Rachel's Tomb is a holy site of high significance to Judaism and is located in Northern Judea (Southern West Bank) just outside of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo at the northern entrance to Bethlehem along what was once the Biblical Bethlehem-Ephrath road. The town of Bethlehem had expanded north in recent years to enclose the surrounding area. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Map of the southern Levant, c. ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ... A view of Gilo from Beit Jala in the south. ... Central Bethlehem Bethlehem (Arabic بيت لحم   house of meat; Standard Hebrew בית לחם house of bread, Bet léḥem / Bet láḥem; Tiberian Hebrew Bêṯ léḥem / Bêṯ lāḥem; Greek: Βηθλεέμ) is a city in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank under Palestinian Authority considered a central hub of Palestinian cultural and tourism... The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning books, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the sacred scripture of Christianity. ... Ephrath or Ephratah is the Biblical name of the ancient city in the Judean Hills, south of Bethlehem, now called Efrat in the West Bank. ...

Tradition holds that it is the burial place of the Biblical Matriarch Rachel, the wife of Jacob, who died here giving birth to Benjamin. It is considered the third holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount and the Cave of the Machpelah (Genesis Rabbah 79:7). Over the years, Rachel's Tomb has been a place of pilgrimage for Jews, especially Jewish women unable to give birth. Jewish tradition teaches that Rachel weeps for her children and that when the Jews were taken into exile, she wept as they passed by her grave on the way to Babylonia. Look up Rachel, רחל in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Jacob Wrestling with the Angel – Gustave Doré, 1855 Jacob or Yaakov, (Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב, Standard  Tiberian ; Arabic: يعقوب, ; holds the heel), also known as Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Standard  Tiberian ; Arabic: اسرائيل, ; Struggled with God), is the third Biblical patriarch. ... Benjamin (Hebrew: בִּנְיָמִין; standard transliteration Benyamin, Tiberian vocalization Benyāmîn) is a Hebrew Bible figure. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Temple Mount as it appears today. ... The Enclosure of the Cave of the Patriarchs The Cave of the Patriarchs is a religious compound located in the ancient city of Hebron (which lies in the southwest part of the West Bank, in the heart of ancient Judea), and is generally considered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, to... Babylonia, named for its capital city, Babylon, was an ancient state in the south part of Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ...

A stamp issued in 1927 by the British Mandate depicting Rachel's Tomb

The actual "tomb" consists of a rock with eleven stones upon it, one for each of the eleven sons of Jacob who were alive when Rachel died in childbirth. Over the centuries, the rock was covered by a dome supported by four arches. (In the Middle East, domes were used for structural support in small buildings until modern times due to a lack of wood beams for roofs.) ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (552x651, 459 KB) A palestinian stamp, probably from the 1940s,palestine under the british mandate, from my own collection. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (552x651, 459 KB) A palestinian stamp, probably from the 1940s,palestine under the british mandate, from my own collection. ... Palestine and Transjordan were incorporated (under different legal and administrative arrangements) into the Mandate for Palestine issued by the League of Nations to Great Britain on 29 September, 1923. ...

The dome structure was eventually enclosed by Sir Moses Montefiore, who added a second room. In the 1990's, due to the deteriorating security situation, the original domed structure was fortified and enclosed inside a building with a hall from the entrance. Sir Moses Montefiore (October 24, 1784-July 28, 1885) was one of the most famous British Jews in the 19th century. ...

During the Jordanian period, 1948-1967, Jews were forbidden to visit the Tomb. Recently, the site has been surrounded by a barrier to separate it from Bethlehem. Access is now restricted to pilgrims and tourists approaching from Israel. Rachel's Tomb has been known in Arabic as Qubbat Rakhil ("the Dome of Rachel"), although now some Palestinian sources claim that the Montefiore enclosure is in fact the mosque of Bilal Bin Rabbah. The barrier route as of May 2005. ...

Some sources claim that actual Rachel's Tomb is in Northern Jerusalem at a site called by local Arabs "the place of the sons of Israel" which is near present day A-Ram, the site of Biblical Ramah. The place is mentioned in the "Prophets" section of the Hebrew Bible as the site of Rachel's burial when King Saul visits the site, in I Samuel 10:2. Later Jewish sources take the site near Bethlehem as the real site. For this view of the burial site, see[1] and[2]. Ramah - height - is the name of several places in ancient Israel: The same as Ramathaim- Zophim. ... Neviim [נביאים] (Heb: Prophets) is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), following the Torah and preceding Ketuvim (writings). ... 11th century Targum Tanakh [תנ״ך] (also spelt Tanach or Tenach) is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, based upon the initial Hebrew letters of each part: Torah [תורה] (The Law; also: Teaching or Instruction), Chumash [חומש] (The...

External links

• A site dedicated to Rachel's Tomb
• The Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ) on access to Rachel's Tomb