This Shabbat, known as Shabbat Hevron, we read Parshat Chayei Sarah.
In this parsha, Sarah Imeinu passes away at the age of 127.
Avraham purchases the Cave of Machpela in which to bury Sarah from Ephron the HIttite for 400 shekels of silver. Avraham purchased the Cave for an exceptionally high price, even though Ephron offered it as a free gift. In this way, no nation in the future would ever be able to dispute that the Cave of Machpelah belongs to the Jewish people for all time. All our Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried in Mearat Hamachpela with the exception of Rachel Imeinu...... Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivkah, and Yaakov and Leah.
As every year, tens of thousands of visitors will stream to the City of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs this Shabbat to celebrate the reading of the Torah portion describing the sale of the Cave to Avraham Avinu. Many participants will sleep in tents on the lawns. School buildings will open to accommodate the thousands of guests. Others will sleep at the homes of friends and relatives in Hevron and Kiryat Arba. There will be prayers, dancing, singing and festive public meals. It is an event unequalled anywhere and at any time.
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Descending to the Resting Place of our Patriarchs
Many people are not aware that the actual burial sites of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs are located beneath the huge, 2000 year old building.
In 1967, Moshe Dayan secretly arranged for a young girl, MIchal Arbel, to be lowered into a narrow opening located in the Yitzchak Hall to explore the caverns below. In 1961, members of the Jewish community of Hevron again descended into the underground caverns. To read more read article Entering the Cave of Machpela by Noam Arnon: htto://en.hebron.org.il/history/593
MAARAT HAMACHPELA- What's Really Inside? click on this link to find out!
The ENTRANCE TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN
The Zohar writes that the Cave is the very entranceway to the Garden of Eden. The Hebrew word Machpela means "two-fold". The Cave is considered "two-fold" because it bridges the material and spiritual worlds, linking them by serving as an entrance from one to the other. The name of the city Hevron also bears the etymological roots of the word "connection" - lechaber.
The Cave, as the point of fusion between Heaven and earth, was the proper resting place of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, whose lives were the perfect bridges between the two worlds: involvement in the mundane affairs of this world without ever losing sight of the spiritual goals and aspirations that infused their lives with meaning and direction. This was how Sarah acquired the Cave. She lived her life as a paragon of an intelligent and thoroughly spiritual woman of the world, never compromising her purity, modesty or righteousness. Such a woman deserved to find her final resting place at the Gateway to Eden.
We are all twofold creatures. We have our spiritual sides and our material sides, and we have to forge a beneficial union between the two. We must give the full deserved attention to those daily activities that put bread on our tables. We must take our children to the doctor and fix the car transmission. But we must also be intensely spiritual, treating our fellow men with love, kindness and compassion ad seeking closer ties with the Creator.
https://torah.org/torah-portion/legacy-5768-chayeisarah/ by Rabbi Naftali Reich
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HEVRON IN SONG
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HEVRON SHELI: MY HEVRON
Entrance in the Yitzchak Hall to the Burial Chambers Below
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SHABBAT SHALOM UMEVORACH !!!
!!שׁבּת שׁלום ומבורך