The tomb of Rachel is situated at the entrance to Bethlehem. She is the only one of the four Jewish matriarchs who is not buried in Hebron. According to Midrash, her son Joseph was the first to pray at her grave. Today, it remains a special place for prayer. Bethlehem is also the location for most of the biblical story of Ruth, who was the great-grandmother of King David.
When Joshua led the Israelites into the Land after 40 years in the desert, the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was initially placed at Gilgal. Later, they built a stone structure at Shiloh and placed the Mishkan’s curtains over it. That sanctuary stood for 369 years, the ruins of which are visible today at Tel Shiloh. The synagogue of the nearby modern Shilo in Samaria resembles the ancient Mishkan.
The tomb of the prophet Samuel, who lived during the time of the Judges, some 3,000 years ago, sits strategically overlooking Jerusalem, the ascent to Hebron, and the Judean Desert. Excavations in the 1990s revealed ruins of a Jewish settlement from the First Temple period. Today, there are both a mosque and synagogue on the site, which is an Israeli national park.
The Mount of Olives (Har Hazaitim) cemetery, with 70,000-150,000 graves, dates back 3,000 years and is still in use today. Sections overlook Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Notable people buried there include Shebna (a First Temple royal steward mentioned in the Book of Isaiah), Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (father of modern Hebrew), Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, as well as Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg (Chabad emissaries killed in a 2008 terror attack in Mumbai).
