The Ohel (Hebrew: ??? ?, Lit., "tent") is an open structure and graveyard located in New York City, where Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, (the two most recent leaders of Chabad-Lubavitch) were buried. The Ohel is visited by thousands of Jews and non-Jews every year. About 50,000 people take pilgrimages every year on the anniversary of the death of Schneerson.
Video Ohel (Chabad-Lubavitch)
Description
The Ohel is located at Montefiore Cemetery (Old Springfield Cemetery) in Cambria Heights, Queens, New York City. Graves are the remains of a large Jewish community that once inhabited Cambria Heights. Today the region is mostly African-American.
The Ohel is located at the north end of the grave, near the corner of Francis Lewis Blvd. and 121 Avenue, in parts destined for prominent Lubavitcher men and wives. It is an open structure containing the side-by-side tombs of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950) and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994).
A row of small brick houses along Francis Lewis Blvd. bordering the grave. In 1995, Hasidim Lubavitcher bought one of these houses and turned it into a 24-hour visitor center. The center includes a video room, a library, a small synagogue, a quiet room for visitors to arrange the prayers they will say in Ohel, and drinks. The entrance to Ohel is through the back door of this house and down the path. Men and women enter Ohel through a separate door.
Maps Ohel (Chabad-Lubavitch)
History
After the burial of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson at the funeral in 1950, his successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, would visit his father-in-law's grave several times a week - even up to six days a week. He will read the requests of the people who come to talk to him, then tear the note and leave him in the grave. After his wife's death in 1988, Ohel was the only place that the Rebbe regularly visited outside Brooklyn. He suffered the first stroke in Ohel in 1992.
After Schneerson's death and burial in Ohel in 1994, the number of visitors to Ohel increased significantly. Today, tens of thousands of Jews visit Ohel every year. It is also frequented by tourists who will or return from John F. Kennedy International Airport or 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad's headquarters in Crown Heights.
The presence of large numbers of pilgrims, night visits, and the build-up of Chabad homes and facilities in the area has caused tension with the surrounding African-American community.
Customs
In Ohel, visitors have a tradition of writing kvitlach - a prayer on a small piece of paper - which is then torn and thrown into a grave. At the visitor center, fax machines receive more than 700 faxes a day, while computers receive 400 e-mails daily. All kvitlach are all printed and then taken to the grave, where they are torn into pieces and placed on top of the grave. As the pile grows too high, the shredded notes are burned. The visitor center also received many wedding invitations for the Rebbe; This invitation is read on and/or placed in graves. In addition to kvitlach , visitors are encouraged to light a warning candle in Ohel.
The Ohel website advises visitors to wear simple clothes, head cover with a hat (man) or head cover (women), and avoid wearing leather shoes. When leaving, visitors walk backwards as a sign of respect.
Visitors to ohel usually light a candle on the shelf in the front room. Candles are available at the visitor center. The visitors also wrote a letter to the Rebbe beforehand and read it quietly beside the tomb, then tore it and left it in the grave.
Kohanim
According to Jewish law, a cohen (Jewish priest) is not allowed to ritually defile himself by entering a cemetery. Halacha mandated that the cohen be a distance of four amah from the grave unless separated by a fence. The construction of a fence along the path leading to it allows the kohanim to enter Ohel.
In Ohel itself, the grave opens to the heavens to eliminate the problems of iasas meis ("the uncleanness of the dead": see Tumah and taharah) in a cage, and the low wall surrounds the grave and makes the cohen at least 12.59 inches (320 mm) from the tombstone to maintain its ritual purity.
See also
- Ohel (grave)
References
External links
- Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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