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#2 Jewish Religious Site in Israel

I bet most of my readers can’t guess what it is. #1, of course, is the Western Wall.

#2 is not:

The Machpelah in Hebron
Masada
Qumran
Bethlehem (think Ruth and David)
Joseph’s Tomb, or anything in Shechem
The Temple Mount, the City of David, or anything in Jerusalem

In fact, it’s not anything related to the Bible at all.

Nor is it the tomb of Rambam (Maimonaides), Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Nahman, or Rabbi Judah the Prince. Nor is it connected to any of the famous rabbinic cities, including Tiberias, Sepphoris, or Yavneh.

The honor of the most visited Jewish religious site belongs to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mt. Merom. Each year hundreds of thousands visit the site for the Lag B’omer celebration; more than a million visit annually.

Israel Museum Closure

If you were planning to visit the archaeology wing at the Israel Museum in, oh, the next 2-3 years, you’re going to be disappointed. According to the museum’s website, the wing “is currently closed for comprehensive renewal and will reopen to the public in 2009-2010.” It really is a shame that they cannot renovate a section at a time, so that a portion of the exhibits are open to the public. Or create a temporary exhibit of the most important finds. Until then, the public can visit the lousy Rockefeller Museum (some great finds, but poorly displayed and described), the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, or the Hecht Museum in Haifa.

Safe prediction: the museum wing will not finished when they say.

Israel Museum from east

Tagged Jerusalem

Temple Mount Ramp Replacement

Dismantling of the western ramp to the Temple Mount is discussed in these articles by Haaretz and YNetNews (discussed previously on this blog here and here; cf. also here). The new information is that the ramp will be a bridge, crossing from the Jewish Quarter on the Western Hill. There’s also the possibility that the earthen mound would be removed but the ramp not replaced at all. The old news is that work will begin on this any day.

Tagged Jerusalem

FindaDig.com

I am asked frequently enough where one should volunteer to excavate in Israel. My best answer is that they should look at the January issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, which gives a round-up of the coming summer excavations.

BAR just made it better by putting the “article” online. This allows non-subscribers to easily see the information, and it allows the information to be quickly updated should circumstances warrant (as was already necessary with the Mt. Zion dig).

FindaDig.com is an easy-to-remember website which includes a list of excavations categorized by region, and listing details such as excavation dates, costs, housing, contact info, and application details. It also lists relevant articles in BAR, which any participant should read before the dig.

Overall, it’s a terrific contribution for any interested in biblical archaeology!

So, where should you dig? There are many factors, but if one of my students asked me, I would suggest these first: Gezer, Gath, Zayit, Rehov, and Hazor.

I do find a strange irony that the Gath dig is listed as “Tell es-Safi/Gath,” whereas the Bethsaida dig is listed simply as “Bethsaida.” I don’t think anyone doubts the identification of Tell es-Safi as Gath, but almost no one besides the excavation team believes that et-Tell is really Bethsaida.

Excavations in City of David

Response to Rafi Greenberg – now in English

I’ve just received and posted an approved English translation of Amnon Ben-Tor’s letter to the editor.

See the “Response to Rafi Greenberg” below.

Tagged Analysis

Rabbinic Sources Online

From Arutz-7

The world’s largest electronic collection of Torah literature is now available online – in Hebrew. The Bar Ilan University Responsa Project, launched in 1991 in its CD format, was recently uploaded to the Internet on a platform provided by C.D.I. Systems. (See http://www.responsa.co.il) The virtual library encompasses all major Rabbinic sources representing more than 3,000 years of Hebrew and Aramaic literature. The website includes the Hebrew Bible and its principal commentaries, both the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud with commentaries, Midrashim, the Kabbala’s main book – the Zohar, Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, Rabbi Yosef Karo’s compilation of Jewish Law – the Shulchan Arukh with commentaries, and the collection of over 80,000 Responsa questions and answers on matters of Jewish law. The internet version of the Responsa Project includes a variety of tools and capabilities in its various features of search, navigation of texts, and hypertext links between books in different databases. Parts of the site are free, while full access requires a paid subscription.