The champion Rabbi Shlomo Goren about the liberation of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron

I asked the brigade commander, "When are we leaving for Hebron, so that I can talk to the soldiers before we leave."

"You have to get up at three o'clock" - he said - "all the soldiers will be concentrated and you can talk to the soldiers on top of a tank, with a portable speaker." I slept from 02:00 to 02:45. It wasn't until around 05:00 that I was allowed to talk to the forces.

It was already light, I spoke to the infantry, the armor, and all the concentrated forces: "Soldiers and warriors, I would like to tell you two things, today we are about to liberate the second holiest city in the land - Israel - the city of the ancestors, a city where David's kingdom was founded, the city of the ancestors whose holiness is immediately after Jerusalem, and historically, even, preceded Jerusalem.

Who are we going to fight against? Against the most dangerous murderers in the country - those who planned all the pogroms, who harmed and murdered Israeli soldiers. Here on the hill on which we stand, in cold blood, after they surrendered and signed a document of surrender and waved a white flag, all of them like sheep to the slaughter, without qualms of conscience and did not bury them, and I had to gather them from their positions, for burial two years later. Against whom you are going to fight. These The biggest haters of Israel we have in this country. In the name of God, fight and succeed."

I did not pray that morning, because I thought that I would pray in the Cave of the Patriarchs. So I decided with the brigadier general to stick to the late Major General Zvika Ofer, who had to break into Hebron. Zvika Ofer was going to be the governor of Hebron, was going to be killed in pursuits in the Bekaa.

The "battalion" - the brigadier explained - "will spread out along the road to Hebron" and offered to stick to this force and its commander. I'm looking for Zvika Ofer and can't find him. The fear crept into my heart that the brigadier wants to be the first to break into Hebron and leave us behind. I don't like to follow someone I like to be the first. I promised myself this already years ago.

With my driver I started driving in my car, which was equipped with an alarm. With her help I was able to pass all the barriers. I went down with the car accompanied by my jeep. I saw a column of tanks, of infantry, a column of jeeps and the cruiser, as I passed them as my car moved towards Hebron - the siren helped me a lot. My driver drew my attention to the fact that we were the first in the column towards Hebron. I encouraged him, lest he be afraid.

When we reached Khalul on the way, all the flags raised were white. There was not a single Jordanian flag flying. When we arrived to seep over a three-story house, a Jordanian flag was flying. I said - "What impudence!" I ordered the driver to stop. "I will go up" - I said - "and remove the Jordanian flag". He answered me: "You may be killed Rabbi Goren, a general in the IDF, I will take down the flag and the rabbi will cover me." I told him: "No, no, you are still young, you have not yet established a home in Israel. I'm old anyway and you still have time to live." I went up on the roof, took down the flag while covering it from below. The Jordanian flag is in my house, in my famous collection.

We continued and entered Hebron. And we found ourselves on the main street of Hebron's entrances. From all the balconies, white rags, white sheets were hoisted, no one was in the streets, they set a curfew for themselves; Hebron was liberated without shots fired, except for the shots I fired.

I took my Uzi and fired several rounds, to announce that Hebron had been liberated and was in our hands. As our soldiers, the few who were on the balconies hid and took cover. Let's let the heavens know that we are in Hebron and nothing else.

It happened in the heart of Hebron, at the police intersection, on the main street in Hebron, I said in my heart - the first thing we have to do is go to the Cave of the Patriarchs, I have an account with the Cave of the Patriarchs. But I forgot the road to it especially that they changed the roads inside Hebron.

Suddenly an Arab boy looked out the window, I told him to come to me. When he expressed concern, I tempted him with chocolate and asked him where "Ibrahim's grave" was? He told me that he would show me the place, but at my request to return him to his home, yes, these are curfew moments. I answered them. We took him in the car and we drove straight to the Cave of the Patriarchs.

When we arrived, great excitement gripped me, especially when I reached the infamous "seventh step". I went all the way up on the north side of the cave - it became clear to me that the gate was closed. I knocked on the door hard. "I will open the door" I ordered, "Open the door." I suspected that there were Arabs inside the cave. They will not abandon the cave and leave it empty like that. I heard a voice saying from the inside: "Fish a key" - we don't have a key. How come you don't have a key and you're inside?! –

I suspected. I asked "Who locked you out?" After that it was revealed to me that the doors were locked from the inside with bolts. In fact they could open the bolts without any key. Again I ordered "Open the door", I did not hear any response. Then I opened fire on the gate lock. To this day you can see the holes on the door The goal was shot.

That's how - I thought - the lock was broken, but there were bolts that prevented the door from opening. "There is no voice and no answer and no attention" in view of the shots I fired. I started making rounds around the cave in case a window was found through which I could enter. All the windows were closed. I didn't want to break windows. I would also be able to thereby announce where I am entering from. I was worried that there might be a trap or something similar. I remembered the Cave of the Patriarchs. All my rounds and searches were of no avail. Locked gates, bars on all sides, IDF soldiers had not yet arrived, I was alone with my driver.

I wanted, very much, to hang a flag on the Cave of the Patriarchs. I arrived in Hebron around 06:00 in the morning. This continued until almost 08:00 and I still did not pray and I wanted to pray inside the cave. My patience began to wear out. Suddenly we found an iron with which we tried to knock down the gates. It didn't work out for us. Finally we heard the rumble of a tank. It was the first Israeli tank. They had an iron rod. We removed the gates from their hinges and the plenum. We found two Arabs. One holds a large bunch of keys, I was very angry. My driver said that this enemy must be killed. I told him: "Today is a great day, a day of salvation, no blood will be shed in the cave." The driver slapped their cheeks for not opening the cave.

I took the bunch of keys - which I kept in my hand - I put on a tefillin and stuck in the shofar. I read the "Life of Sarah" parashat - the parashat of buying the Cave of the Patriarchs.

At the end of the prayer, Mayor Jabari's two messengers arrived, he heard that there were high-ranking officers - among them a general - and he asked to surrender. I replied that in the Cave of the Patriarchs - a holy place - no man surrenders to man, we all surrender to God. And secondly, it is enough that you surrender to a major, there is no reason to surrender to a general.

.. When the time comes I will forbid the Arabs to enter for 40 days, I argued to them that they expelled us from the cave for 1200 years, they will not be allowed to enter for 40 days.

During this period, I collected all the seized property and returned it to its owner; I also brought in the "Engineering Corps" to make changes to the cave... We went to the municipality where we found Major General Zvika Ofer, late of the Hid. The mayor and the Kadi of Hebron were there, as well as the secretary of the municipality, in the presence of soldiers, drafting the the letter of surrender.

It was written in Arabic. Translated into English - I did not like the wording as it did not mention unconditional surrender, and therefore I ordered an unconditional surrender document to be drawn up. I asked Jabari if he agreed to sign. He replied that he had no choice. I said he definitely had a choice - not to sign. And of course it is better to sign.

I have the first draft of the letter of surrender. It is true that it is not within the authority of the chief rabbi of the IDF to conduct a dialogue regarding the surrender, but I was the highest rank. The late Zvika Ofer was a lieutenant colonel. In any case, listen to my voice, no such question was asked as in the hands of the authority. We were in a special time: we were returning to the land of our ancestors.

While I was preparing the letter of surrender, I saw that Jabari was very afraid. According to him, he was convinced that he would be executed... based on the fact that he was the commander of the Hebron irregular forces, in the War of Liberation and based on the possibility that he took part in the murder of 164 Gush Etzion soldiers, who surrendered. But it is factually known that he saved 11 IDF soldiers.

A few weeks later, a wedding took place in front of the Cave of the Patriarchs - a wedding of 8 soldiers. Jabari asked me, at the same time, for a souvenir. I gave him a "prayer before going into battle". which we prepared for the outbreak of the Six Day War. He asked me to sign on the other side. I wrote: "Yes, all your enemies will perish, O Lord."

When I asked Jabari about the events of last night - the eve of the liberation of Hebron - he replied "We had a night meeting - three opinions were adopted: one opinion said to fight to the last drop of blood against the IDF - although they knew that the war was lost for us; A second opinion was to flee toward the Jordan as long as the IDF did not block the road; I believed that one should surrender - and I tipped the scales; therefore you accepted Hebron without firing a shot"...

That same night, from my office at the General Staff, I took an Ark of the Covenant, a Torah scroll, and sacred objects. I asked to hurry and establish the facts and see to it that proper order is maintained in the cave, through an officer in charge of the cave... All these items were brought into the "Ahel Avraham" by Friday morning L. Iyer; I asked the "engineering corps" to cover all the carpets.

During the month in which the "Engineering Corps" worked for renovations in the cave, the cave was closed to Arabs except for their "women's help". Until Moshe Dayan met Jabari and Kadi of the cave and made an agreement with them; I was told about this agreement by Moshe Dayan in the Knesset on the day when the victory of the Six Day War was celebrated. "It was agreed that they will be given back the Cave of the Patriarchs," he said.

I was taken aback. I received a written instruction from the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff, Yitzhak Rabin, according to which:

A. I must take down the flag from the cave that is a Muslim mosque.

B. I must take the Torah book and the Holy Ark and the holy accessories out of the cave.

third. By virtue of my role as the head of the holy places under the military government, I must order the Jews entering the cave to take off their shoes as is customary in mosques.

I couldn't believe my eyes. I immediately went up to Moshe Dayan and explained very difficult things to him. Do you know that you betray the second holiest place in the Land of Israel - the Cave of the Patriarchs, the place bought by our father Abraham, where for thousands of years Jews prayed in a synagogue that was inside the cave, until we were forbidden to enter completely by the Mamluks. The people of Israel will not forgive you, this is not a mosque, they turned a Jewish place into a mosque and even into a church and again into a mosque. It is our right to stay here, since we have returned to a Jewish place that we were robbed from.

I added and said - "I will not argue with you about the flag - Mr. Minister - even though in my opinion the flag should be added and flown above the cave, I will not take the flag down, but if you send an officer to take it down I will not fight like that; however, regarding the other two instructions - I will not allow the Torah book, or the Ark of the Covenant and I will not allow Jews to take off their shoes when entering the cave.

He had his own ways of arguing with all the champions. He would have allowed me to speak, and therefore I spoke for an hour and a half about the Cave of the Patriarchs - its historical aspects and its place in Jewish consciousness after the Temple Mount. I thought I convinced him. But on the doorstep, he sat down and insisted that I would carry out his aforementioned instructions. I explicitly informed him that I am not an Akeman and I hereby refuse these orders. I left his office in a hurry.

In my office I drafted a letter to Moshe Dayan. I believed that this letter would completely change his mind. The next day, early in the evening, I received a letter from the General Staff amending the last two instructions, according to which their implementation was postponed until a new instruction... and it is true that from that day I began to narrow my steps regarding my management of the Cave of the Patriarchs; he ordered that I should refrain from praying loudly in the Cave of the Patriarchs and that I should come to it as a person Private. Of course I acted as I understand. But the relationship between us became strained.

Moshe Dayan sent a captain to lower the flag over the cave.

I had plans to go into the inner parts of the cave. In order to avoid friction with Hoakf, we asked to enter from the outside through a huge pit located south of the Cave of the Patriarchs. I thought that a synagogue would be built, from which we could enter the underground halls of the cave. Indeed we brought suitable tools, compressors. But our expectation was disappointed, when the purpose of our work was revealed. The governor received information about our actions in the evenings, he passed the information to Moshe Dayan and the latter ordered to stop the works immediately. Moshe Dayan, regularly, took a position denying any action on our part, intended to further our hold on the cave.

These are the days when Arabs have already been allowed to enter and the cave is back to normal, in which it functions as a Muslim mosque for all intents and purposes.

They knew that the Minister of Defense would stand by them and provide them with backup, and slowly prayer times began to take shape. Moshe Dayan insisted that on Fridays it was not allowed to pray in the Cave of the Patriarchs. Beyond this iron principle, the distribution of time was subject to very large changes, from day to day.

If we had not already struggled in the first days of our return to the place - it is doubtful whether we could have prayed and entered today; Something that seems obvious to us. If we hadn't fought like hell, they would have returned us to the "stepping stone" situation Moshe Dayan wanted, in fact, to compare the status of the Cave of the Patriarchs to the status of the Temple Mount.

Anyone who wants to read a novel about the Temple Mount, the Holy Spirit in his hand, who wants to read chapters of the Psalms will be arrested immediately. As long as you treat it as a tourist site, which you visit as a tourist - the authority is in your hands. Not so if you treat the site as a Jewish place of worship, since, according to him, it was a Muslim mosque.

"So this is my part in the cave case, as I serve in the IDF. Unfortunately, in the pogrom of 1977, in the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Ark of the Covenant was burned and the Torah book, which I brought in at the end of the Six Day War, was torn.

As soon as the news of the pogrom became known, as the chief rabbi of Israel, this time, I took a Torah scroll, which I hope is still being read in the Cave of the Patriarchs. I arranged the burial of the Torah scrolls into the Jewish cemetery in Hebron, but these are different days and a new era.

Without our determined struggle, we would be outside the Cave of the Patriarchs today as we are today outside the Temple Mount."

(From the book "Baoz and Mightiness", an autobiography on Rabbi Goren by Avi Rat)