Ancient documents and a heavy dose of inspiration have convinced a team of researchers that they’ve rediscovered the holy graves of Dinah bas Yaakov and her brothers who rescued her. Over a thousand years ago, Jewish travelers — from the Baalei HaTosfos to the Ramban and his students — documented the site on the cliffs of Mt. Arbel. Have the mysterious graves suddenly reappeared?
For eleven years Yisrael Hertzberg searched. Armed with maps and ancient manuscripts he scoured the area overturning rocks lifting shrubbery … but nothing.
“I decided to give it one last shot” he recalls the day that corroborated his efforts. “I was together with my wife and we decided to descend the mountain one more time. Back and forth following paths that led us nowhere I was about to give up for good. And then as the sun’s rays settled low on the horizon they reflected off of what I was sure was a mirage — four white slabs of stone in a row with some sort of ancient bush protruding from the left one. A few paces further left was the cave with the winepress. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Did I really merit to find what our team had been looking for for over a decade? I began to laugh and cry at the same time … here they were the graves of the shvatim.”
For Rabbi Yisrael Hertzberg author of the newly published encyclopedic Holy Places and Kivrei Tzadikim in the Galil finding the lost burial site of Dinah bas Yaakov and her brothers Reuven Shimon and Levi was a fitting reward for years of research.
Over a thousand years ago Jewish travelers — from the Baalei HaTosfos to the Ramban and his students — documented their climb up the eastern cliffs of the Galil adjacent to the ancient village of Arbel where they knew Dinah and her rescuers Shimon and Levi and possibly Reuven were buried; a few meters away was the uniquely carved-out burial cave attributed to Shes ben Adam HaRishon.
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