Almost 50,000 Jews visited the Cave of the Patriarchs in the Judea city of Hebron during the first two days of the joyous Sukkot festival on Oct. 7-8, according to Israel Defense Forces data.
A total of 47,000 Jews visited Judaism’s second-holiest city during the first two days of the weeklong Feast of Booths—1.5 times as many worshippers as last year, the data cited by Arutz 7 on Sunday indicated.
The Cave of the Patriarchs (“Mearat Hamachpela”) is the burial place of the Jewish patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. According to the biblical account, the cave was purchased by Abraham from Ephron the Hittite more than 3,000 years ago.
Hebron is home to some 800 Jewish residents—there is a waiting list to move there—who live surrounded by some 200,000 Arabs.
At dawn on Wednesday, thousands of Jewish worshippers gathered at the Cave of the Patriarchs for a traditional Hallel prayer led by Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed in the Upper Galilee, and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Schwartz, the chief rabbi of Hebron-Kiryat Arba.
Among those attending the service were bereaved Israeli families, IDF troops and their relatives, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and other senior officials.
Eliyahu told attendees at the prayer service, “The Zohar [book of Jewish mysticism] teaches that in the future, the enemies of Israel throughout generations will reappear in the enemies of today. At the same time, the patriarchs themselves are revealed through the righteous of our time.”
He added that this includes “all the righteous and soldiers who risk their lives not just to save one soul, but to save an entire people—and through them, an entire world.”
Also on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, declaring victory at the holiest site in Judaism two years after the Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist invasion of the northwestern Negev.
“We are two years after the terrible massacre—here at the Temple Mount there is victory, in every house in Gaza there is a picture of the Temple Mount, and we today, two years later, are victorious at the Temple Mount,” the leader of the Oztma Yehudit Party exclaimed.
Almost 70,000 Jews ascended the Mount in the Hebrew year 5785, a 22% increase compared to the previous year and a modern-day record, the Beyadenu—Returning to the Temple Mount group stated on Sept. 24.
According to the Israeli advocacy group, 68,429 Jewish worshippers entered Judaism’s holiest site since the previous Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year, on Oct. 2, 2024. In 5784, 56,057 visited the site.
