Rabbi Dov Lior putting up the mezuzah in the Cave of the Patriarchs.
I will never know whether Abraham put up a mezuzah at all four openings of his tent, but I am sure he would be delighted to hear the story behind the stone mezuzahs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
In 2016, I got a call from Tzuri, the site manager at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. He told me, “Assaf, rioters have vandalized the mezuzahs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs again. As of now, we have received unusual permission to put up permanent mezuzahs.
Can you come to take a look at the entrances?
I went.
I examined the wide doorposts. “Do it so that they won’t be able to remove them,” Tzuri said, “and make them look strong. Meanwhile, I need one mezuzah for the Hall of Abraham and one for the Hall of Jacob.”
“What about Isaac?” I asked.
“For now, it’s impossible. The Hall of Isaac is closed to Jewish prayer,” he answered.
After praying in the Cave of Machpela, I drove northward on Highway 60.
On the way to my home in Itamar, I tried grasp the sublime task that had been assigned to me. I felt that I had to find very ancient stone to make the mezuzah for Abraham – stone that would give every Jew in our generation a direct bond to Abraham that would owe nothing to Persians, Hellenists, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Arabs, Mamluks, or Ottomans. I wanted stone with a real story behind it – stone that would remind us who Abraham is, his importance to us, and who we are.
I picked up my Bible and looked for the verse that documents the first moments of Abraham in the Land of the Israel.
“And Abram traveled in the land to Shechem… And G-d appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants,’ and there he built an altar to G-d, who had revealed himself there.” (Genesis 12:6-7).
This is the point. It is happening right here in the land of Shechem, just down the slope from Itamar. This is the exact place where G-d revealed himself to Abraham for the first time, the exact place where Abraham built an altar for the first time, and the exact place where G-d promised the land to Abraham for the first time.
I understood: Abraham’s stone is in Shechem.
I had no doubt about from where I should take stone for the Hall of Jacob. It obviously had to be from the place where G-d told Jacob that the promises that he had made to Abraham and Isaac would be kept for Jacob and his descendants – Jacob’s Rock in Beit El, the site of Jacob’s dream.
I asked Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, and he was delighted to help me find the place. “And behold, G-d was standing over him, and said, ‘I am the Lord, the G-d of Abraham your forefather, and the G-d of Isaac. I will give you the land on which you are reclining to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of theearth… I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go… for I will not forsake you until I have fulfilled what I have told you.’” (Genesis 28:13-15).
His eyes in the Bible and my eyes on the stone there – here it was.
Permission was granted two years later, together with the request to put up a mezuzah in the Hall of Isaac.
The Bible does not say much about Isaac the Patriarch, nor do we. During the year, we mention Abraham, the man of goodwill, and Jacob, father of the 12 tribes. At the moment of truth, however, on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, we ask G-d to remember the binding of Isaac.
I consulted the archeologists responsible for sifting the dust coming from the Temple Mount, and told them, “I need stone that witnessed the seminal event of the binding of Isaac – stone that heard the angel cry, ‘Do not raise your hand against the youth.’” (Genesis 22:12)
“Come, I have a stone like that. I myself saw it taken out of the mountain,” one of the archeologists said. I looked at the stone, and saw it glitter through the dust. “You have a good reason to glitter. You are going to meet him again,” I told the stone.
In addition to the words “Isaac and Rebecca,” I also engraved the words on it “The binder and the bound upon the altar.” (When the Gates of Favor Open, Rabbi Judah ben Samuel ibn Abbas)