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Parshat Toldot
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

וישב יצחק ויחפור את בארות המים אשר חפרו בימי אברהם אביו

'Please, King... I have come today to the Holy city of Hebron.. to ask from our King... till when will You not have compassion on Jerusalem? And if not for our sake, have compassion for Your sake and for the sake of Your Holy Presence trapped with us in Exile... Therefore, we have come before You.. that You should remember the merit of our holy Forefathers.. so that You should have compassion upon us... and end our Exile...' ('Prayer at Maarat HaMachpela' in 'Shaarei Dima')

Turning to God as our King is a dominant theme of the spiritual work attached to Hebron, the Cradle of Royalty. As we mentioned last week, the realization of sovereignty in our Land is a process that begins with the initial work and longing of Avraham which is more fully concertized into reality by Yitzhak. So we showed, by example, in the incidence of this week's parsha where Yitzhak re-digs the same wells his father Avraham dug (in our title quote), thereby bringing their existence into well-accepted concertized reality.

It seems that today Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, continues this legacy of the Patriarchs Avraham and Yitzhak in this process of longing and then concretization. One of the sites of Hebron that literally carries the message of our title quote is the Wellspring of Avraham (picturesd below), which lies on the hill between the Beit Romano and the Admot Yishai neighborhoods of Hebron. This Wellspring may represent the 'wells of Avraham', i.e. the countless generations of Jews who lived in Hebron, made use of this wellspring, and longed for the day Jewish sovereignty would return to this site, for the day 'Yitzhak re-digs these wellsprings'.

Today we are indeed realizing these very dreams, following in the footsteps of Yitzhak. Yet, as all know, this process of longing and realization of this longing is not complete. Yes, it is you, our dear reader, by your longing, your prayers, your love and endearment of the Holy Land in general and of Hebron in specific that will bring Israel's sovereignty in Hebron to the fullest reality.

 
The Wellspring of Avraham in Hebron

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #197

'We once regularly conducted our kollel during the summer, under the open sky, at a mid-ground between the flights of stairs leading up to the entrance of the Maaras HaMachpela Building. Then, during the winter we changed the kollel's location to the Gutnick Center, a heated building next to Maaras HaMachpela. After this winter, it 'turns out' that an extremely rare permit was given to build a 'white tent' at the exact same location our kollel learned in the summer before. Thank God, this winter we were able to return our kollel to this same spot, at the air-conditioned 'White Tent' at the staircase leading up to the entrance of the Maaras HaMachpela building...' M.G

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