we are often struck by how hard it is to feel our Yiddishkeit. Here in Israel it is being offered to us on a silver platter, and all we have to do is tap into it.

Living in Eretz Yisrael may not be for everyone, but it is amazing to see people experiencing life on a totally different wavelength and to learn from them in whatever way we can.

On Shabbos day we again davened in Maaras Hamachpela and it was an added privilege to be there for blessing the new month of Adar. Lunch was at Beit Shalom, a ten-minute walk from Shechunat Avraham Avinu.

Beit Shalom is a building that was funded by a Sephardic Jew who was moved by the self-sacrifice of those living in Chevron. When the families moved in they had no running water and no bathrooms. They scrambled to put in one bathroom and one sink for all seventeen families, and they shared one tiny kitchen for almost a year.

The Israeli government is determined to evict them, and the families have been in court since they moved in, forced to wage a legal battle to secure their basic amenities. They finally won the right to install windows – this Shabbos was their second one with windows after they’d endured all manner of weather without any insulation. The house is unfinished – walls, ceilings, and floors are still concrete with nails jutting out. And yet it is a home.

We were greeted warmly by our hosts, an Israeli couple in their early sixties who have lived in Chevron for twenty years, along with their two married children and two single daughters – a 20-year-old and a 13-year-old.

The meal was an incredible experience. I was struck by the feeling of "Mi k’amcha Yisrael – Who is comparable to Thy nation Israel?" I marveled at spending time with people labeled by much of Israeli society as "extreme mitnachalim" (settlers) and completely relating to them. I was so touched just being with them, watching family dynamics, seeing them laugh and poke fun at siblings.

Amid all the dangers of living here, they are just a regular family dedicated to preserving Chevron Ir Hakodesh above all else. And, more incredibly, many of them have comfortable homes in Shechunat Avraham Avinu but moved out here to make a point – to show that we won’t be threatened and intimidated out of Chevron.

On Shabbos afternoon, Rav Simcha recommended that we join a tour that takes place only on Shabbos afternoons. We arrived expecting a tour guide to be there but instead we were met by a platoon of soldiers and three armored trucks. A soldier introduced himself, said that he would be leading us, and began giving us instructions.

I had no idea where we were going and so when he went into detail about the procedures, I began to get a bit nervous. We were told that if "something happens" we should all drop to the floor, hold our heads, and not respond to anyone telling us to get up until a MADA (Magen David Adom) member evacuated us.

I searched the soldier’s face for the bored look of a flight attendant perfunctorily detailing evacuation procedures – the look that says, "This has never happened and never will." But all I saw on his face was fear.

It turned out we were entering the Kasbah, Chevron’s old Jewish quarter dating back to the Turks, which is now solely Arab. There was a ratio of at least one soldier to each person, and I can’t really describe the scene, except that it somewhat resembled the news coverage of Iraq: American soldiers running through Arab streets and markets, guns ready, turning around corners and creeping around alleys while Arab kids look on.

That is exactly how it was. In the beginning I was frightened only because the soldiers themselves were. They were constantly yelling over our heads, giving instructions to each other to look at this or be careful of that. We walked through the market, and if an Arab approached us despite warnings to stay back, the soldiers held their guns to the Arab’s face until we all passed through.

It is hard to describe the feeling of seeing a gun held to someone’s head. At the same time, it was interesting to note the stark difference in how Israelis and Arabs treat people. All too many Arabs have little or no compunction about being violent toward innocent civilians, while Israeli soldiers are so sparing in their use of their guns that when they do use them, even as a threat, it is a jarring sight to behold.

It was fascinating to get a peek into a world that few Jews get to see. We learned that Jews are simply not allowed into this part of Chevron during the week. The IDF goes to great lengths to take Jews in on Shabbos, not because it wants to teach us history – a history lesson would hardly be worth risking the lives of soldiers – but to make a point, to create an Israeli presence, and to let the Arabs know that despite their control during the week, the Israeli army can, whenever it wishes to, come in and bring along civilians, too.

After the initial discomfort had passed, it felt very good to walk unafraid, heads held high, asserting our right as Jews to our land.

Upon concluding the tour, we all applauded the soldiers and bid each other "Shabbat shalom." We proceeded to the Avraham Avinu shul for Mincha. We had shalosh seudos at Rav Simcha’s house and after Shabbos got on a bus back to Yerushalayim.

Typically, I look forward to returning to Yerushalayim on Motzai Shabbos, and as I enter its environs I feel a sense of comfort and happiness in being back. That particular Motzai Shabbos, though, I really didn’t want to come back. I just wanted to stay in Chevron.

While I spent only two short days there, my Shabbos in Chevron struck so many spiritual chords within me and gave me so much chizuk, so much spiritual comfort and strength. It transformed not only my ensuing week but will, hopefully, reverberate through all the future Shabbosim and weeks of my life.

Miryam Yerushalmi is a 19-year-old New Yorker currently studying at a seminary in Jerusalem.

Yeah for us!

Joshua said, "it is a very very good Land"
I don't often pat myself on the back - but today I'll make an exception. But I'm not only 'yeah'ing myself. I'm celebrating with about three million others - (yes, I'm in good company) - we all have something in common. We've all made Aliyah to Israel since inception of the state, sixty years ago.

Reading an INN article about international Aliyah day, initiated by my friend Yishai Fleisher, I was thrilled to see how many Jews have decided to make Eretz Yisrael their home. Of course, I'll be even happier when another 3,000,000 come over, and hopefully it won't take another sixty years. It shouldn't take more than five or ten years, at most. Actually, I wouldn't mind if they all came over tomorrow.

Every once in a while visitors here in Hebron, or in the US during speaking engagements, ask me what they can do for Israel. There's a limit how many times you can tell people to contribute or write letters to the editor. So when they push me into a corner I tell them: If you really want to help Israel, come live here. There's nothing more important a Jew can do than to come live in Israel. Another million Jews here, and the Arabs will start to get the message. Another half a million or so in Judea and Samaria and the Arabs will leave, voluntarily. But more importantly, having nothing to do with Arabs, we will be home, letting G-d know that we appreciate the unbelievable gift He gave us - The Land of Israel.

Today was the anniversary of the death of one of the first people to realize this - Joshua. He was one of the two spys Moses sent to Israel to search out the land. Only he, together with Kalev, realized how good the land really is, and tore their clothes when the other 10 spys slandered Eretz Yisrael. He said it is "a very very good land."

Today, for the first time, thanks to Yishai's great idea, Israel recognized all 3,000,000 of us who made the move, because we wanted to - because we WANT to be in Israel, and nowhere else.  All of you who are reading this in "Chul" (Chutz l'Aretz - Outside of Israel) are invited to be among the next batch of 3,000,000. Eventually you will all come over, so why not now?! - The more the merrier and the faster the better.

Welcome home!

Chazon David's Last Stand?

See photos and video below.

(UPDATE: Afternoon Mincha prayers will take place today (Sunday) at 19:00
at the site of the destroyed synagogogue, followed by several
speakers, evening prayers. Following evening prayers, those present
will begin to rebuild the synagogue.)

Last week I blogged in asking if the Chazon David Synagogue would merit another prayer service. That night the synagogue was slated to be destroyed again. It's already been razed over 30 times.

That night there were too many people present; the security forces postponed the
The hangman had arrived, bringing not a rope, rather an IDF-supplied tractor.
execution. But not for too long. After all, in honor of our 60th independence day we must give a worthy present to the visiting president next week.

Last night, or rather early this morning, just before 3:30, the phone rang and the beeper buzzed. The hangman had arrived, bringing not a rope, rather an IDF-supplied tractor. The road was closed, declared a 'closed military zone' until the sentence was fully carried out. By the time I could get through the synagogue was a place of the past. However, the forces remained behind to make sure we didn't get too close, in order to start reconstruction immediately.

A group from Hebron and Kiryat Arba played cat-and-mouse with the police and as soon as daylight approached, an early morning service took place in the street, opposite the ruins of the shul.

Some of the forces were uncomfortable being photographed; after all, the Hebron Arab Shech Ja'abri had saved the site from destruction just over a half a year ago, and last week we marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. Photos of destroyed synagogues were fresh in everyone's memory.

The original synagogue was built over seven years ago and destroyed well over 30 times. However the present structure stood for about three years. Why now? Simply Olmert has to have a gift-wrapped present for Bush to sacrifice on the alter of piece (and another piece and another piece) and it seems that again, we are the victim to be done away with. A synagogue, a place of prayer, in memory of two men killed at and adjacent to this very site.

There are no words: except that the synagogue will be rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt until it is recognized as a permanent structure, to stand forever.

People who participated in and cooperated with the destruction:
What will they tell their parents, their wives, their children?

Why not flirt a little at the site of a destroyed synagogue?

Police holding hands at site of destruction

Morning Prayer

Rabbi Shimon Ben-Tzion being carried out of area

Yehudit Katzover being carried out of area

Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar

Police sitting on synagogue furniture

Garbage left on the street

Kiryat Arba Mayor Tzvi Katzover

Synagogue activist Yaakov Eichenstein

Nothing like a bite to eat

Go Away! You're not wanted here!

Prayer and ruins

Will Jews Merit another Shema Yisrael at Chazon David?

Good News! - At twelve midnight word was received that the 'authorities' decided to postpone the destruction of Chazon David due to the number of people present at the site, ready to physically protest the razing of the synagogue. Chazon David still stands!

A number of years ago two Jews were killed the same day in Kiryat Arba. In the morning David Cohen, sitting in his car near the western gate leading out of Kiryat Arba to Hebron, was shot and killed by terrorists. Later that night the Kiryat Arba municipal council protested the opening of a checkpoint which had allowed the murder to occur. While gathering outside the Kiryat Arba fence, near the location of the recently opened checkpoint, terrorists opened fire on the group. Several people were hit. Councilman and longtime Kiryat Arba resident Hezzy Mualem was killed.

In memory of the two men Kiryat Arba founded the Chazon David synagogue, on empty land between Kiryat Arba proper and the Givat Avot neighborhood, to the west. The synagogue was recognized by the government as an illegal 'hill-top settlement,' and a few years ago was destroyed a couple of days before Passover. Army tractors bulldozed the synagogue to the ground.

However Kiryat Arba - Hebron residents refused to accept the decree and rebuilt the synagogue. A game of cat and mouse ensued. People would reconstruct the synagogue and every once in a while, in the middle of the night, it was destroyed.

Last Rosh HaShana the Israeli left, together with local Arabs, decided to burn the synagogue down. However the plan became known to Sheikh Jabri, the leader of the largest Arab clan in Hebron, and he forbade the destruction.

According to intelligence reports received by Hebron-Kiryat Arba residents, sometime tonight, or early tomorrow morning, the Israeli army is planning on perpetrating the act forbidden by a Muslim Arab Sheikh from Hebron. They are planning on destroying the synagogue again.

Anyone able to get to Kiryat Arba in the next few hours is asked to do so and to assist in trying to stop this sacrilege.

Earlier tonight I prayed evening prayers at the Chazon David Synagogue and photographed. Below are some of the photos of the synagogue as it is today. Will Chazon David merit another prayer service tomorrow? Will Jews again be able to recite Shema Yisrael at this holy site?

 

Forty Years in the Desert

The group of Jews who initiated and participated in that ‘Seder’ in Hebron in 1968 were the sparks that set the fire of the return of the Jewish people to themselves after two thousand years.
 

On Saturday night we will participate in one of Judaism’s most ancient ceremonies, and certainly one of the year’s most treasured events. We sit around a table and conduct a Seder – the annual recitation of the story of Israel’s redemption from Egypt.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, Israel’s first Chief Rabbi, writes that that exodus had a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it was a goal in and of itself, that being liberation from Egyptian bondage. However, he teaches that the exodus was also a means to an end,  that end being the reception of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and eventually, observance of that Torah in Eretz Yisrael.  The exodus as a stand-alone event was momentous, but its real significance came to pass only years and decades later.

We are currently marking the sixtieth anniversary of Israeli independence. The Jewish people have made tremendous leaps and bounds over the past six decades. Who could have expected, in May of 1948, the power and prestige a Jewish state would command at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is especially notable considering the fact that the Jewish people, coming out of a 2,000 year old exile, had to virtually recreate its national being from scratch, having been totally removed from exercises in sovereignty for two millennium. On top of this we can never forget that Israel was reborn from within the ashes of Auschwitz. Jews have prayed, day in and day out for thousands of years for not only a return to Zion, but also for Techiat HaMetim, the revival of the dead. Israeli independence is no less than revival of the dead.  For this, we rejoice and give thanks to the L-rd for have granted us this most magnanimous gift of national life.

That’s the up side. The down side is all too well known. From the very beginning there was a concerted effort made to oppress the foundations of Jewish being. The founding fathers, or most of them, were not great fans of observant Judaism. The kidnapping and forced resettling of over 1,000 Yemenite children is perhaps the quintessential example of attempts to eradicate Judaism from the Jews.  Yet Ben Gurion was known to have answered, in reply to a question about Jewish legitimacy   to settle in Eretz Yisrael, that the source of Jewish rights to the Land is the Bible.

The relationship between Israel’s leadership and our Land has been overtly problematic. Eretz Yisrael was almost viewed as a ‘card’ to be dealt at the proper time. This was explicitly felt both prior to and following the 1967 Six Day war, when Israeli leaders attempted to refrain from liberating Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and following their liberation, expressed a desire to abandon them at the first possible opportunity. So it was that Israeli paratroopers, having captured the Old City of Jerusalem and Judaism’s most sacred site, Temple Mount and the Kotel (The Western Wall) were told to prepare to leave only a short time after the victory.

Yamit, Oslo, the Hebron accords, Gush Katif and the northern Shomron all speak for themselves. Other words are superfluous.

Where does this leave us, after sixty years?

In my humble opinion, the state of Israel isn’t really sixty years old. Yes, if we count from 1948, to 2008, the result is sixty. But in reality, we couldn’t really call ourselves a full-fledged sovereign entity while our heart was still in captivity. That heart being Jerusalem and Hebron. They go hand-in-hand, together. David began in Hebron for seven and a half years before moving up to Jerusalem. Hebron was lost in 1929; Jerusalem in 1948. Jerusalem was liberated on the 28th of Iyar and Hebron the following day. Hebron was chopped into two parts in January, 1997. Ehud Barak offered Arafat 90% of Jerusalem only a few years ago. The fates of these two eternal, holy cities are inextricably combined and cannot be separated. 

Following the Six Day war former Jerusalem residents, expelled during the 1948 War of Independence were repatriated. Moshe Dayan, then Minister of Defense, refused to speak to former Hebron Jewish homeowners who had lost their property to Arab marauders following the 1929 riots and massacre, and subsequent final expulsion in the spring of 1936. Only in 1968, exactly forty years ago this Friday, did Jews return to the first Jewish city in Israel.

As with many such stories, from close-up they seem almost ordinary. In reality, not only a physical reality, but also a metaphysical truth, such events are earthshaking, or perhaps better put,  ‘heaven-shaking. ‘ The return of a small group of Jews, that 1968 Passover in Hebron, with the guidance of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, with the participation of Rabbis Waldman, Druckman and Levinger, was the forerunner of a massive awakening, a returning to the heart of our land throughout Judea and Samaria. But this awakening too was not only a corporeal return to the land; rather, it was, primarily, a spiritual arousing, the voice of the Jewish people bursting through the ages, an almost primal expression of the faith buried so deep inside the souls of the Jewish people, who for centuries had cried out ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ whereby ‘Jerusalem’ was the keyword representing all our land, Eretz Yisrael. Without Jerusalem, without Shechem, without Hebron, we were as a body without a soul, a golem, whose bodily movements were predefined, perhaps classified as ‘natural.’ But the spirit, the inner essence, the heart, the soul, was missing. Only with the liberation of Jerusalem and Hebron and with them the rest of Judea and Samaria could we really and truly say, ‘we are back home – we have returned.’

That Passover, forty years ago, was the breaking of the ice – the trailblazer, the results of which are the authentic rebirth, physically and spiritually, of the Jewish people. As Jews began returning to their physical roots, so too did they commence the return to their spiritual roots; the numbers of Jews who have ‘returned,’ who have come back to observant Judaism in the past 40 years is beyond numbers. And that homecoming, as such, began with, and was initiated by our return to our land, our return to our heart – to Jerusalem and Hebron. The group of Jews who initiated and participated in that ‘Seder’ in Hebron in 1968 might not have known it then, and maybe some of them are still unaware of it today, but they were the sparks that set the fire of the return of the Jewish people to themselves after two thousand years.

Just as the exodus from Egypt had a double goal; one immediate and the other long-term, so too did our statehood in 1948 have a double agenda; one immediate – announcing before all the world, we, the Jewish people have not died out, we have escaped the bondage of galut, of exile, you have not been able to extinguish us; and also long-term – to bring the people back to all their land, to all their land and to all their heart and soul, physically and spiritually.

So as we celebrate sixty years and forty years, we can conclude that really, only now, are we beginning. The Jewish people spent forty years in the desert before entering the Land, forty years fraught with problem and crises. Now, we too have finished forty years, also filled with unimaginable predicaments. And just as then, when we came into the land the problems didn’t come to a swift end, we too, today, may still face unbearable situations. But those aren’t the key. The key is, we are home, we are in Israel, we have returned to Hebron and to Jerusalem, we have rediscovered ourselves, we have been granted the Divine gift of life, we are here to stay.

Happy Passover, Happy 60, Happy 40!
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|Passover Schedule
We are gearing up for a joyous holiday season in Hebron this Passover. Please see our website at www.hebron.com for more information on Tuesday's Hebron Music Festival and our special holiday tour schedule. Bring your friends to celebrate Pesach in Hebron!