Amarah, Iraq – On the plains of the Tigris River lies the shrine of Ezra Hasofer, the Jewish prophet, who returned to Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian exile. According to biblical scholars, Ezra died years later back in the Mesopotamia at age 120 in what is now called Uzair. Locals believe Ezra passed away while roaming through the area with his donkey.
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His shrine still exists in this predominantly Shiite district of Amarah province filled with supporters of young cleric Muqtada’s Sadr late father, assassinated in 1999.
Bashir Zaalan is the custodian of Ezra’s shrine. Zaalan inherited the job from his blind 100-year-old father, who hobbles around on crutches. Iraq’s once sizable Jewish population, which thrived in Baghdad, appointed him caretaker long ago. The capital is 268 miles away.
If the shrine was forgotten after the creation of Israel in 1948, when most Jews left Iraq, Uzair has proudly embraced its cultural heritage. Ezra and the wooden shrine and blue mosaics in the domed building are treated as sacred by visitors. Men worship by Ezra’s wooden shrine. They touch the wood out of reverence. People visit the shrine to hold classes and deliver sermons on Islam.
“Before, people had no idea who Ezra was!” Zaalan said.
Zaalan guesses the brick building is 150 years old and replaced a reed structure. Until now, Zaalan says the shrine has received no funding from the national government, but he plans on heading to Baghdad to request money.
Once Zaalan and his father visited Baghdad’s old Jewish community and informed them they needed funds for renovations. They were told a committee would be sent down to inspect the building.
No one ever came, but in 2000 a contractor showed up in the village and carried out some repairs. “We don’t know who paid for it,” Zaalan says.
Ezra has a special place in his family’s heart. “My father was always telling us about his dreams where the prophet Ezra is talking to him.”
Yet another reason to love zionism… NOT!!!
Baruch Hashem that G-d has preserved this holy site. Now we Jews should claim the site before the muslims try to rewrite history and say that Ezra was their prophet and we had no attachment to the site…
Ezra was not a Navi.
In all versions of how we get to the number of 48 Neviim mentioned in Mesechta Megilla, no one includes Ezra HaSoifer.
Why do you call him a Navi?
Because the Arabs decided to call the place Nabbi Uzair? Will they decide who is a Navi and where he is buried, for us?
Ezra was not a navi, and why on earth would he have gone back to Bavel? He’s undoubtedly buried somewhere in the area of Yerushalayim, and whoever’s in that tomb is not him.
Ezra hasofer went back to baval after he came up to yerushalayim and its known that he is buried in baval.
you’re right, he’s not from the 48 n’viim, however his grave is zicher a makom kadosh, he was a baal ruach hakodesh. There MANY takunas Ezra that are recorded troughout talmud bavli
BTW, the minhag 4 men 2 go in the mikva every morning “shtams” from 1 of the takonas ezra
BTW the minhag 4 men 2 go in the mikva every morning DOES NOT “shtam” from 1 of the takonas Ezra. You are confusing two issues. Tevila for davening and kriah shma, which is every day and tevila learning following relations.Why do bochorim go? Chinuch? In case they saw keri once in 3 years they go every day so no one would know they saw keri? See shailos and tshuvos min hashamayim.
It seems that Ezra was a nuvi because he changed the ksav in a sefer torah from ksav ivris ti ksav ashuris and I’m sure he didn’t do it just because he thought it was a really good idea.
Yermiyahu, Burech ben Nariah, Yechezkel, are also prominent personalities buried in Iraq.
Nonsense. Why would Ezra go back to Bavel? Vu shtait? What sense does it make? How can anyone believe such a thing?
Yirmiyohu and Baruch never went to Bavel either; they went to Egypt with the she’eris hapleitoh, and presumably died there. Yechezkel of course was in Bavel; whether the grave attributed to him is genuine is another question, but at least it’s in the right country.
PS: I may have been too hasty about that. The Rambam says “veEzra uveis dino kiblu miBoruch uveis dino”. Literally all that means is that the authority passed from one to the other, i.e. when Boruch and his beis din died out, presumably in Egypt, the next beis din with supreme authority was Ezra’s. There’s no need for them actually to have met. But there is an implication that they actually learned Torah from them, which would mean that they must once have been in the same place at the same time. The most logical way for that to have happened would be for Boruch to have ended up in Bovel.
Hey Anti-Tzioni first what does this have to do with zionism? Second you are just a hateful anti-jewish idiot! Rosh Hashana is coming – write an apology here and do teshuva!
The Ben Ish Chai in his sefer on Shas – Ben Yehoyadah, brings some pictues of different interesting things. One of the pictures is a photo of Ezra’s grave in Bavel. It says there that Ezra went to Teiman to convince Yiddin to move to Eretz Yisroel and he was not successful. He became tzubrachen and he died in Bavel, on his way back to EY. Have a look there.
Milhouse wrote: “Ezra was not a navi, and why on earth would he have gone back to Bavel? He’s undoubtedly buried somewhere in the area of Yerushalayim, and whoever’s in that tomb is not him.”
Sometimes it helps to read wikipedia (good for the beginner): “The tomb became a place of pilgrimage for Jews, especially those of Basra and Baghdad, and was respected and venerated by Muslims.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra's_Tomb). The tomb is in Iraq, but this fits not in the Zionist image. Perhaps you should try to convince us that the shrine of Mordekhai and Esther isn’t in Hamadan, but somewhere in the area of Yerushalayim!
There’s a tomb of Mordechai and Esther in Chevron, actually, but I don’t believe it’s any more genuine than this supposed tomb of Ezra. And while we’re at it, what is Rav Ashi supposed to be doing on the border between Israel and Lebanon?
Obviously we should move Ezra’s kever home to Eretz Yisrael- where it belongs.
was ezra a navi? did a bit of searching and this is what i have from daat.ac.il
לדברי ר’ יהושע בן קרחא מלאכי זה עזרא, דכתיב בגדה יהודה וגו’ אשר אהב ובעל בת אל נכר (מלאכי ב), ומאן אפריש נשים נכריות? עזרא, דכתיב ויאמר לעזרא אנחנו מעלנו באלהינו ונושב נשים נכריות (עזרא י’, מגילה ט”ו).
עזרא היה תלמידו של ברוך בן נריה (שה”ש רבה ב).
אמרו חכמים: ראוים היו ישראל ליעשות להם נס בימי עזרא כדרך שנעשה להם בימי יהושע בן נון, אלא שגרם החטא (ברכות ד’), ולא הלכו אלא ברשות כורש, וכל ימי מלכי פרס נשתעבדו להם לכורש ולאחשורוש ודריוש האחרון (רש”י), החטא היה, שלא עלו כולם יחד, וזה גרם שלא שרתה שכינה בבית השני.
ודרשו על זה:
אם חומה היא נבנה עליה טירת כסף, ואם דלת היא נצור עליה לוח ארז (שה”ש ח), אם עשיתם עצמכם כחומה ועליתם כולכם בימי עזרא – נמשלתם ככסף, שאין רקב שולט בו, עכשיו שעליתם כדלתות (ביחידות) נמשלתם כארז, שהרקב שולט בו (יומא ט’).
רבי יוסי אמר ראוי היה עזרא שתנתן תורה על ידו לישראל אילמלא קדמו משה.
במשה מה הוא אומר? “ומשה עלה אל האלהים” (שמות י”ט);
בעזרא הוא אומר? “עזרא עלה מבבל” (עזרא ז), מה עליה האמור כאן תורה, אף עליה האמור להלן תורה;
במשה מאי הוא אומר? “ואותי ציווה ה’ בעת ההיא ללמד אתכם חקים ומשפטים” (דברים ד),
ובעזרא הוא אומר? “כי עזרא הכין לבבו לדרוש את תורת ה’ ולעשות וללמד בישראל חוק ומשפט” (עזרא ו).
ואע”פ שלא ניתנה תורה על ידו, נשתנה על ידו הכתב. וכמו שאמר מר זוטרא ואיתימא מר עוקבא:
בתחלה ניתנה תורה לישראל בכתב עברי ולשון הקדש, חזרה וניתנת להם בימי עזרא בכתב אשורית ולשון ארמי. ביררו להם לישראל כתב אשורית ולשון הקדש (סנהדרין כ”א).
עזרא החזיר עטרה ליושנה, ואמר ריש לקיש בתחלה כשנשתכחה תורה מישראל עלה עזרא מבבל ויסדה, חזרה ונשתכחה עלה הלל מבבל ויסדה (סוכה ב’), לכן נקרא הלל תלמידו של עזרא (סוטה מ”ח).
עזרא כתב עשר הנקודות שבתורה, וכך אמר עזרא: אם יבא אליהו ויאמר למה כתבת כך, אני אומר כבר נקדתי עליהם (אדר”נ פל”ד).
עזרא הסופר מת בן מאה עשרים שנה, יוסיפוס אומר כי מת בירושלם ונקבר שם (קדמוניות סי”א פ”ה ה), אך לפי מסורת העם מת בבבל ונקבר במקום שנקרא שאט-אל-ערב, בשפך נהר חדקל לנהר פרת.