70,000 Expected at Kever of Shmuel Hanovi for Yahrtzeit

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kever-of-shmuel-hanoviThousands of people have gathered at the kever of Shmuel Hanovi in Yerushalayim for the yartzheit of Shmuel Hanovi. Hundreds of soldiers and policemen are on the scene to maintain order, and various organizations have provided free food and drink to all the people who have come from near and far.

Starting last night, shuttle busses from Egged have brought many of the visitors, who have arrived at the kever to beseech Hashem at the kever of Shmuel Hanovi.

Reb Yosef Schvinger, who oversees the kever, says that they expect a total of about 70,000 to visit the kever.

Private vehicles have not been permitted near the site of the kever, but buses have been shuttling Yidden from the kever to parking facilities nearby.

Rabbi Schwinger says that the good weather has helped those arriving at the kever in droves.

The kever is located on the north-western outskirts of Yerushalayim. Shmuel Hanovi passed away on the 28th day of Iyar at the young age of 52. For hundreds of years, the site belonged to Yidden who built a shul and yeshiva there. Later, Arabs chased the Jews away and took the place over.

Because of its strategic location, overlooking the Tel Aviv-Yerushalayim road and the city of Yerushalayim itself, the Arabs built a military fortification there and used it during the ’67 war in order to shell the Israeli forces and the passing traffic on the road leading into the city. It was recaptured by the Israeli forces during the first few days of the ’67 war.

To get to the actual kever, one goes down a narrow staircase. There one sees the kever of Shmuel and alongside it the kevorim of his father Elkana and his mother Chana.

As Tanach tells us, Elkana had two wives, Peninah and Chana. Penina had eight children while Chana was childless. As she was once in the Mishkan silently beseeching Hashem to give her a child, Eli the Kohen Gadol mistook her as being drunk. When he realized his terrible mistake, he blessed her that she would beget a son the next year. Chana called her miracle child Shmuel – a contraction of Shmah-Keil – meaning that Hashem had heard her prayers, and dedicated him to lead a life immersed in the service of Hashem as she had promised in her prayers. In fact, many of the laws of tefillah are derived from the manner in which the posuk describes the way Chana davened..

Shmuel spent all his time immersed in Torah study and prayer. It was only towards the last ten to thirteen years of his life that he served his nation in the capacity of judge and novi.

Shmuel was the author of sefer Shoftim, Rus and most of his own sefer, which was later completed by Gad Ha’chozeh and Nassan HaNavi.

{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}


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