Rachel's Tomb

Rachel's Tomb is a holy site of high significance to Judaism and is located in the West Bank (biblical Judea) adjacent to the city of Bethlehem. It is the burial place of the biblical matriarch Rachel, the wife of Jacob, believed to have died on that site while giving birth to Benjamin. It is considered the third holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount and the Cave of the Machpelah{{fact}}. Over the years, Rachel's Tomb has been a place of pilgrimage for Jews, especially Jewish women unable to give birth. Jewish tradition teaches that Rachel weeps for her children and that when the Jews were taken into exile, she wept as they past by her grave on the way to Babylonia.

Related Topics:
Judaism - West Bank - Judea - Bethlehem - Rachel - Jacob - Benjamin - Temple Mount - Cave of the Machpelah - Babylonia

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The actual "tomb" consists of a rock with eleven stones upon it, one for each of the eleven sons of Jacob who were alive when Rachel died of childbirth. Over the centuries, the rock was covered by a dome supported by four arches. (In the Middle East, domes were used in small buildings until modern times due to a lack of wood beams for roofs.)

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The dome structure was enclosed by Sir Moses Montifiore, who added a second room. In the 1990's, due to the deteriorating security situation, the original domed stucture was fortified and enclosed inside a building with a hall from the entrance. Recently, the site has been surrounded by a barrier to separate it from the Palestinian population of Bethlehem; many plots of land belonging to Bethlehem Palestinians were confiscated in order to allow the route of the barrier to include the tomb.

Related Topics:
Sir Moses Montifiore - Barrier - Palestinian

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