Samaria – A record 15,000 people visited Joshua’s Tomb on Thursday night to mark the anniversary of his passing. The Biblical leader Joshua was Moses’ successor and led the Jewish people into the land of Israel upon their return from exile in Egypt.
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He is buried in Heres, in Samaria, a village dating back to Biblical times which is now a Palestinian Authority-controlled town. His tomb lies next to those of Nun, his father, and Calev ben Yefuneh, another Biblical leader from the same time period.
Thursday night’s visitors included Jews from across the religious spectrum, both men and women, of all ages, both Israelis and tourists.
The event was the first to be made an official state celebration. Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger was present, as were Minister of Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein and four Members of Knesset, Danny Danon (Likud), Uri Ariel (Ichud Leumi), Aryeh Eldad (Ichud Leumi) and Michael Ben-Ari (Ichud Leumi).
It was organized by several groups, among them the Samaria Regional Council, Shechem Echad, the Samaria Religious Council, and Yesod Olam.
At midnight, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, the chief rabbi of Samaria, led the many thousands of worshipers in the prayer “Aleinu L’shabeyach.”
Rabbi Metzger spoke of Joshua and Calev’s greatness as the only two of the 12 spies sent to Israel by Moses who remained faithful to their task and confident in G-d’s ability to bring them into the land. He also called on the government to provide more regular access to Joshua’s Tomb and to Joseph’s Tomb which, he noted, was supposed to be under Israeli control under the Oslo Accords.
Read more at Arutz 7
Watch below Video.
Next year this might be sponsored by the Palestinian minister of religious affairs. As the UN is behind the creation of Palestine they will surely be on top that they are a democratic nation and have respect to all religions…
Its a real joy to read that this was an egalitarian event and included yidden from all segments of yiddeshkeit and women as well as men