5tjt Kever Yosef

Why Make The Ushpizin Come To You? Pilgrims Bring Sukkah To Kever Yosef BY SAMUEL SOKOL, SHECHEM

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October 16, 2009

traditional Jewish melodies while a mix of worshippers, from Chassidim to casually dressed settlers, danced together in a circle, singing holiday songs. The Five Towns Jewish Times spoke with David Ha’ivri of the Samaria Liaison Office

PhotoBySamuelSokol

On Wednesday, October 7, hundreds of pilgrims made their way into the ancient city of Shechem, known to the Arabs as Nablus, to pray at the gravesite of the Biblical figure Yosef haTzaddik. The visit was timed to coincide with the fifth night of Sukkos. According to tradition, seven Biblical figures, known as the ushpizin, come to visit the sukkos of those observing the holiday, with Yosef arriving on the fifth night. Groups of pilgrims come monthly, escorted by Israeli security forces in heavily armored bulletproof buses. According to the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is required to grant Jews free access to the site. However, in 2000, after years of repeated attacks on worshippers and attempts by Fatah terrorists to take over the tomb, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered a withdrawal and surrendered the holy site to the PA. After the withdrawal, Arabs burned Kever Yosef, destroying the adjacent Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva complex and smashing the dome above the gravesite. Currently, visits must be coordinated with the army, which secures the area by imposing a curfew and escorts buses of

pilgrims to the shattered structure. Only three buses are allowed in at a time. Due to the volume of worshippers, the army escorts people into the tomb in shifts. Members of the Shomron municipal council set up a sukkah next to the kever,

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of Shas party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, leading prayers at Kever Yosef in Shechem.

serving refreshments for those who came to pray. In the courtyard of what was once the yeshiva, several meters away from the tomb itself, a musician played

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regarding the visit. He stated, “On the one hand, we’re very glad that we have the opportunity to visit Kever Yosef about once a month. We are very grateful to the IDF

command for facilitating this visit and, as we can see, thousands of people from around the country are eager to take part in the prayers at Kever Yosef. On the other hand, the situation is still very disgraceful. Kever Yosef is standing in ruins. It has been terribly desecrated by the Arabs in Shechem. We need to cause a situation where we can renovate and show our honors to Yosef, to G-d, and to the Jewish people. We must reclaim Kever Yosef for the Jewish people in order to reestablish the yeshiva, and open up Kever Yosef to Jewish visitors at any time during the day, throughout the week.” In November 2007, Gershon Mesika was elected as mayor of the Shomron regional council and immediately petitioned the local military command to allow him and his staff to visit Kever Yosef in order to hold a special thanksgiving prayer session. Afterwards, Mesika negotiated with the army to allow for monthly pilgrimages to the tomb. Every month, thousands of people rush to register for one of several hundred highly prized seats on specially chartered buses. This was a welcome change for the Jewish community, after seven years without access to the holy site. Mesika commented that while almost a thousand people came to Kever Yosef over the holiday, thousands more would

certainly come were the IDF to permit it. The mayor decried that fact that Jews are forced to visit one of their holiest sites like “thieves in the night.” Currently, the Israeli Defense Forces only allow pilgrims access to the site after dark when the area is easier to secure. The route leading to the tomb complex is lined with Palestinian Authority flags and posters of terrorists belonging to the Arab militias that operate in the area. Mesika quoted an ancient tradition that states that Kever Yosef “is one of the three places where the non-Jews cannot deceive the Jewish People by saying that they stole it from them” due to it being recorded in scripture that the area was purchased by the Jewish people. The Palestinian Authority has claimed that Kever Yosef is in fact not a Jewish shrine, but rather the burial place of a Muslim sheikh. However, the PA has a history of denying the historical connections between the Jewish people and holy sites.

The Palestinian Authority has denied that the Temple ever existed in Jerusalem. The Palestinian authority has recently incited riots in order to defend the AlAqsa Mosque. Adnan Husseini of the Waqf, the Islamic trust responsible for overseeing the mount, has called Jews who ascend to the Temple Mount extremists and blamed the recent violence on their presence. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, former Knesset member and son of Shas spiritual leader Rav Ovadia Yosef, attended the festivities at the tomb. As he led prayers, people crowded around him, jostling to snap pictures. He commented on the significance of visiting Kever Yosef on the night in which Yosef is said to visit the sukkos of Jews all over the world. “We remind ourselves of Yosef, not just in theory when we invite him into our sukkos, but we visit him in his place so that [the merit] of Yosef haTzaddik will guard over all of Israel.”

When asked if he believed that Jews would soon be able to visit the tomb during the day, the rabbi responded, “We

hope that today Mashiach will arrive and redeem us and we will arrive here during the day as we once did, without fear.” ❖

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October 16, 2009

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