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Moslem worshippers crouch beside the exquisitely ornate cupola that stands above an entrance (“A” on the plan) to the cave of Machpelah. Through this narrow entrance, the 12-year-old girl Michal entered and scouted the cave. In a sense, this daring act repeated a Moslem practice reported by Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura, a visitor to the shrine in 1488. “The Ishmaelites who came to prostrate themselves there (at the cave entrance) would make a monetary donation, which would be let down into the cave; and when they wished to descend and collect the money, they would lower a young boy down by a rope, and he would take the money and come up.”