Editor’s Note: The gravesites of Yehoshua Bin Nun and Kalev Ben Yefuneh are open to the public just four times a year – the 7th of Adar (the date of Moshe Rabbeinu’s death); the Thursday night before the reading of the Torah portion Shlach (Numbers 13-15) which tells the story of the spies sent forth to scout the Land of Israel and how their pessimistic report was countered by Kalev; the 10th of Tevet (when memorial prayers are offered for those, like Kalev, whose date of death is unknown; and the 26th of Nissan (the date of Yehoshua Bin Nun’s death).
I was one of the lucky ones who took advantage of the “permit” to visit the holy graves of Yehoshua and Kalev on 26 Nissan. I am not a big grave visitor and have not been to many of the “open-access” ones like those of Meiron (Rashbi), Amuka (R’ Yonatan Ben Uziel), and Beit Shearim (R’ Yehuda Hanasi).
Maybe it’s something about the Shomron. Maybe it’s my fear that it may be a long time before I am again permitted to visit (as is the case with kever Yosef, which I last visited two nights before its falling into enemy hands). Maybe it’s the stature of Yehoshua and Kalev. Or maybe it’s a little of each.
Whatever the reason, I wanted to go. I picked up a friend, Yoram Lasser, and headed toward Ariel hoping to be one of the first there.
As we left the yishuv we were excited as could be. I drove even faster than usual and we arrived at the makeshift parking lot just a little past 11 p.m. The place was already bustling with visitors and it was nice to see that many young children were there as well. In hindsight I regretted not bringing my own along. We could tell that it wasn’t just the diehards who were there.
We boarded a bus that took us into the center of the village. After we disembarked we joined the multitudes who were marching in the direction of the graves. Though we passed Kalev’s grave first, I wanted to save this one for last, so we continued toward Yehoshua’s grave with the intention to return later.
The area around Yehosuha’s grave was packed. There were so many people there that we could not even make it into the inner chamber. Instead we joined the many who were praying and sobbing right outside the stone structure. Luckily, I had missed an earlier Maariv and was zoche to pray at Yehoshua’s grave instead. What an uplifting service it was. The entire minyan recited Aleinu word for word (Yehoshua was the one who composed this prayer – at least the first part of it), nearly crying in the process.
After leaving Yehoshua we went to see Nun. Nun was Yehoshua’s father, and from what we could tell he did not get the same attention as the others. There was no covered structure here and it was fairly obvious the local inhabitants did not accord this tzaddik the respect he deserved. We recited some prayers, and since at this point it was past 1 a.m., we felt we should be getting back as we both had to go to work the next morning. We returned to Kalev on our way out.
I must confess that being at Kalev’s grave was one of the more moving moments in my life. I mean, this was Kalev – the only one able to withstand the powerful influence of the spies. As opposed to Yehoshua who seemed to be removed from the people, Kalev was one of the people – which made his test all the harder. As I leaned over to kiss the stone I thought to myself how fitting it was that I was here asking for chizuk.
