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The Tomb of the Patriarchs, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, is located in the UNESCO World Heritage listed Old City of Hebron, Palestine. It’s important to Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs was built above the cave purchased by Abraham as a burial plot. According to the Book of Genesis, the three Patriarchs and their wives are buried there. They include Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca; and Jacob and Leah.
History
Between 31 and 4 BC, Herod the Great built a large castle-like enclosure over the cave. The stones are at least three feet tall and sometimes 24 feet long. It’s the only Herodian structure surviving fully intact to this day.
In the 4th century, the Byzantines constructed a small basilica inside the southeastern corner of the enclosure. The Sassanids destroyed it in 614, but the Arab Muslims reconstructed it as the Ibrahimi Mosque in 637. They also allowed Jews to build two small synagogues at the site.
In 1100, the Crusaders captured Hebron and converted the mosque into a church. They forbade Muslims and Jews from entering the complex. Saladin then conquered the city in 1188 and reconverted the building into the Ibrahimi Mosque, but allowed Christians to continue worshipping there. He also added minarets to each corner of Herod’s enclosure. Two of those minarets survive today.
The Mamluks constructed the al-Jawali Mosque between 1318 and 1320. This enlarged the prayer space to accommodate more worshippers. Later, the Ottomans restored the complex to great splendor.
Division
After Israel occupied the West Bank following the Six-Day War, the building was divided into a synagogue and mosque. 81% is a mosque and 19% is a synagogue. Our guide mentioned that Muslims and Jews prayed side-by-side in the building until February 25, 1994, when American-Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein (1956-1994) opened fire on Palestinian Muslims praying in the mosque during Ramadan. 29 died and 125 were wounded. An additional 35 died during the resulting riots. Since then, Jews and Muslims are restricted from entering one another’s space.
Denied Entry
When we visited Hebron on our tour, the original plan was to see the Jewish part of the complex with our Israeli guide, Eliyahu, and visit the mosque later on in the day with our Palestinian guide, Mohammed. However, that didn’t happen.
Eliyahu explained that on 10 days a year, Jews have free reign over the complex while on another 10 days, Muslims have free reign. We happened to be there on one of the days restricted to Jewish entry only. He tried to talk the guard into letting our group inside but was unsuccessful. Instead, Eliyahu lectured about the building from the outside while Jewish members of our group were given an opportunity to go inside.
Seventh Step
One important feature of Tomb of the Patriarchs we were able to visit was the Seventh Step Garden. Under Mamluk rule, Jews were forbidden from entering the complex. They were restricted to worshipping up to the seventh step of the staircase on the southeast side. A guard would stand on the eighth step to knock down any Jew who tried to go past the seventh step.
The “seventh step” rule stood for about 700 years until June 8, 1967. On that day, Israeli Major General Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1917-1994) pulled down the doors of the mosque, entered the building, and began to pray. He was the first Jew to enter the compound since the Mamluks began enforcing the rule. The staircase was later destroyed to erase the humiliation caused by the seventh step.
Conclusion
While we were disappointed we couldn’t enter the Tomb of the Patriarchs, it gave us a good reason to return to Hebron in the future. It seems like a fantastic building to visit, with so much historical and religious significance. We hope to visit on a “normal” day when security issues and holidays don’t alter the plans of the guides.
