{"id":37634,"date":"2018-08-12T23:16:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37634"},"modified":"2022-03-07T15:43:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T13:43:29","slug":"detached-from-the-judaism-of-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/detached-from-the-judaism-of-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Detached from the Judaism of the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the competitive negotiations characteristic of the Middle East markets, Abraham buys a cave and a field as a family burial plot. Our Sages (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 79:7) established that the cave (the Cave of the Patriarchs), the Temple and the Tomb of Joseph are three places that the nations of the world cannot claim to have been stolen because it is written explicitly that they were bought for full price. The \u201cCave of the Patriarchs\u201d and the Tomb of Joseph are just some of the burial sites that have become over the course of time places to which people make pilgrimage. \u00a0In recent years, the graves of Yitzhak Rabin, Baba Sali and Naomi Shemer have been added to that list.<\/span><\/p>\n

The phenomenon of visiting a burial site \u00a0is not unique to Judaism. Christians make a pilgrimage to their holy sites and Moslems have \u201cziyara\u201d which is a p<\/span>ilgrimage to sites associated with Muhammad. \u00a0<\/span>However, unlike the case in Christianity and Islam, our Sages, in most cases, did not look favorably upon this folk custom. Some looked upon it favorably or came to terms with it after the fact. \u00a0However, most fought this phenomenon as much as they could. \u201cWhy was Moses\u2019s burial ever made known? So that Jews will not go and offer sacrifices and incense there and in order to prevent the nations of the world from defiling his burial place with their idols?” (Midrash Lekach Tov 68a).<\/span><\/p>\n

The concept of holiness in Judaism, unlike Christianity, Islam, and idolatrous religions that sanctify the object or the person, is a spiritual perspective. Ascribing sanctity to a place or person contradicts a basic tenet that Judaism tried to advance against the backdrop of idolatry described in the Bible, and against the background of Western materialism of today. How, then, did we get to the point where in one day a quarter of a million people ascend to the tomb of a rabbinic teacher from the second century CE (on Lag Ba\u2019Omer <\/span>An estimated 250,000 Israelis\u2014men, women and children\u2014travel to the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Mt. Meron)? <\/span>\u00a0Different answers are given, but all are completely detached from the Judaism of the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n

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