Kever Rachel and the late Yitschak Rabin

Today, I heard an interesting story about Rachel's tomb and Itschak Rabin. Rachel was the wife of the Patriarch Jacob, and together with Leah, is the matriarch of the Jewish people. Her tomb, a holy site in Israel, is just south of Jerusalem in Bethlehem, a town in the land of Judea. Jews offer prayers to God every day and night by her tomb, which has been renovated into a synagogue and yeshiva.

The aniversary of her passing, or yahrtseit, is on the eleventh day of the month of Cheshvan (around october). On her yahrtzeit, thousands of devoted and righteous Jews flock to her tomb to pray for the welfare of Israel and the whole world. We call the yahrtseit of a Holy man or woman a "hillula," or wedding, as the power of the holy man to pray and intercede before the One and only is increased when he or she has shuffled off the mortal coil and reuintes with God in Heaven.

On one such "hillula" of the Matriarch Rachel I went with my wife and a friend of ours to pray at Rachel's tomb. Standing room only is an understatement. All of the devout were cleaved together and prayingwith one voice, filling the room with light and tears of fire.
When we got back to the car, we turned on the radio. Yitchak Rabin had just been assasinated. This was the last time I visited Rachel's tomb.

This is that was repudedly said on the Israeli Radio in an interview with Chanan Porat, a former knesset member, and a founder of the national religious party (Mafdal). Rabin had just signed and agreement with the Arabs to give away certain terretories of the Jewish homeland. The land of Israel was to be divided into three areas, area A (under full Israeli soveriegnty), Area B (under Arab control but under Israeli military control), and Area C (Arab conrol and no Israeli Military presence). The Tomb of Rachel was designated as area B. Chanan Porat made and appointment to meet with Rabin in order to try to convince him to keep Rachel's tomb under full Israeli sovereignty (Area A). As he reached Rabin's office, he saw Rav Menachem Porush, a knesset member and leader of the Agudat Israel (charedi) Party. Rav Porush asked if he could join Porat in the meeting with the prime minister, to which Porat gladly agreed. As they sat before Rabin, Porat took out a number of maps and set out to work convincing Rabin to reconsider, to which Rabin responded by saying that the deals were already signed and sealed and there is no return (Of course, as a third hand story, I don't know exactly what was said.)
After several minutes of claims and counter claims, logical arguments and sighing about tied hands, Porush grabbed the prime minister by his shoulders, shook him and cried out from his broken heart, "reb yitchak, die mamae rachel vilst du ibber lozin bie die araber - Reb Yitschak, are you going to give our mother Rachel to the Arabs!!" Rabin started to cry together with Porush. After things calmed down, and the meeting ended, Rabin called the foriegn minister, who was at that time Shimon Peres, and discussed the possibility of renegotioating to place Rachels tomb in area A. Peres was against it, saying again how its already a done deal, signed and sealed. After Peres's rejections, Rabin told him, "look, he (Arafat) needs us more than we need him."

Chanan Porat and Rav Porush succeded in covincing Rabin, and it seems that Rabin covinced Peres. Rachel's tomb is an enclave of Area A just across the border from the Jerusalem municipality. All Israelis and visitors have free and unfettered access to go there and pray day and night. Rachel's tomb, bordering the Judean desert just down the road from Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, where I taught my kids how to swim. Someday I will take them to the synagogue at Rachel's tomb and Die heilige Mamme Rachel will teach them how to pray.

I don't know what God is trying to tell us, but who could not pause in wonder at how Rabin was killed on the same day that Rachel Imenu left the world, and the role he had in providing Jewish access to the tomb of their anscestor.

I was told by a student of a well known Rabbi, "the posek of chortkov," (I forgot his name), that Yitchak Rabin, of blessed memory, would "always," call the Rabbi when making significant decisions. What kinds of situations, what kind of questions? The student could not tell me.