The Mount Of Olives |
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Written by Stephen Langfur |
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Page 6 of 7 The Cemeteries, the Golden Gate and Judgment Day Spreading below us (and beneath the pavement we are standing on) is a large Jewish cemetery. People are buried in the ground; what seem like stone sarcophagi are grave monuments, each with a niche for a memorial candle. It is a Jewish custom, on visiting a grave, to leave a stone. No one knows the reason for this custom. There are many theories, among them this: In the time of the second Temple, the well-to-do were buried in caves, but the regular people could not afford a cave. They were buried, therefore, in the earth. It was important to mark the grave somehow, because to step on it would make one ritually impure, and one would have to undergo a complex ceremony before one could enter the precincts of the Temple. Since the poor could not afford a monument, they simply made a pile of stones over the grave, such as we see in the cemetery of Qumran. ![]() On the slope of the Haram , opposite, is a Muslim cemetery, and in the valley between, a Christian one. We may trace the Muslim presence to the belief that on Judgment Day, the shrine at Mecca known as the Ka'ba will be transported miraculously to the Haram, and the last judgement will take place here. The Jewish presence here too, as well as the Christian, hinges on biblical texts relating the place to the Day of the Lord. The Kidron Valley below us bears another name as well, that of King Jehoshaphat, meaning "yhwh judges" (preserved in Arabic as wadi joz). The prophet Joel (3:1-2) plays upon it: For, behold, in those days, ![]() Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the east; and it was shut. Yahweh said to me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by it; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut. As for the prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread before Yahweh; he shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the way of the same. Ezekiel's reference to this gate in connection with Yahweh and the prince (Messiah?) combined with the Valley of Jehoshaphat to exert an enormous attraction. In the 15th century, however, Jews chose to bury on the east side of the valley and further south. Only in the 18th century did they bury higher up on the slope, as they had in antiquity. Today the Jewish cemetery winds southward around the Mt. of Olives. |
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