Mount of Olives

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The Mount of Olives (also Mount Olivet, Arabic: جبل الزيتون, الطور‎, Jebel az-Zeitun, Jebel at-Tur, "Mount of the Summit" Hebrew: הר הזיתים‎, Har HaZeitim;) is a mountain ridge to the east of Jerusalem. It is named for the olive groves on its slopes and is associated with many religious traditions.

At the foot of the mountain lies the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Book of Zechariah, the Mount of Olives is cited as the place where the dead will be resurrected in the days of the Messiah. For this reason, Jews have always sought to be buried there, and from biblical times until today, the mountain has been used as a Jewish cemetery. There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, including the tombs of biblical figures such as Zechariah and Avshalom (Absalom). Many important rabbis from the 15th to the 20th centuries are buried there, among them Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin is buried on the Mount of Olives.

Roman soldiers from the 10th Legion camped on the Mount during the Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD, which led to the destruction of the city.

When the Mount of Olives was controlled by Jordan between the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and 1967, tombstones from the cemetery were used to build roads and army latrines. 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.^[1][2][3] Some fifty thousand Jewish graves out of a total seventy thousand were destroyed or defaced during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule.^[4] After the Six-Day War, restoration work began, and the cemetery was re-opened for burials.

The Arab neighborhood of at-Tur is located on the mountain's summit.

Contents 1 Biblical references 2 Cultural references 3 Landmarks 4 Notable people buried on the mount 5 Image gallery 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Biblical references

The Mount of Olives is first mentioned in connection with David's flight from Jerusalem through the rebellion of Absalom (2 Samuel 15:30), and is only once again mentioned in the Old Testament, in Zechariah 14:4. It is, however, frequently alluded to (I Kings 11:7; II Kings 23:13; Nehemiah 8:15; Ezekiel 11:23).

It is frequently mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 21:1;26:30, etc.). The road from Jerusalem to Bethany runs over the mount as it did in Biblical times. According to the Bible, it was on this mount that Jesus stood when he wept over Jerusalem.

Jesus is said to have spent a good deal of 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).

This mount, or rather mountain range, has four summits or peaks: (1) the "Galilee" peak, so called from a tradition that the angels stood here when they spoke to the disciples (Acts 1:11); (2) the "Mount of Ascension," the supposed site of that event, which was, however, somewhere probably nearer Bethany (Luke 24:51, 52); (3) the "Prophets," from the catacombs on its side, called "the prophets' tombs;" and (4) the "Mount of Corruption," so called because of the "high places" erected there by Solomon for the idolatrous worship of his foreign wives (I Kings 11:7; II Kings 23:13).

The Mount of Olives is also the site of the prophecy of Zechariah and Ezekiel's theophany.

[edit] Cultural references

Christ on the Mount of Olives is the title of an oratorio by Ludwig van Beethoven, and of a painting by Caravaggio.

[edit] Landmarks

• Yad Avshalom
• Tomb of Zechariah
• Church of all Nations
• Church of Maria Magdalene
• Dominus Flevit Church
• Gethsemane
• Mary's Tomb
• Seven Arches Hotel

[edit] Notable people buried on the mount

• Abraham Isaac Kook (1864-1935); Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine; founder of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav.
• Ahron Soloveichik (1917-2001); Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk, Chicago.
• Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983); Rabbi, noted author of The Living Torah and other works.
• Avigdor Miller (1908-2001); Profound American thinker and lecturer of Orthodox Judaism; communal rabbi and Mashgiach ruchani.
• Ben Ish Chai (1832-1909); Leading hakham, posek and kabbalist.
• Chaim ibn Attar (1696-1743); Prominent talmudist, kabbalist and author.
• Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922); Linguist.
• Eliyahu Asheri (1988-2006); Israeli student kidnapped and murdered by Palestinians.^[5]
• Haim Moussa Douek (1905-1974); Last Chief Rabbi of Egypt.
• Immanuel Jakobovits (1921-1999); Chief rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
• Meir ben Judah Leib Poppers (1624-1662); Bohemian rabbi and kabbalist.
• Meir Feinstein (1927-1947); Irgun activist.
• Menahem Begin (1913-1992); Prime minister of Israel.
• Ephraim Urbach, Talmud scholar (buried near Begin)
• Moshe Biderman (1776-1851); Hassidic rabbi.
• Moshe Halberstam (1932-2006); Rosh yeshivah of the Tschakava yeshivah and prominent Dayan of the Edah HaChareidis.
• Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi - also known as 'Ramban'/'Nahmanides' (1194-1270); Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, Kabbalist, and biblical commentator.^[5]
• Pesach Stein (1918-2002); Rosh yeshiva of Telz yeshiva.
• Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885-1969); Mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
• Robert Maxwell (1923-1991); British media proprietor.
• Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub (1886-1947); Second Modzitzer Rebbe; composer. (He was the last person to buried on the Mount of Olives until it was liberated in 1967). His son, Rebbe Shmuel Eliyahu, the third Modzitzer Rebbe, was buried there in 1984; and his grandson, Rebbe Yisrael Dan, the fourth Modzitzer Rebbe, was buried there in 2006; both graves are in close proximity to his.
• Shlomo Goren (1917-1994); Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel and author.
• Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970) ;the first Hebrew writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature.^[5]
• Shmuel Salant (1816-1909); Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem and a renowned talmudist.
• Uri Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981); Poet.
• Yechezkel Sarna (1890-1969); Rosh yeshiva of Slabodka yeshiva.
• Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowicz (1900-1981); Grand Rabbi of the Biala hasidic dynasty.
• Yisrael Eldad (1910-1996); Activist, philosopher.
• Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss (1902-1989); Prominent talmudic scholar, Posek and chief Rabbi of the Edah HaChareidis.
• Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1849-1932); Co-founder of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem and its first chief rabbi.
• Zundel Salant (1786-1866); Prominent rabbi.
• Shlomo Moussaieff (1852-1922)- Rabbi, Merchant, Miracle Maker, Co-founder of the Bukharian Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem
• Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891-1982); Leader of the Mizrachi movement in Israel and Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav.

[edit] Image gallery

Israel 4 009 Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem.jpg The sprawling ancient Jewish cemetery

Yad Avshalom

Tomb of Zechariah and of the Hezir family

Church of Maria Magdalene

Ancient Jewish cemetery

Looking toward the Temple Mount

[edit] References

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

[edit] External links

• Virtual Tour of Jerusalem @ jerusalem360.com - Interactive Panoramas from Israel
• 11 minutes movie - Mount of Olive`s Churches
• Detailed historical and spiritual history of the Mount from a Jewish perspective
• Jerusalem Photo Portal - Mount of Olives
• Picture slide show of Mount Olivet
• Mount of Olives - Photos and information
• Mount of Olives Photo Gallery - Including surrounding churches and scenery

Coordinates: 31°47′00″N, 35°15′03″E