Kiryat Yearim is one of the most evocative Biblical sites in Israel and never more than during the Abu-Gosh Festival. Then, twice a year, at Succot and Shavuot, this Arab village in the Judean hills, where the Ark of the Covenant rested for 20 years (1Sam. 7:2) becomes the backdrop for Israel’s most important vocal music event.
The 12th century Crusader church at the heart of the village and the church of Notre Dame de l’Arche de L’Alliance (Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant) at the top of the hill are the main venues because of their remarkable acoustics.
A video showcasing the site and the event can be viewed here.
The programme of the upcoming 40th festival is here. This is a previous blog post on the festival.
The Israel Museum welcomes you to the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, allowing users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable, fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, offer critical insight into Jewish society in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Five complete scrolls from the Israel Museum have been digitized for the project at this stage and are now accessible online.
“We are privileged to house in the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book the best preserved and most complete Dead Sea Scrolls ever discovered,” said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. “They are of paramount importance among the touchstones of monotheistic world heritage, and they represent unique highlights of our Museum’s encyclopedic holdings. Now, through our partnership with Google, we are able to bring these treasures to the broadest possible public.”
The five Dead Sea Scrolls that have been digitized thus far include the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll, with search queries on Google.com sending users directly to the online scrolls.
Wayne Stiles always writes enthusiastically about places in Israel that have a connection with the Bible. In his latest article for the Jerusalem Post, he describes the steps leading up to the Double Gate of the Temple Mount. These were indeed used by most of the pilgrims that used to go up to the Temple to worship.
Wayne recounts that some tourists say the 15 Psalms (120-134), called “Psalms of Ascents” (which could be translated the Psalms of the Steps) on the Southern Wall Steps.
There are, however, more than 15 steps, in fact, there are 27 at the eastern end and 31 at the southern end. Twelve of these steps are broad landings, which some people have suggested have a spiritual meaning (twelve being the number of Israel). However, as the lower steps are cut out of the bedrock, these landings were designed to take the natural slope into consideration, making the ascent easier as well. Wayne correctly observes that:
The Mishna notes that these fifteen psalms were sung by the priests who stood not on the Southern Steps, but on the fifteen steps from the Court of the Women ascending to the Court of Israel: “On the fifteen steps which led into the women’s court, corresponding with the fifteen songs of degrees, stood the Levites, with their musical instruments, and sang” (see m. Sukkah 5:4-5).
This moving scene has been portrayed in one of our models:
The Damascus Gate is located in the centre of the northern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Kikar haShabbat News reports that the top of this gate has been restored as part of the Jerusalem City Wall Conservation Project.
The article puts special emphasis on the central decoration at the top of the gate, nicknamed ‘the crown’, that was destroyed in the Six Day War.
This detail shows the 'crown' before restoration.The 'crown' after restoration. Photo: Kikar haShabbat
The Damascus Gate was built by the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538 AD over the remains of a Roman gate. That gate was built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a monumental entrance to the city of Jerusalem, which he had renamed Aelia Capitolina. This gate features on the Madaba Map, which shows an open square with a column inside the gate. In the Byzantine period, the gate was incorporated into the city wall.
After extensive conservation work on the largest and most impressive of Jerusalem’s gates, which took nearly a year to complete, visitors there can now enjoy the gate in all its splendor just as the public experienced it for hundreds of years, until the ‘crown’ was damaged in the battles of 1967.
The conservation of the gate was carried out as part of the Jerusalem City Wall Conservation Project, in cooperation with the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Prime Minister’s Office
For hundreds of years, when visitors arrived in Jerusalem and entered the city by way of Damascus Gate – the largest and most magnificent of Jerusalem’s gates – they glanced up and saw the large ‘crown’ that the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent built atop the gate in 1538 CE.
But in 1967 the gate sustained serious damage and the crown was destroyed during the fighting in the Six Day War. Now, the Jerusalem Development Authority, in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority and with funding provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, is concluding a comprehensive project of rehabilitating Damascus Gate, during which the gate was cleaned of the effects from the ravages of time and its ornamentation was restored, including the magnificent ‘crown’ at the top of the gate.
When workers of the Conservation Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority went about restoring the decorations on Damascus Gate they were aided by pictures of the gate that were taken at the beginning of the twentieth century when the British governed Jerusalem. The pictures show the gate in all its glory, with the crown at the top of the center embrasure, and based on this the conservators proceeded with their work. As part of the engineering and stabilizing measures performed, the ‘crown’ was secured to the core of the wall by means of eleven anchors. At the same time the decoration’s four stones were
completely restored, and its ceiling was covered again with stone slabs as it was in the past, based on the historical photographs.
“The Old City of Jerusalem is a focus of interest for people the world over and the number one tourist attraction in Israel”, says the Elʽad Kendel, director of the Old City Basin in the Jerusalem Development Authority, “the city walls and the gates are the first thing that everyone sees when they arrive at the Old City, and it is therefore important to us that tourists, both domestic and foreign, see the city in all its glory”.
According to Avi Mashiah, the project’s architect on behalf of the Conservation Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The work at Damascus Gate was particularly challenging since it is located at the entrance to a noisy and bustling marketplace. All of the work that was carried out there was done so in agreement with the local merchants. In order to avoid disturbing business in the marketplace, work was begun after the last stall closed at 10:00 PM, and continued until the early hours of the morning, prior to the start of the following business day. Because of its beauty, Damascus Gate is also
the most documented of Jerusalem’s city gates and its historical
material and numerous photographs facilitated an accurate restoration of its appearance. Every single decoration, including all of its features, was studied and restored by us down to the smallest detail, in order to provide visitors to the gate as full and complete an experience as possible”.
Four years ago the Jerusalem Development Authority commenced work on the rehabilitation and conservation of the Old City walls in Jerusalem, in cooperation with the Conservation Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, which is actually carrying out the work on the walls, and with funding provided by the Prime Minister’s Office. As part of the project, work was conducted along the entire length of the Old City walls and on the gates from the Dung Gate, clockwise in the direction of Zion Gate, Jaffa Gate, the New Gate and
Damascus Gate. Work on the wall is currently being done at the
northeastern corner of the Old City and is scheduled to be completed by year’s end.
The work on the wall included conservation, the removal of hazards and the rehabilitation of elements in the wall. In addition a laser scan was used for the purpose of precisely measuring the wall, particularly the gates, which were surveyed and studied at the level of individual stones. The Jerusalem Development Authority and the Israel Antiquities
Authority are pleased that visitors to the Damascus Gate can now enjoy the full splendor of the structure, and experience it exactly as the public has for 460 years, until the gate was damaged in 1967.
Two amazing finds testify to the last days of Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD, In a drainage channel that led from the Temple Mount to the Siloam Pool a stone with an inscribed menorah was found, together with a Roman sword. These finds vividly reminds us of the terrible destruction and how some people tried to save their lives by fleeing through the underground drainage channels.
A stone with an inscribed menorah. Photo: Sebastian Scheiner / AP
Both the menorah and the sword reminded me of similar finds made by Prof. Nahman Avigad in the Jewish Quarter. A sword was found in the Burnt House and a menorah was found inscribed in the wall of one of the priestly houses.
This depiction of the Lampstand (menorah) was found incised on one of the walls of a priestly family home in Jerusalem. Apart from the Lampstand, it shows the Table of Shewbread (bottom right), the Altar of Incense (top right) and the three-stepped stone (bottom left) which the priest would stand on to light the lamps of the Lampstand in the Temple.
Barnea Levi Selavan sends this program of the upcoming conference in the City of David.
September 8th, 2011
6.30 – Entry
7pm Aharon Horowitz, Yuval Baruch, Evyatar Cohen (two varying options concerning dating of tunnel)
7.15
Y Garfinkel – thoughts about the Kingdom of Judah
R Reich and E Shukron – new look at Shiloach tunnel dating
I Finkelstein- the large stone structure, facts vs yearnings
8.20 – Break
8.40
G Barkay – Bat Paro grave, a new look
Asher Grosberg – south section of Channel II, Shiloach, both of Hezekiah
Shukron and Reich – main Second Temple drainage channel, with completion of the southern section in 2011
Archaeologists have discovered a rare gold bell during an excavation in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem.
by Elad Benari
Archaeologists have discovered a rare gold bell with a small loop at its end. The finding was made during an archaeological excavation in the City of David National Park (near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem) by the Israel Antiquities Authority in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Ir David Foundation.
The directors of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, said after the finding, “The bell looked as if it was sewn on the garment worn by a man of high authority in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period.
“The bell was exposed in the city’s main drainage channel of that period, between the layers of dirt that had been piled on the floor of the channel,” they continued. “This drainage channel was built and hewn west to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and drained the rainfall in the different parts of the city, through the City of David and the Shiloah Pool to the Kidron valley.”
The excavation area, above the drain, is located in the main street of Jerusalem which rose from the Shiloah Pool in the City of David. In this street an interchange was built through which people entered the Temple Mount. The remains of this interchange are what is known today as Robinson’s Arch. Archaeologists believe that the eminent man walked the streets of Jerusalem in the area of Robinson’s Arch and lost the golden bell which fell off his outfit into the drain beneath the street.
Jewish sources say that the high priests who served in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem used to hang golden bells on the edges of their coats. The book of Exodus (Shemot), for example, contains a description of the coat of Aaron the high priest in which it is said that coat contains, “bells of gold.”
While it is unknown if the bell belonged to one of the high priests, archaeologists have not ruled out the possibility.
In previous posts (here and here) we reported on the fact that Israel expects a major earthquake to happen in the near future.
The Jerusalem Post reports today on a special Library of Congress collection of photographs that document the earthquake that struck Israel and particularly Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in 1927.
Four pictures, one of which we used in a previous post, are shown in this article. Many more photographs of this period, taken by photographers of the American Colony, have been collected by Todd Bolen on a CD called Life in the Holy Land, Jerusalem.
In a previous post we mentioned that the site where Jesus was baptised was open to the public. There was indeed a ceremonial opening at the site on the 18th of January this year, only to close shortly afterwards.
Now, however, the surrounding area has been cleared of landmines and the site is supposed to be open to visitors, according to this AP report.
The Baptismal site, seen from across the Jordan. Photo: Leen Ritmeyer
“Israel hopes the opening of the site will help draw Christian tourists, who have been coming to Israel in growing numbers in recent years. Of the 3.45 million tourists who arrived last year, about 69 percent were Christian, and 38 percent defined their visit as a religious pilgrimage, according to the Tourism Ministry.
Israel renovated the site at a cost of $2.3 million and removed some of the nearby mines, Israeli officials said. Tuesday’s ceremony was attended by Silvan Shalom, the Israeli minister for regional development, and by representatives of Christian denominations in theHoly Land.”
