Ancient Burial Cave at Tzuba

by Yoni Spiliopoulos 11th grade Raleigh NC

an agricultural terrace at Kibbutz Tzuba where the ancient burial cave is located

Today was another fantastic day at Kibbutz Tzuba. We went on another tiyul during Jewish History class to learn about an ancient burial cave that relates to chapter 23 of the Book of Genesis. Getting out of the classroom and experiencing the Jewish history is an amazing opportunity to not only get out of the classroom but get a true hands on experience. For this specific tiyul we didn't even need to leave the kibbutz, all we had to do was walk 15 minutes up a little hill and there we are at a burial cave on our very own campus that we get to live on for the next 4 months. Kibbutz Tzuba has so much rich history and interesting facts about it the burial cave is only scratching the surface. Kibbutz Tzuba has several places where they grow different kinds of fruits, ancient terraces and places where people used to step on grapes to make wine. But this time we saw 1 of 27 ancient burial caves that are located around all of Tzuba.

The ancient burial cave we visited was in a little hole that you had to climb through. Once we got inside you see a hollow room with 2 bed like sructures where people were buried and on the left there was another room for more bodies to be buried. Right underneath each bed for the people to lay once dead there was a hollow hole where people could go back and put the bones in there after the bodies decomposed. We visited the cave while studying chapter 23 of Genesis because in this part of the Bible Avraham buys a cave for 400 silver shekels which he paid for in full and this then starts the official ownership of the land of Israel. Even though, according to the Bible God gave us the land of Israel, when Avraham bought the cave, it was now legally official. Since the Jewish people do not get cremated, a burial cave was helpful to properly honor and respect those who have passed. Not only is the cave the first legal ownership of Israel but this is where Avraham buried Sarah. Plus all the patriarchs and matriarchs were henceforth buried in there in Hevron.

I believe that using the Tanakh as an accurate way to learn about our history as a people, but other than that the Tanakh is not a resourceful way to study modern history or US history. 

my classmate Jack inside a ~2700 year Jewish burial cave at Tzuba

Avraham bought a cave for silver and he paid the full price and this starts the true ownership of the land even though God gave us this land, Avraham signed a deal and bought the cave and the surrounding land and he eventually was buried in that cave and Jewish people don't get cremated when they die so this was also a way to respect our dead because Sarah dies in chapter 23 of Genesis.

a view of the neighboring village of Ein Rafa next to Kibbutz Tzuba

the agricultural fields and orchards of Kibbutz Tzuba