Noam Arnon, spokesman for the Hebron Jewish Community talks to filmmaker Ezra Ridgley about the history of the Tomb of Machpela, one of the oldest continuously used shrines in the world. He explains its Jewish roots and talks about the daring descent inside the cave.
“This place was a secret for many generations,” Arnon states. “People said those that went inside would never get out alive. “We had one opportunity to enter the cave. It was in the middle of the night some 30 years ago. We opened the floor and we crawled down into the cave and we discovered the actual double cave. Inside we found pieces of ancient tools from the period of the Kingdom of Judea from about 3,000 years ago. The Forefathers and Fore-mothers are buried even deeper. We crawled through a long corridor, and there we found the cave. In Hebrew, Machpela mean double.”
The excerpt is part of The Spring of Judea and Samaria. A ground breaking documentary on the rise of Jewish culture on the land at the cradle of Jewish civilization. For more information visit http://thejewishheritageproject.com.
