What do Hanukkah, the Patriarch Jacob, and Bet El have to do with each other? Practically everything, says long-time Bet El resident Professor Hagi Ben-Artzi. Walking and talking atop Bet El's highest mountain, where Jacob is said to have dreamt his famous dream, Hagi reveals some historic secrets, talks of the Hasmonean battles with the Greeks atop these hills and in these valleys, shows the archaeological discoveries here, and connects the dots to form a picture of the eternal vision of the Nation of Israel returning home.
by Uziel Sabato, editor of Bet El's local periodic magazine
Abridged and translated by Hillel Fendel, edited by Dena Udren
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| Hagi Ben-Artzi standing next to the Sheikh's Tomb |
We begin in an ancient structure popularly known as the Sheikh's Tomb, which sports a sign saying, "Danger of Collapse," and Hagi – an expert in Biblical verses, local archaeology, and story-telling – begins with one of the hundreds of incidents he has experienced here over the past 40 years:
"Well-known Israeli TV personality Ilana Dayan, not exactly known for her right-wing views, was here to get to know the 'Jacob's Dream' site. I brought her up to the observation tower here, and she was able to see Ramallah and the many Arab villages nearby. 'Tell me, Hagi', she said. 'Why are you here? Why do you need this, surrounded by all these Arabs?' I answered her briefly: 'Ilana, do me a favor: Wait until the end of the tour and then ask me again.'"
"We set off, and we spoke of how Abraham walked here, and Jacob with his great Divine promise of the Land, and the destiny of the Nation of Israel. We talked of the Temple of Jeroboam that stood here, frequented by the Ten Tribes for 200 years, and how the Prophets Amos, Hosea, Elisha and Elijah came here to protest against it. We talked of the great power struggles between the Kings of Israel and the Prophets that took place here. And of course I told her of the Hasmonean battles here, and the Hasmonean Dynasty, and Bar Kochba, and much more. We finished our tour, and Ilana Dayan – who spent three hours here instead of the one hour she had planned – said to me, 'Hagi, about that question I asked you before: You don't have to answer. I understand.'"
Ben-Artzi is a 7th-generation Jerusalemite, born to a non-religious but traditional family that was raised on love of the Bible. "My father was a Bible teacher, and he taught us to study it, delve into it, and love it." Hagi and his two brothers all won top places in various international and national Bible quizzes, and even Avner Netanyahu – son of Hagi's sister Sarah Netanyahu – finished in 3rd place in the International Bible Contest ten years ago.
Hagi himself became Torah observant at an early age, studied in yeshivot, and now teaches Bible, Jewish Philosophy, and Talmud in various institutions.
"So what came first?" Hagi is asked. "Did you come to Bet El because of this special Jacob's Dream site, or did you only discover it afterwards?" He answers that as a child he was already drawn to the Patriarch Jacob – "the father of our nation, his dream, his adventures, and his struggles. I remember asking my father, way before the Six Day War [when Bet El was liberated from Jordanian control], if we could visit Bet El. He answered me succinctly: 'We can't even go to the Western Wall to pray, and you want to go to Bet El?!' I think that this then became one of my dreams – which became all the more poignant after my Yom Kippur War vow." He elaborates:
"A few months after the Yom Kippur War [Oct. 1973], I was serving in this very area for a stint of reserves duty. I had long been tortured by the question of why G-d had brought upon us that terrible war, in which so many of my friends were killed. For the first time I could see the lights of Tel Aviv spread out below us to the west – don't forget that Bet El is more than half a mile high; this is why G-d brought Jacob specifically here, because you can see the entire land from here – and all of a sudden it hit me that we were already nearly seven years after the Six Day War, and on all these historic hills there was not one Jewish town! I knew the Bible: here was Bet El, and there was Shilo – and yet it was all desolate and dark, with not one Jewish house in the entire area. I realized that G-d was trying to wake us up – and I woke up. I vowed that night that I would one day build my home here in Bet El. And in fact, with G-d's kindness, I merited to do exactly that. This is one of the greatest things that I was privileged to accomplish in my life: to fulfill my wartime vow."
When modern Bet El was first established, in late 1977, "no one knew exactly where the site of Jacob's dream was. But that changed when the great Land of Israel researcher Professor Zev Vilnai came here. I was on the Culture Committee at the time, and I decided to invite him to come for a visit. This was in his senior years, and one of the things he liked to do was to visit the new towns in Judea and Samaria and strengthen and encourage the pioneer residents. The first thing we asked him was, 'Do we know where the rock is on which Jacob dreamt his dream?' He took us up to this very site, which he had discovered earlier – and for us, it was a great shock. There was another researcher named Albright who did not agree with him, but Vilnai said, 'A holy place retains a tradition of holiness. The Arabs always remembered that Hevron was holy, and the Temple Mount, and Shilo – and here too, when I asked some Arabs here a few years ago if there is a holy site here, they brought me to this very site.'
"And therefore we must know that this is not just a Sheikh's Tomb, but a makam mukdas, a holy place, as the Arabs have long called it." [Vilnai of course presented other convincing evidence that confirms his view, and that tie this place to the site of the temple built by King Jeroboam.]
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| Hagi Ben-Artzi sitting atop Jacob's Rock |
Asked why archaeologists are not digging here to discover what else lies below, Ben-Artzi said, "For the same reason that they're not digging under the Temple Mount and the Machpelah Cave [in Hevron]: The Muslims claim them as holy sites and Israel doesn't want to fight with them. Comprehensive surveys have been carried out here, and remnants of what was apparently the temple and the site of the altar have been found." Later he added that if the government chooses, it could confiscate the entire area and turn it into a major national site; we're still waiting…
Uziel Sabato asks: "Why are we making such a big deal over a temple that was used for idol-worship?!"
Hagi Ben-Artzi makes sure to correct this mistake: "It was not idol-worship. Our Sages say that Yeroboam worshiped the G-d of Israel, but not in the proper way [See HaKuzari, 4,13-14]. He sought, for his own reasons, to move the center of worship from Jerusalem to the area that he reigned over. The Prophets fought him on this and on other things."
He added that one of the reasons there are so many old trees in the area – including one that is considered the absolute oldest wormwood oak tree in Israel, approximately 1,000 years old – is because of the Muslim tradition that this is a sacred site.
"And ever since Vilnai's visit, I took it upon myself to take this site into my hands, tell its story, and turn it into a tourist site that Jews from all over, and non-Jews, will visit and learn about." And in fact, Ben-Artzi says he has shown the site to "hundreds of thousands of people over the years, including top government leaders, IDF generals, thousands of soldiers, judges, journalists, and more – and they all leave very different than how they came. Many of them, such as [Attorney-General] Avichai Mandelblitt, wrote their very emotional impressions in our Guest Book."
Hagi explains why this is so important: "The entire settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria is still in a struggle for survival. So we must remember our roots: The existence of the site of Jacob's dream is what gives us our rights to be here. We saw how Gush Katif, founded by the Labor Party and long in the national consensus, was wiped out in a week. Bet El, especially, must be on the lookout, because Abbas sees us every morning from his office next door to us in Ramallah, and this infuriates him. Geographically we are also not in the best location, because we are surrounded by a ring of Arab villages. What we need are historic roots. Our Jewish history here is our anchor in Bet El, it has been a part of our history for close to four millennia – the history that changed the face of the entire world. It all started here, and this is our insurance policy."
He tells another story, this one about former IDF Central Command Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky: "When the second intifada started, the army wanted to fence in all the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, including Bet El. The army first said the fence should be 100 meters from the last house, then they agreed to 500 – and we said no. They asked us what we want, and we said, 'We want the entire mountain of Bet El.' They thought we were totally nuts, but we insisted – and the army people became very scared, because Bet El is so large. So finally Gen. Kaplinsky said he would come here with all his legal advisors and check the story. I took them on a long tour of the whole mountain and I explained, 'here is Jacob's dream, and there was Avraham, and there are burial caves, etc.' At the end, they went up to the observation point and I see Kaplinsky telling them his decision: 'You see the village of Ein Yabrud below? Put the fence right there. And over there you see Dura al Kara? The fence will pass there. And over there is Jelazun – the fence on that side goes right there.' I got the chills, realizing that this man, who was not religious, understood that Bet El exists not because of the army, and not because of anything other than our roots here."
And of course, let's not forget Chanukah. Ben-Artzi recounts: "In the year 167 BCE the Hasmoneans rebelled against the Greek Empire, which decreed that the Jews could not observe the Sabbath and the like. Matityahu, head of the Hasmonean family, was the first to rebel – in Modi'in – when he decided not to die for the Sanctification of G-d's Name, but to kill for that cause. Then he and his family ran away to the hills of Bet El and their caves and narrow valleys, where they were safer and could fight more securely. Here began eight years of battles, and here in Bet El was Judah Maccabee's headquarters. The first battle, a great victory for the Hasmoneans, took place just to the north, on today's highway to Shilo. This was the first of a string of seven victories, but then, over there on Mt. Baal Hatzor [overlooking Ofrah, just a few kilometers from here as the crow flies], the Greek general Bacchides surprised Judah and defeated him… The rebellion continued, for a total of 25 years, until the establishment of the Jewish Hasmonean state in 142 BCE. It lasted 80 years though Jewish kings continued to rule afterwards under Roman rule. At one point, the Jews expelled the Romans for about three years, but the final defeat came right here in Bet El, in 37 BCE, when King Matityahu Antigonos II [grandson of King Alexander Yannai] was killed, as were many thousands of Jewish fighters, by the Romans' King Herod. His grave site was discovered a few decades ago in northern Jerusalem."
Today, in the Maoz Tzur neighborhood of Bet El, one can see the remnants of what was apparently the Hasmonean town of Bet El – "and so we merit today to continue the Chanukah story and the story of Jewish history."