The Shomron

Har Bracha (Hebrew: הר ברכה‎, lit. Mount [of] Blessing) is an Israeli town located on the southern ridge of Mount Gerizim at an elevation of 870 metres above sea level, in the Samarian mountains near Shechem. The village is named after one of the two mountains that are mentioned in Deuteronomy on which half the twelve tribes of Israel ascended in order to pronounce blessings. Har Bracha shares the Mount Gerizim ridge with Kiryat Luza, the main Samaritan village.

Har Brakha was first established as a pioneer Nahal military outpost, and demilitarized when turned over to residential purposes on Yom Ha'atzmaut in 1983. Currently, over 170 families live in this Orthodox Jewish community which is within the municipal jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council. The rapid expansion of the village is universally attributed to the hesder yeshiva (called Yeshivat Har Bracha, or Har Brakha Yeshiva) that was built in 1991 as well as its rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, who is also the chief rabbi of Har Bracha. While the vast majority of students (about 150 annually) are not originally from settlements, many graduates of the yeshiva return to live on the settlement.