{"id":57551,"date":"2019-06-16T15:37:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T12:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=57551"},"modified":"2023-01-08T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T14:55:10","slug":"where-is-rachels-tomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/where-is-rachels-tomb\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Is Rachel\u2019s Tomb?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the close of the previous chapter, Samuel took Saul aside and intimated that he had something to tell him. As this chapter opens, we learn that the message he sought to convey to him was that God had chosen him to rule over Israel (1). Samuel continued, however, and delivered to Saul a somewhat enigmatic instruction:<\/span><\/p>\n

When you leave me today, you will find two men by the tomb (<\/span>kevurat<\/span><\/em>) of Rachel, near the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will say to you: The donkeys that you went to seek have been found, and your father has ceased caring for the donkeys, and is anxious about you, asking: What shall I do about my son? (2).<\/span><\/p>\n

Implicit in Samuel\u2019s instructions (which also mention Bethel and allude to Kiryat Ye`arim) is that Zelzah is north of Jerusalem. Recall, too, a famous verse: \u201cHark! A bitter cry can be heard in the Ramah. Rachel is mourning the loss of her children\u201d (Jeremiah 31:14). An otherwise unspecified Ramah (heights) usually refers to the home of Samuel\u2014likewise north of Jerusalem. In Genesis 35:19-20, however, Rachel\u2019s death is set \u201con the road to Ephrat, which is Bethlehem\u201d south of Jerusalem, and Jacob erected a monument over her tomb (<\/span>kevurat<\/span><\/i>) that is visible \u201cto this very day,\u201d as any visitor to Bethlehem can attest.<\/span><\/p>\n

This very conundrum confounded Ramban (Nahmanides, 1194-1270). In his Torah commentary (to Genesis 35:16), he originally wrote that Rachel\u2019s tomb is situated at some (unspecified) distance from Bethlehem. After his arrival in the Land of Israel (c. 1267), however, he added:<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what I thought previously. Now that I have merited to come to Jerusalem, praise to the beneficent God, I can see with my own two eyes that the distance between Rachel\u2019s\u2019 tomb (<\/span>kevurat<\/span><\/em>) and Bethlehem is less than a mile, contradicting my original interpretation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of where Rachel was actually buried, Saul was a Benjaminite and, assumedly, held the tomb of his ancestress in singular regard. By directing him there, Samuel may have been inviting him to connect with his tribal roots and, perhaps, to draw from them the strength and support he would need to initiate and sustain his rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

My personal inclination is to identify <\/span>kevurat Rachel<\/span><\/em> with the Muslim shrine called Nebi Samwil, situated on an elevation just north of Jerusalem (\u201cnear the border of Benjamin\u201d), regarded as the burial site of the Prophet Samuel. Since Samuel\u2019s Ramah was actually further north, in the Ephraim hill country in which he was born, it is possible that Muslim tradition got the two confused. <\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Tomb of Rachel, between 1890 and 1900 \/ Wikimedia commons<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":57557,"id":57557,"title":"isam10-Tomb_of_Rachel","filename":"isam10-Tomb_of_Rachel.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam10-Tomb_of_Rachel.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/where-is-rachels-tomb\/isam10-tomb_of_rachel\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam10-tomb_of_rachel","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":57551,"date":"2019-06-16 12:37:41","modified":"2019-06-16 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