Avraham ben Sarah - Return to Chevron

In 1975, little Avraham, the four-month-old son of Sarah Nachshon, died of SIDS. His mother decided that he would be buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery of Chevron; no Jews had been buried there since the 1929 pogroms, and it had been desecrated by the Arabs. Soldiers sent to stop her by the government could not face her down when she took her dead baby in her arms and began marching on foot to Chevron….As she buried her son, she said, “3800 years ago, Avraham buried his wife Sarah in Chevron, thus beginning the Jewish settlement there; I now bury Avraham the son of Sarah, and this will be the beginning of the rebirth of this Jewish city….”

Rabbi Noam Himelstein studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion and served in the Tanks Corps of the IDF. He has taught in yeshiva high schools, post-high school women’s seminaries, and headed the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem, and lives with his wife and six children in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.