and Matriarchs in Hebron
4:40pm – Brit Milah Hall
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Schwartz, Chief Rabbi of Hebron-Kiryat Arba
6:30pm – Central Courtyard
Noam Waldman, head of the Nir Yeshiva of Kiryat Arba with the participation of teachers
and students.
8:00pm – Central Courtyard
Tzvika Mor, father of captive Eitan Avraham Mor
4:40pm – Brit Milah Hall
Rabbi Yosef Dayan, Yosef Dayan, head of the regional religious council.
5:45pm – Central Courtyard
Lt.-Col. Yishai Rosilio, Amitai Cohen of the Judea Brigade,
Amitai Cohen, head of the Religious Council of the Tomb of the
Ancestors
4:40pm – Brit Milah Hall
Yisrael Zev, long-time veteran of Machpela minyan
5:30pm – Central Courtyard
Rabbi Mishael Rubin, and the students of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron
4:40pm – Brit Milah Hall
Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, Tourism Director, Hebron Fund
5:00pm – Central Courtyard
Barak Mordechai, district police commander
Police Chief Shadi Saank
7:30pm – Central Courtyard
Chabad of Hebron
4:40pm – Brit Milah Hall
Rabbi Itamar Leshem, Yeshivat Nir, Kiryat Arba
6:00pm – Central Courtyard
IDF Lt. Col. Asher Yosef and IDF Lt. Col. Akram Mansour and soldiers of the Judea
Brigade.
Thursday December 14, 2023 / 2nd of Tevet 5784
4:40pm – Brit Milah Hall
Yonatan Sharet, Tomb of the Ancestors staff
5:00pm – Central Courtyard
Yosef Golan, Air Force with district officers and police
the invading Seleucid Empire. The story of Hanukkah in which the heroic Maccabees fought
to reclaim the Temple from the imperialist Antiochus is well known.
Hebron’s role in the Maccabean Revolt is mentioned in the apocryphal Book of the
Maccabees and in the works of the great historian Josephus.
Many of the Hasmonean battles took place in the Mount Hebron region, known today as the
Hebron Hills, or Har Hevron regional council. Communities such as Beit Tzur were
sites of fierce battles won by the Judean rebels.
I Maccabees 5:65 states:
“Afterward went Judas forth with his brethren, and 20 fought against the children of
Esau in the land toward the south, where he smote Hebron, and the towns thereof, and
pulled down the fortress of it, and burned the towers thereof round about.”
The Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus Flavius Book 12
Chapter 8 paragraph 6 states:
“But Judas and his brethren did not leave off fighting with the Idumeans, but pressed
upon them on all sides, and took from them the city of Hebron, and demolished all its
fortifications, and set all its towers on fire, and burnt the country of the foreigners,
and the city Marissa.”
paragraph 7 states:
“Simon, having thus, beyond expectation, penetrated into Idumaea without bloodshed,
first of all, by a sudden attack, made himself master of the city of Hebron, where he
possessed himself of a vast booty, exclusive of the large supplies of corn which he
seized.”
“If we are to credit the inhabitants, Hebron is not only a town of greater antiquity
than any in that country, but even than Memphis in Egypt, its years being computed at
two thousand three hundred. They relate that Abram, the progenitor of the Jews, here
fixed his abode after his departure from Mesopotamia, and that from hence his posterity
went down into Egypt. Their monuments are still shown in that town, of the most
beautiful marble, and of exquisite workmanship. At the distance of six furlongs, is
pointed out an immense turpentine-tree, which, if tradition is to be believed, has
continued there from the creation until the present time.”
