Hebron is the site of the burial cave for Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. Abraham purchased land for an outrageous price to provide for a burial cave for Sarah, himself and his progeny through the ages. Abraham’s friend, Ephron the Hittite, offered to give him the land, but Abraham refused the gift. The sages say that Abraham bought the land because he didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding later about who actually owned the land. If Abraham had accepted it as a gift, it could later be said that Abraham was allowed to use the land, but it was not actually given to him. So, Abraham bought the land, and it has been a center of Jewish life ever since.
When the children of Israel came out
of Egypt to take the land God promised to give them, Caleb fought for and
conquered Hebron. The city was a special gift to Caleb because he followed the
LORD with his whole heart.
Joshua 14:9 NKJV 9 "So Moses swore on that day, saying,
'Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your
children's forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.'
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| Ruins of building from the time of Abraham |
Later, we learn that King David began
his reign in Hebron, ruling there for seven and a half years before moving his
capital to Jerusalem. Hebron remained a vital city in Judea even after the
destruction of the temple in 70 C.E. In fact, many of the Jews who were exiled
from Jerusalem settled in Hebron. In 135 C. E., the Romans exiled all the Jews
from Jerusalem but allowed them to settle in a few other places around the land
they renamed as Palestina. One of the areas they were allowed to go was to
Hebron.
Empires rise and fall, and so did the
Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire. They fell to the rising
power of the new religious force of Islam. The Muslims drove out the Byzantine
Empire and attached Israel to the land that they ruled. Dynasties rose and fell
with different Islamic rulers and policies. But through all this time, Jews
still lived in Hebron.
In the 1500’s, A new Jewish synagogue
was built in Hebron eventually named Avraham Avinu because tradition tells us
that Avraham visited the synagogue one year at Yom Kippur to provide the tenth
man required for a minyan, to be able to hold a Yom Kippur service.
At this time Hebron was a small town
with a good portion of the population Jewish. Altogether there were only a few
thousand residents. The residents got along well together; the Jewish people
viewed the Arab residents as their friends and neighbors. But the world was
changing; the British desire for world dominance had them attacking the Ottoman
Empire which in turn joined forces with the Germans in World War I.
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| Our host, David Wilder, executive director of eretz.org, in front of the tomb of Jesse and Ruth. |
Many of the Jewish residents in
Israel at this time viewed this strife as an opportunity to throw off centuries
of Muslim rule and take back their land. They provided vital strategic
information helping the British to defeat the Ottomans. They expected that they
would then be able to re-establish their nation. The land of Israel at the time
was mostly barren; the population was extremely low. The Ottoman’s placed
little value on the land; it was considered nearly uninhabitable fulfilling the
prophecies in the word of the LORD.
Ezekiel 33:28-29 NKJV 28 "For I will make the land most
desolate, her arrogant strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall
be so desolate that no one will pass through. 29 "Then they shall know
that I am the LORD, when I have made the land most desolate because of all
their abominations which they have committed."'
But the British, instead of rewarding
the Jewish people for their help and keeping their promises to allow the
forming of a Jewish homeland, began policies rooted in Anti-Semitism. They promoted the incitement of hatred by the
Arabs against the Jewish people. The centers of this Anti-Semitism were
Jerusalem and Hebron. In Hebron, the Jewish people had continued to view their
Arab neighbors as their friends and refused to arm themselves against their
Arab neighbors. This led to a slaughter of the Jewish people and for the first
time since Caleb defeated the Amorites to take the city of Hebron for his
inheritance; there was no Jewish presence in the city of Hebron! After
centuries of continuous habitation by the Jews, the British accomplished what
no other empire had, the removal of the Jewish people from the city!
Since that time, the Jews have
repeatedly and courageously returned to Hebron! The current Jewish community in
Hebron has been blocked repeatedly from building on the land that the Jewish
people own. They have been forbidden to buy any more land. In the meantime, the
Arab population, numbering less than 10,000 in 1967 has been allowed to build
wherever they want. The Arab population, bolstered by the deliberate moving of
Arabs to the area, has soared to nearly 200,000.
Who is it that has forbidden Jews
from building in Hebron? None other than other Jews backed by the policies of
the United States. The United States, who purports to be the friend of Israel,
is backing policies that will ultimately lead to the Jews being squeezed out of
their own land. Jewish building is restricted by U. S. policy, but Arab
building continues unabated! Even other residents of Israel see Hebron not as a
Jewish city but as an Arab city. As Dan and I were on the bus returning from
Hebron to Zichron Ya’akov where we were staying, we struck up a conversation
with an Israeli woman across the aisle. When we said that we had just spent the
day in Hebron, her attitude turned frosty. Her response to my statement that
the Jewish community was continuing to live hopefully in spite of being
threatened on all sides was, “The Jews have no business there. I will never go
there.”
No business there? She has forgotten her
own history if she ever knew it at all! Israelis and other Jews with this
viewpoint have forgotten where they came from! They ignorantly forget that the
tomb of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is there! They are throwing away thousands of
years of heritage! They are throwing
away their inheritance and their future!
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| The two of us in front of the memorial at Ma’arat HaMachpela, Abraham’s tomb. |
In spite of this opposition, the Jews
of Hebron prevail. Their faith that God will grant them the land is unshaken.
In the words of one resident, “The reason we continue is not just for us, but
for all Jews and non-Jews to be able to visit the tomb of the patriarchs.” They
persevere for the millions who visit each year. They do this even for the unfortunate
Israeli woman who ignorantly declared, “I will never go there.”
The name Hebron means to associate or
to join together. Hebron is a joining of the Jewish people to their roots. It
is a joining with the giants of faith, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a
joining with Caleb and Joshua who ignored the giants living in Hebron and
stated that the land God had given them was a good land and that the children
of Israel should go up!
Numbers 13:30 NKJV 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before
Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well
able to overcome it."
Hebron is a reminder that God has
promised the land to Israel for all generations.
Genesis 13:14-15 NKJV 14 And the LORD said to Abram, after
Lot had separated from him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place
where you are-northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 "for all
the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.
The faith of the residents of Hebron
is unshakeable. They stand firm on the promises of God.
Ezekiel 36:8-10 NKJV 8 "But you, O mountains of Israel,
you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel,
for they are about to come. 9 "For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to
you, and you shall be tilled and sown. 10 "I will multiply men upon you,
all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the
ruins rebuilt.
God will restore Israel!
Shalom from the land of Israel
Dan & Brenda Cathcart
