Secrets of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron

[Applause] Shalom everybody isai fer here and we are in Hebron beautiful beautiful biblical Hebron behind me a 2,000-year old building which has the mystery of Stonehenge the beauty of the Taj Mahal and a value to humanity which is unequaled unparalleled that's because this is the Tomb of the Patriarchs and matriarchs the founders of the Bible and of the Jewish people this is a place of pil page for hundreds of thousands of peoples every single year we're going to go through biblical Hebron we're going to learn about the history we're going to connect to everything from Adam and Eve to Abraham to Caleb to King David to Herod and even till today let the journey [Music] begin all right folks I'm here with no Arnon who is the legendary spokesman of the Jewish community of kevron Hebron and also a scholar and a historian of the Marat the Tomb of the Patriarchs and matriarchs maybe Noom you could shed some light on the mystery of this building this is really the beginning of humanity as the Bible said and ancient Jewish sources tell us that Adam first the first man in the world he was the first to understand and to feel the importance of this place the Holiness of this place because what he felt here was the entrance of the Garden of Eden ganeden in Hebrew this is why he dug the cave in order to return to ganeden but you know he was expelled it was forbidden for him to return right this is how this cave was created this is where Adam and his wife K eve were buried and then the cave was closed no one knew about that until Abraham ainu Abraham he came here and according to Jewish sources Abraham went into the cave where he saw a special light he felt a special smell and feelings he heard the angels singing in the Garden of Eden and this is why Abraham desired to purchase this place in order somehow to be connected to this special you know special experience [Music] okay we're now at what seems to me to be an incredibly ancient staircase Noom how old is this staircase that we're standing on actually we are standing in one of the most ancient stes in the world it's as though it was built yesterday it's really fantastic well it goes goes back to the early bronze to the eie you know early Bronze Age such an ancient place you see still preserved as it was built yesterday amazing the age of this circus is about 45 centuries ago I mean 4,500 years ago wait a minute wait a minute 4500 years ago is about 700 years before Abraham was even here that's right when Abraham came to Heron this was already a built and very rich town I can imagine Abraham and Isaac walking here climbing the steps and Isaac said Dad when this world was built and Abraham said oh my son it's very ancient world wow it's 700 years old now you know this the steps they led to the gate of the town the Gate of the town is a very important place the people were sitting there the people were gathering and talking this is where the highest decisions of the Town were made so this staircase led to the gate which was somewhere up there of ancient absolutely right okay so Abraham comes here 3,800 years ago his wife Sarah passes away the Book of Genesis tells us that he's going to negotiate to purchase a plot here in Hebron to bury her that's right as we read in the Bible Abraham was negotiating with the people of heon theim the hi they belong to the canites to the can and he begged for them one thing I want a cave to purchase to buy a land that will be mine I want to bury Sarah in our family plot so he didn't want to receive it as a gift and the Bible is going to record a kind of interchange negotiation between himself and Ephron the hittite and Ephron is going to say here I've given it to you as a present you're a very important person amongst us you're a prince of God here I give it to you in an honorific Middle Eastern fashion I give it to you Abraham says no I don't want you to give me any presents of course not Abraham insisted on paying money I mean silver for the place for the land he wanted this place to be his own not as a gift of anybody of somebody else but to be his property for himself for his family and for the people for the nation that would rise from him and [Music] on no we're at a beautiful spot here overlooking the city of Hebron and if before we were on a staircase where ancient Hebron was ton the ancient side of Hebron we see over there in the middle of the city uh of today we see the M structure this is the structure that King Herod built at top of the tombs of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and and the matriarchs as well but I'm guessing that this is not where town was where the city was in the ancient days exactly this is Emon the Valley of KRON all this area was the fields of the town the town was here on the top of the mountain imagine all this area are fields around in the end of the field where the mountain begins to climb between the Rocks there is a cave and this is the very first place that belongs to the Jewish people in the land of Israel and this is where Raam say this is the place I want to put Sarah you know he loved her so much there's an element of romance in the m there's an element of couples I like that's why I like to say hebon is for Lovers that's right that's right you know here we have fathers but fathers alone can do nothing with the fathers and the mothers together they can create a nation they can create a future create mankind this is what they [Music] [Applause] [Music] did [Music] okay n we have made it back down to theat itself to this Monumental tomb structure uh we went through Abraham why he buried Sarah here and the rest of the biblical family we talked about Adam and Eve being here even before that now we're at the second temple period and this strange King Herod decides to build this building who is Herod why does he build this well Herod as you said quite a strange personality actually was a very ambitious and uh by the way a very successful King he ruled on Judea 33 years under the Roman Empire we have to remember one very very basic fact Herod was Jewish his grandfather was converted and as a Jewish King he decided to eternalize and to perpetuate the Jewish Heritage by building two very very important and basic structures one is here at top of the Cave of the Jewish fathers and mothers to symbolize the Jewish beginning the foundation of Jewish nation and the other one is Temple mount betam mikdash in yush which symbolize of course the most important and holy place of the Jewish Nation these two structure are con are actually one by Design you can see the same Stones today in the Western Wall in the kot right they look the same they've got these frames Fram herodian Stone exactly so this is how he connected these two symbols to actually one Eternal chain beginning here the forefathers and going toam and the most important thing is this building is standing intact no brick is missing it's here as it was built ,000 years ago and still being used for the same purpose it was built for to symbolize the fathers and to be a place of Prayer of worship this Jewish magnificent structure stands here and symbolize the Jewish [Music] eternity [Music] is this Abraham well this is not the tomb this is why it doesn't say but is a marker is the memorial and this is really the memorial the cotp of Abraham it's not the tomb the tomb is there in the cave five stories beneath this is a symbol of Abraham to make the people who come here to think about the personalities of the fathers and mothers when people come here on the city symbol begin to think who is Abraham Abraham was the founder of human faith of believ in one God of understanding the world he founded the abrahamic religion that today most of the world actually believes in the way of [Music] Abraham when you see so many people come from all over the world to pray here to visit here to worship here knowing that somewhere the fathers are here but where is the cave well this question was mysterious so for many years many people tried to find it and they failed no one returned alive in our generation we had the privilege to discover the cave I was among the very very few people who was privileged to enter and to discover the cave it was it was some 30 years ago in the middle of the night we opened the the stones we crawled in through a dark tunnel wow and then we discovered the underground cave which is there we crawled in now we discovered a double cave in Hebrew the name is m m is double actually there are two caves crawling there I found myself crawling amongst human bones I was shocked I was shocked we began to pray we continued and there we found ancient vessels ancient tools when when we checked them we understood that we have remains from the ancient Jewish presence here some 3,000 years ago so first temple artifacts that's right this is a second temple building but you found first temple artifacts already in the cave structure below now the caves were identifies as were identified as caves from the MBI midle Bron which is equal to the forefather era we have here the evidence today scientific evidence of the presence of burial here from the time of Abraham until today and we had the privilege thank God to be part of [Music] it okay now right now we're next to the senot theun the memorial of Jacob you know the Book of Genesis ends with Jacob uh talking to his children and this was not in the land of Israel but in Egypt and he says to them don't bury me here in Egypt take me back to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and he describes again the purchase and he makes a big deal out of it and yet again the Torah spills a lot of ink trying to remind us about the story of the purchase of Marat of course Jacob in his last will testimony Jacob decided to say to his children one thing take me home return me back to where my fathers are when they will bring me to hebon and will they they will know where the location or the fathers where Abraham and is were this will connect them to the idea to the faith you see the children of Jacob are the children of Israel we are the children of Israel we are Israel we continue Jacob and when we established the State we called it state of Israel and today I feel that we the children of Israel return to Jacob saying father you see we have retailed we have come back home we came [Applause] back all right folks I hope you enjoyed your tour of biblical Hebron it's a tour that sadly not enough people get to see but you were there with me today with Noom are known that was awesome we saw the roots of the whole biblical story but when we come here what are we really supposed to get we're supposed to get the blessings of the fathers and mothers and bless our children with that blessing may we follow in the ways of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sarah Becca and Leia and Rachel who's buried in the Tom of Rachel may we follow in their Pathways may we recognize God and may we always come back to our homeland to Israel and to Hebron thanks for being with [Music] [Applause] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh yes this for