Join tour guide Avi Flax as he reveals to us the secrets that are hiding in plain sight

Photos: Blimie T Photography

Exploring the streets of Yerushalayim’s Old City never gets old! There are more than 2,000 years of Jewish history lurking behind every stone, and you’re bound to walk straight past some secrets. Unless you’re walking with someone who knows everything there is to know, of course. So grab your baseball cap and water bottle, and join tour guide Avi Flax as he reveals to us the secrets that are hiding in plain sight.

Har Zion and Dovid Hamelech

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meet Avi at the first stop on our tour, inside the walls of the Old City at Shaar Zion. This is one of the seven gates in the walls around the Old City. Avi says there is somewhere very special he wants to show us before we enter the Old City. He leads us through the massive archway and down a nearby street. We’ve left the Old City and are in Har Zion. We can’t help but notice a large monastery towering overhead.

After walking for about a minute or so, we find ourselves in a large courtyard.

“Just through that archway,” Avi says as he points, “is what is called the kever of Dovid Hamelech.” Legend has it that this is the site of Dovid Hamelech’s burial place, although it’s not certain that this is true. According to Tanach, Dovid Hamelech was buried in Ir Dovid, which most experts agree is across the valley. But nowadays, this site draws lots of Jewish visitors who come here to daven. And since this might be Dovid Hamelech’s kever, we step inside and say a kapitel Tehillim.

When we’re finished davening, Avi tells us a fascinating story that took place during a period in history when the kever was under Muslim control. There was a Jewish woman in the Old City who did laundry for people in the area. One of her customers was the Arab guard of the kever. One day, she asked him to let her daven at the kever in lieu of payment. So he took her to the kever, and then locked the gate to the compound with her inside. He ran to the Arab authorities, informing them that a Jewish woman had come to pray at the kever. The laundry woman realized that she was in grave danger and davened for a yeshuah. Suddenly, an old man with a long beard and glowing face appeared. He motioned for her to follow him. He led her through a tunnel which brought her to the safety of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City. Was it Dovid Hamelech who saved her?