Parashat Vayishlach tells the tragic story of the death of Rachel as she delivers her second child, Binyamin (35:16-19). The Chumash then tells that Yaakov buried Rachel along the side of the road in Bet Lechem and erected there a monument to her memory. The verse concludes, "This is the monument of Rachel's burial site to this day." As we know, a time-honored tradition identifies Kever Rachel (Rachel's Tomb) with the shrine situated in modern-day Bet Lechem (Bethlehem), several miles south of Jerusalem. Many academic scholars, however, have questioned the authenticity of this tradition. Today we will take a brief look this controversy.
In this parasha, Yaakov and his family move southward from Bet-El, where Yaakov had erected on altar to God, towards Chevron, where he is reunited with his father, Yitzchak (see 35:16 & 27). This account alone would give us no reason to challenge the traditional identification of Kever Rachel. The north-south route running along the Judea-Samaria mountain ridge indeed passes from Shekhem (Nabulus) southward to Bet-El, through Jerusalem, south to Bethlehem, continuing through modern-day Gush Etzion (where this dvar Torah is being written) and onto Chevron. (Today, many people call this route "derekh ha-avot" - the road of the patriarchs). In fact, the original highway in modern-day Israel connecting Jerusalem to Chevron passed Kever Rachel. Therefore, the narrative in Parashat Vayishlach poses no difficulty to this tradition.
What more, the verses here emphasizes that Rachel is buried "along the road to Efrat"; the Biblical city of Efrat was clearly situated in the region of Yehuda, near Bet Lechem (see Mikha 5:1; Rut 4:11).
Among the more compelling challenges that have been raised originates from the story told in Sefer Shemuel I (chapter 10). The prophet Shemuel anoints Shaul as the first king over Israel and, to reinforce Shaul's belief in his appointment, gives Shaul three signs, events that he predicts will happen to him on his way back home. The first sign predicted that Shaul will meet two men "by Kever Rachel on the Benjaminite border, in Tzeltzach" (Shemuel I 10:2). Now Shemuel and Shaul speak here in "Har Efrayim" (see 9:4), known today as the Shomron, north of the Binyamin region, itself north of Jerusalem. Presumably, Shemuel here refers to the border between Binyamin and Efrayim. Apparently, then, it is here where Rachel was buried, not in modern-day Bet Lechem, which is in the northernmost region of Yehuda, south of Binyamin.
However, already Chazal, in the Tosefta (Sota 11:13), raise this potential challenge to the conventional understanding that Rachel was buried in Bet Lechem, in Judea. Chazal explain that "Kever Rachel" describes not where Shaul will meet these two men, but rather the current location of these two men. Shemuel informs Shaul that at this point, these two men are near Kever Rachel, in Bethlehem, heading northward. Shaul will travel southward, toward his home in Giva, and will meet them in Tzeltzach, along the Binyaminite border.
Dr. Yoel Elitzur argues that this interpretation of Chazal may very well be read into the peshuto shel mikra (the straightforward reading of the verse). In each of the three signs Shemuel gives to Shaul, he informs him of the number of people he will meet, some sort of a description of these people, and the location where this meeting will take place. The second sign will occur in Eilon Tavor, where Shaul will meet three men "ascending to God, to Bet-El" (10:3). Likewise, the third sign has Shaul meeting a group of prophets "descending from the Bama" in the city of Givat ha-Elokim (10:5-6). In the presentation of the first sign, however, Shemuel gives no description of the two men Shaul will meet. The parallel between the three signs can be complete only if we adopt Chazal's interpretation of "Kever Rachel" as a description not of the location where Shaul will meet the two men, but rather of their current location. Only "on the Binyaminite border, in Tzeltzach" refers to the site where Shaul will encounter these men.
Thus, these verses in Sefer Shemuel pose no challenge to the common theory as to the location of Kever Rachel.