Amuka, Israel

Amuka is situated in the Upper Galilee, in the forested hill country near Safed. The locality is a community settlement represented in the Merom ha-Galil Regional Council.[1] Nearby, in the Birya Forest area, the pilgrimage complex traditionally associated with Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel stands beside remains of the ancient settlement of Amuka.[4][5]

A paved road leads to the complex, which a 2007 account placed about one kilometer north of Mitzpe Amuka.[4] The modern settlement and the religious site are closely associated geographically, although the sources distinguish the inhabited community from the nearby tomb complex.

The modern community was founded in 1980.[1]

The identification of the nearby tomb as Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel’s burial place rests on tradition. A 2017 account states that the association first appears in writing in Megillat Evyatar, a late-eleventh-century source. It describes Yonatan ben Uziel as a first-generation tanna who lived several decades before the destruction of the Second Temple and was associated with the Aramaic translation of the Prophets.[3]

Accounts of the site’s matchmaking reputation differ. One tradition holds that the sage was either unmarried or had no children; another connects the custom to one of his scriptural interpretations.[4] Local souvenir sellers were also reported in 2010 as attributing his presumed bachelorhood to total devotion to Torah study.[5] No single authoritative explanation is established by these accounts.

In the 2004 population table, the settlement appears as “Amukka” and is listed in the Upper Galilee. The entry records 211 inhabitants on December 31, 2004, classifies the locality as a community settlement, and lists it as represented in the Merom ha-Galil Regional Council.[1] The figure describes the settlement at that date and is not a current population estimate.

Amuka’s cultural profile is closely tied to religious pilgrimage. Religious Jews travel to the tomb seeking the sage’s blessing and, according to legend, hoping to find a spouse within a year. The complex also draws prayers concerning fertility.[2][3]

Visitors commonly circle the tomb complex seven times while praying for their wishes to be fulfilled.[3] Processions through Birya Forest take place on the first and middle days of each month and on 26 Sivan, and a 2007 account also described two additional weekly gatherings.[4]

Visits are especially associated with Tu B’Av, described as the modern Jewish holiday of love. Vardah Littmann recalled traveling to Amuka nearly fifty years earlier in a van of single women, returning a year later, and later finding her life partner. She joked, “I always tell my husband that I had to go twice: once for him and once for me.”[2]

The nearby pilgrimage site centers on the reputed tomb of Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel. The identification is traditional rather than independently established, but the site has become a major destination for prayers concerning marriage and fertility. A paved approach and its location beside the remains of ancient Amuka connect the site to the surrounding Birya Forest landscape.[3][4]

A terebinth standing beside the tomb has become a place for personal offerings. A 2010 account described its branches as crowded with clothing, fabrics, mysterious bags, and other personal items left by visitors.[5]

In 2017, the complex was described, citing the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, as Israel’s third most-visited holy site after the Western Wall and the tomb of Shimon bar Yochai, with an estimated 800,000 annual visitors.[3] A 2010 travel account gave a higher estimate of one million visitors per year.[5] These figures are estimates from different years, not a reconciled official count.

As of 2017, the tomb complex was not connected to the electricity grid and was reported to lack toilets, parking, and accessibility for people with disabilities. A government proposal would allocate about NIS 13.5 million for accessibility works, organized parking, traffic arrangements, sewage, and electricity. The proposal projected that nighttime lighting could raise annual visitation to about 1.2 million; the cited report did not document completed works or later visitor totals.[3]

The 2024 Tu B’Av pilgrimage season was described as likely subdued amid the security situation in northern Israel. Frequent missile attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon had displaced families in the region for months, and the article did not quantify the effect on visits to Amuka.[2]