Jewish sacred geography: the four holy cities (Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, Safed)

Jewish tradition distinguishes, within Eretz Israël, four holy cities—Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed—which from the Middle Ages to the modern era formed the heart of the continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Jerusalem, the supreme sanctuary, houses the site of the Temple and the Western Wall; Hebron is associated with the Cave of Makhpela, burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs; Tiberias, in the Galilee, was a great center of learning where the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled and where the tombs of sages such as Rabbi Meir and Maimonides are venerated; Safed, perched in the heights of Galilee, became in the sixteenth century the epicenter of kabbalistic renewal. These cities concentrated the communities of the "Old Yishuv," the pre-Zionist Jewish population largely devoted to study and prayer. Their subsistence depended largely on the halouka, a system of charitable collection organized in the diaspora to support scholars residing in the Holy Land. They thus embody a sacred geography structuring the spiritual attachment of the Jewish people to its land.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗