Mount of Olives

Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives (also Mount Olivet, Hebrew: הר הזיתים‎, Har HaZeitim; Arabic: جبل الزيتون, الطور‎, Jebel az-Zeitun) is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south.^[1] The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters (2,683 ft).^[2] It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. The Mount of Olives is associated predominantly with Jewish and Christian traditions but also contains several sites important in Islam. The mount has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves.^[3]

History

Mt. of Olives, circa 1899

Tomb of Zechariah and Tomb of Benei Hezir

From Biblical times until today, Jews have been buried on the Mount of Olives. The necropolis on the southern ridge, the location of the modern village of Silwan, was the burial place of the city's most important citizens in the period of the Biblical kings.^[4] There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, including tombs traditionally associated with Zechariah and Avshalom. On the upper slope, the traditional Tomb of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi‎ is situated. Notable rabbis buried on the mount include Chaim ibn Attar and others from the 15th-century to present.

Roman soldiers from the 10th Legion camped on the Mount during the Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE. The religious ceremony marking the start of a new month was held on the Mount of Olives in the days of the Second Temple.^[5] After the destruction of the Temple, Jews celebrated the festival of Sukkot on the Mount of Olives. They made pilgrimages to the Mount of Olives because it was 80 meters higher than the Temple Mount and offered a panoramic view of the Temple site. It became a traditional place for lamenting the Temple's destruction, especially on Tisha B'Av.^[5] In 1481, an Italian Jewish pilgrim, Rabbi Meshulam Da Volterra, wrote: "And all the community of Jews, every year, goes up to Mount Zion on the day of Tisha B'Av to fast and mourn, and from there they move down along Yoshafat Valley and up to Mount of Olives. From there they see the whole Temple (the Temple Mount) and there they weep and lament the destruction of this House."^[6] In the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the mount.^[7]

During the time period of Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967 large scale vandalism took place, and 40,000 of the 50,000 graves were desecrated.^{[8][9][10][11]} King Hussein permitted the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel at the summit of the Mount of Olives together with a road that cut through the cemetery which destroyed hundreds of Jewish graves, some from the First Temple Period.^[12][13][14] After the Six-Day War, restoration work began, and the cemetery was re-opened for burials.

Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin asked to be buried on the Mount of Olives near the grave of Etzel member Meir Feinstein, rather than Mount Herzl national cemetery.^[15]

Religious significance

Old Testament references

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Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives

The Mount of Olives is first mentioned in connection with David's flight from Absalom (II Samuel 15:30): "And David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up." The ascent was probably east of the City of David, near the village of Silwan.^[1] The sacred character of the mount is alluded to in the Ezekiel (11:23): "And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city."^[1] According to the Old Testament, Solomon built altars to the gods of his wives on the southern peak (I Kings 11:7–8). During the reign of King Josiah, the mount was called the Mount of Corruption (II Kings 23:13). An apocalyptic prophecy in the Book of Zechariah states that Yahweh will stand on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split in two, with one half shifting north and one half shifting south (Zechariah 14:4). According to the Masoretic Text, people will flee through this newly-formed valley to a place called Azal (Zechariah 14:5). The Septuagint (LXX) has a different reading of Zechariah 14:5 stating that a valley will be blocked up as it was blocked up during the earthquake during King Uzziah's reign. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus mentions in Antiquities of the Jews that the valley in the area of the King's Gardens was blocked up by landslide rubble during Uzziah's earthquake.^[16] Israeli geologists Wachs and Levitte identified the remnant of a large landslide on the Mount of Olives directly adjacent to this area.^[17] Based on geographic and linguistic evidence, Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, a 19^th-century linguist and archeologist in Palestine, theorized that the valley directly adjacent to this landslide is Azal.^[18] This evidence accords with the LXX reading of Zechariah 14:5 which states that the valley will be blocked up as far as Azal. If Clermont-Ganneau is correct, the notion of people fleeing east through the split Mount of Olives to Azal is impossible because the valley he identified (which is now known as Wady Yasul in Arabic, and Nahal Etzel in Hebrew) lies south of both Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.

The biblical designation Har HaMashchit derives from the idol worship there, begun by King Solomon's Moabite and Ammonite wives "on the mountain which is before (east of) Jerusalem" (Kings I 11:17), just outside the limits of the holy city. This site was infamous for idol worship throughout the First Temple period, until king of Judah, Josiah, finally destroyed "the high places that were before Jerusalem, to the right of Har HaMashchit..."

Burial and resurrection

Many Jews have wanted to be buried on the Mount of Olives "since antiquity," based on the Jewish tradition (from the Biblical verse Zechariah 14:4) that when the Messiah comes, the resurrection of the dead will begin there.^[19]

New Testament references

Churches on Mt. of Olives

The Mount of Olives is frequently mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 21:1;26:30, etc.) as the route from Jerusalem to Bethany and the place where Jesus stood when he wept over Jerusalem. Jesus is said to have spent time on the mount, teaching and prophesying to his disciples (Matthew 24–25), including the Olivet discourse, returning after each day to rest (Luke 21:37), and also coming there on the night of his betrayal (Matthew 26:39). At the foot of the Mount of Olives lies the Garden of Gethsemane. The New Testament, tells how Jesus and his friends sang together – "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" Gospel of Matthew 26:30. Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mt of Olives as recorded in the book of Acts 1:9–12.

Status since 1948

In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan occupied East Jerusalem, including the Mount of Olives, and held it until the 1967 Six-Day War. During this period, Jordan annexed its part of the city, but this was recognized only by the United Kingdom and Pakistan. Jordan had obligated itself within the framework of the 3 April 1949 Armistice Agreement to allow "free access to the holy sites and cultural institutions and use of the cemeteries on the Mount of Olives." Non-Israeli Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit the Mount, but Jews of all countries and most non-Jewish Israeli citizens were barred from entering Jordan and therefore were unable to travel to the area.^[20][21][22] This was in direct violation of the agreed-to armistice.

By the end of 1949, and throughout the Jordanian occupation of the site, some Arab residents uprooted tombstones and plowed the land in the cemeteries and an estimated 38,000 tombstones were damaged in total. During this period, four roads were paved through the cemeteries, in the process destroying graves including those of famous persons. Buildings, including the Seven Arches Hotel (formerly Intercontinental Hotel) and a gas station, were erected on top of ancient graves.^[23]

Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six-day War and has occupied those territories since. In an act condemned as a violation of international law and ruled null and void by the UN Security Council in UNSC Resolution 478, Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, a move condemned by the United Nations Security Council vote of 14 to 0 with 1 abstention.

Recent events

As of 2010, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives is targeted regularly by vandals. Mourners have been assaulted. Notable graves that have been defaced by vandals include those of the Gerrer Rebbe and Menahem Begin.^{[24][25][26][27]}

On 6 November 2010, an international watch-committee was set up by non-Israeli Jews with the aim of reversing the desecration of the Jewish cemetery. According to one of the founders, the initiative was triggered by witnessing tombstones that were wrecked with "the kind of maliciousness that defies the imagination."^[27]

Landmarks

The Russian Orthodox Church of Maria Magdalene

The Arab neighborhood of at-Tur is located on the mountain's summit, and the Mount Scopus campuses of both the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center abuts the mount on the north. Landmarks on the Mount of Olives include Yad Avshalom, the Tomb of Zechariah, the Church of all Nations, the Church of Maria Magdalene, Dominus Flevit Church, Chapel of the Ascension, Gethsemane, Mary's Tomb, Church of the Pater Noster, the Seven Arches Hotel, Orson Hyde Park and Beit Orot. At the foot of the mountain lies Emek Tzurim National Park and the Temple Mount Antiquities Salvage Operation.^[28]

Notable graves

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Rishonim

• Nahmanides, the Ramban
• Obadiah ben Abraham, the Bartenura

Acharonim

• Chaim ibn Attar, the Ohr Hachaim
• Ben Ish Chai, Sephardi rabbi and posek
• Shalom Sharabi, the Rashash
• Yaakov Chaim Sofer, the Kaf Hachaim

Rabbis

• Levi Yitzchok Bender, leader of the Breslov community in Uman and Jerusalem
• Avrohom Blumenkrantz, American Orthodox rabbi
• Yehoshua Leib Diskin, rabbi in Brisk and Jerusalem
• Shlomo Elyashiv, Lithuanian kabbalist
• Moshe Mordechai Epstein, rosh yeshivas Slabodka, Lithuania
• Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka
• Abraham Gershon of Kitov, brother-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov
• Shimon Hakham, Bukharian writer and translator of Jewish holy texts and stories in Judeo-Tajik
• Moshe Halberstam, rosh yeshivas Tschakava
• Yitzchok Hutner, rosh yeshivas Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Brooklyn, New York
• Judah he-Hasid, 17th-century immigration leader
• Aryeh Kaplan, American Orthodox rabbi and author
• Zvi Yehuda Kook, rosh yeshivas Mercaz HaRav
• Avigdor Miller, American Orthodox rabbi, author and lecturer
• Shlomo Moussaieff, Bukharian family patriarch
• Meir ben Judah Leib Poppers, Bohemian rabbi and kabbalist
• Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim, rosh yeshivas Mir
• Zundel Salant, rabbi and primary teacher of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
• Yechezkel Sarna, rosh yeshivas Slabodka
• Sholom Schwadron, the "Maggid of Jerusalem"
• Dov Schwartzman, rosh yeshiva Yeshivas Bais HaTalmud, Jerusalem
• Avraham Shapira, rosh yeshivas Mercaz HaRav
• Ahron Soloveichik, rosh yeshivas Brisk, Chicago
• Pesach Stein, rosh yeshivas Telz, Cleveland, Ohio
• Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, head of the Edah HaChareidis, Jerusalem

Hasidic Rebbes

• Simcha Bunim Alter, fifth Gerrer Rebbe
• Yisrael Alter, fourth Gerrer Rebbe
• Moshe Biderman, Lelover Rebbe
• Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, Boyaner Rebbe of New York
• Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, second Bostoner Rebbe
• Yosef Leifer, first Pittsburger Rebbe
• Maiden of Ludmir, female Hasidic rebbe
• Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowicz, Shedlitser Rebbe
• Issamar Rosenbaum, Nadvorna Rebbe
• Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub, Modzitzer Rebbe

Chief Rabbis

• Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, Chief Rabbi of Damascus and Safed
• Meir Auerbach, first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
• Chaim Berlin, Chief Rabbi of Moscow
• Haim Douek, Chief Rabbi of Egypt
• Jacob Saul Elyashar, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine
• Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
• Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, London
• Abraham Isaac Kook, Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine
• Jacob Meir, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine
• Meyer Rosenbaum, Chief Rabbi of Cuba
• Shmuel Salant, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
• Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
• Isser Yehuda Unterman, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel

Cultural figures

• Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer
• Princess Alice of Battenberg, mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
• Judah Alkalai, Zionist pioneer
• Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Israeli linguist
• Harry Fischel, American businessman and philanthropist
• Israel Dov Frumkin, Israeli journalist
• Uri Zvi Grinberg, Israeli poet and journalist
• Yossele Rosenblatt, hazzan and composer
• Else Lasker-Schüler, German-Jewish poet
• Boris Schatz, founder of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem
• Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah Women's Organization
• Ephraim Urbach, Israeli scholar

Political figures

• Eliyahu Asheri, Israeli terror victim
• Moshe Barazani, Israeli independence fighter
• Menahem Begin, Israeli prime minister
• Nissim Behar, Zionist educator
• Israel Eldad, Israeli independence fighter
• Meir Feinstein, Israeli independence fighter
• Jacob Israël de Haan, Dutch Jewish journalist assassinated by the Haganah
• Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, terror victims
• Moshe Hirsch, leader of Neturei Karta
• Robert Maxwell, Member of Parliament
• Boedil Thurgotsdatter, medieval Danish queen

Mount of Olives today

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mount of Olives

• the Mount of Olive in the "CITY of DAVID" Website
• Interactive Panoramas of the Mount of Olives – jerusalem360.com, GoJerusalem.com
• Jerusalem Photo Portal – Mount of Olives

Coordinates: 31°47′00″N 35°15′03″E / 31.7833333°N 35.25083°E / 31.7833333; 35.25083