(IsraelNN.com) Tens of thousands of people flooded Hevron, the biblical City of Patriarchs, in honor of the “Chayey Sarah Sabbath.” Among the guests were Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman and MK Uri Ariel (NU).

"Chayey Sarah” – Hebrew for “Lifetime of Sarah” – is the Torah portion which recounts the passing of Sarah the Matriarch and Abraham's purchase of a burial plot for her from Ephron the Hittite. The passage, in which Abraham insists on paying the full price for the plot, has been quoted by Jews for millennia as proof of Jewish rights to the Cave of Machpelah, where most of the first Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried, and by extension, to all of Hevron.

The spokesman for the Jewish community in Hevron, Noam Arnon, told Arutz Sheva that mass prayers were held at the Cave of Machpelah. The entire Cave, including the Yitzchak Hall, was open to Jews.

"It was a wonderful Sabbath,” Arnon said. “Over twenty thousand people came, it was an extraordinary experience. Even the rain came down on time during the prayers and the Sabbath meals.” Arnon said people from all religious streams came to Hevron: hareidis, knit-kippahs, hassidic Jews, Ashkenazics and Sephardics. “The guests did not just come from Israel but also from the US and Europe,” he said.

The Jewish community in Hevron offered guests tours of the Jewish neighborhood, including the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, Hadassah House and Admot Yishai.