Those who celebrated the birth of Christ last week are today commemorating the The Feast of the Holy Innocents, or Childermas, when thousands of infants were killed:
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:16-18)
What do Jacob’s wife Rachel and the town of Ramah have to do with this slaughter? Ramah is not near Bethlehem – they are in opposite directions from Jerusalem.
In this passage the Evangelist is quoting from Jeremiah 31:15. It is not a passage about the death of children – however a little further in Jeremiah’s prophecy in 40:1, he speaks of being among the captives held at Ramah. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Ramah became the staging area from which the Babylonians actually sent the people of Judah into exile.
Rachel, who of course had departed this life centuries before, weeps in Jeremiah’s prophecy as her children are taken away.
But what is the connection to the slaughter of innocents at Bethlehem? It is the grave of Rachel, who was buried near Bethlehem Ephratha.
To this day, Hasidic Jews visit the graves of the tzaddikim [righteous ones] to seek their intercession. The tomb of Rachel near Bethlehem is visited by thousands of Jewish pilgrims every year who seek her intercession. This is rooted in the rabbinic traditions set down in the Genesis Rabbah:
“And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (35:19). What was Jacob’s reason for burying Rachel in the way to Ephrath? Jacob foresaw that the exiles would pass on from thence, therefore he buried her there so that she might pray for mercy for them. Thus it is written, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah… Rachel weeping for her children…’”
Asking the prayers of the saints did not originate with the Christians; before Christ, this was already a feature of Judaism.
Holy innocent ones, holy Rachel, pray to God for us!
