Ordinary Israelis Can Read 2,100-Year-Old Hebrew Scroll

From Ordinary Israelis Can Read 2,100-Year-Old Hebrew Scroll:

Some Israelis have described being moved almost to tears by a rare viewing of the Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved and most complete Dead Sea biblical scroll, on special exhibit this summer at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum for the first time in 40 years. Ordinary people are able to read, and at least partly understand, the ancient Hebrew text on the 2,100-year-old scroll.

"The Bible is first of all our connection to the land," said Ruvik Rosenthal, a popular Israeli language guru.

Seal of Biblical King Zedekiah's Minister Found in Jerusalem Archeological Dig

Another archaeological discovery proving the veracity of the Bible and the veracity of the Jewish claim to Jerusalem. Via JPost:

A seal impression belonging to a minister of the biblical King Zedekiah, which dates back 2,600 years, has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, Israeli archeologist Prof. Eilat Mazar said on Thursday. The 1 cm. in diameter seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE), was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekiah's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago. Both ministers are mentioned in Jeremiah 38:1-4. The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved.

"On the one hand it is so unexpected to find such a fragile bulla in such harsh conditions of excavation, while on the other hand it was logical to find precisely here the bulla of Gedalyahu ben Pashur," Mazar said. "It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible," she said. The current dig is being conducted under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Shavout

Shavuot is the day the Torah was given -- celebrating the supernatural encounter between God and the Israelites at Mount Sinai, an event which changed mankind forever. Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai and is also the Festival of the First Fruits or the Feast of the Weeks. Every Jewish holiday falls on a specific day of the month, with one exception: Shavuot, the day on which we received the Torah. Aish says:

Shavuot is always the 50th day following the beginning of Passover. Under the essential Jewish calendar in which the rabbinical court determined the beginning of a month through witnesses who saw the new moon, it could technically fall on any one of three dates since the number of days in a Jewish month could vary from year to year.

The name Shavuot alludes to its independence from the standard calendar. The name means "weeks," demonstrating how the holiday marks the culmination of
seven weeks regardless of the date.

What is the essence of that dateless day? Hints to the answer lie within the process that leads to Shavuot, the book we read on Shavuot, and the number 50 itself.

The key to understanding Shavuot lies within the process that leads up to it. We start counting the days from our exodus from Egypt, our birth as a people, and continue to count until Shavuot, the 50th day. That count marks a period of national metamorphosis. The Jewish people had been so entrenched in Egypt that the Torah described the Exodus as the extraction of one nation from amidst another. As a child just born, we were in our spiritual infancy and in just 50 days we achieved the lofty stature that enabled us to receive the Torah. Our count begins with a simple sacrifice of barley, food regarded as animal fodder. It culminates with a special sacrifice of the finest bread, human food, signifying our national arrival at a new level of existence.

The synagogue and home are decorated with flowers, plants and fruits. Dairy foods such as cheesecake and blintzes (which represent the shape of the Torah) are traditionally served. Shavuot, which means "weeks", refers to the timing of the festival which is held exactly 7 weeks after Passover.

Click for some delicious recipes for Shavuot.

Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Moses, right?

Wrong.

According to the Torah, all of the Israelites heard God speak at Mount Sinai. He appeared to everyone, approximately 3 million people and this is mentioned several times in the Torah.

[Moses told the Israelites]: 'Only beware for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld. Do not remove this memory from your heart all the days of your life. Teach your children and your children's children about the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horev [Mount Sinai]...

God spoke to you from the midst of the fire, you were hearing the sound of words, but you were not seeing a form, only a sound. He told you of His covenant, instructing you to keep the Ten Commandments, and He inscribed them on two stone tablets.' (Deut.4:9-13)

'You have been shown in order to know that God, He is the Supreme Being. There is none besides Him. From heaven he let you hear His voice in order to teach you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words amid the fire.' (Deut. 4:32-36)

Moses called all of Israel and said to them: 'Hear, O Israel, the decrees and the ordinances that I speak in your ears today -- learn them, and be careful to perform them. The Lord your God sealed a covenant with us at Horev [Mount Sinai]. Not with our forefathers did God seal this covenant, but with us -- we who are here, all of us alive today. Face to face did God speak with you on the mountain from amid the fire.' (Deut. 5:1-4)

Today begins the two day holiday of Shavuot (or Shavuos in the Ashkenazic pronunciation).

It is the anniversary and celebration of the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai to the Jewish people more than 3,319 years ago. It is a time of rededication and commitment to learning Torah.

For lots more about Shavuot, go to http://www.aish.com/holidays/shavuot/default.asp

But let's not also forget the Farhud, where Arabs trained by the Nazis in Baghdad, killed, maimed and committed numerous atrocities against the Jewish population on the two days on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot in 1941. The Farhud was the beginning of the end of 2,600 years of Jewish life in Iraq. This event commenced with a rampage of mass murder, mutilation, rape, burning and looting. The carnage would be forever seared upon the collective Iraqi Jewish consciousness.

Until now, the term "Farhud" and the riots and subsequent persecution of the Iraqi Jews during Holocaust and has been completely omitted from virtually all Holocaust study and memorials. This turning point event--the Farhud--was recently resurrected, during the fall of 2004, by a series of Iraqi community seminars, an award-winning bestselling book by author Edwin Black, as well as recent lectures and articles on the subject.

FARHUD - The Farhud Recognition Project

Folks, pay close attention. The Farhud happened in 1941. Do the math, folks. Israel wasn't reborn until 1948.

So was it the "occupation" of the "thepoorpalestinianpeople" that caused the Farhud? Or was the murder of Jews by Iraqis in 1941 just plain Jewicide for the sake of Jewicide?

I know you see my point, readers. I know you can't reject this fact. What you must do, is simply denounce the true intentions of the palestinians and convince all the dopey leftwing "peace supporters" to stop their blind encouragement for the palestinian "occupation" claim, because the reality is - it's a shill.

The fact that Jews in the British Mandate have been attacked by Arabs since the early 1900's - was not because of any territorial dispute - but just because Jews existed.

Maybe Islam is the root of the problem.

Today in Jewish History - Adar 13

Sponsored by Aish:

On Adar 13, during the biblical story of Purim, the 10 sons of Haman were hanged (Esther 9:7). This would find eerie parallel over 2,000 years later when 10 top Nazi officials were hanged at the Nuremberg Trials. Incredibly, the Hebrew year of the hangings at Nuremberg, 5707, is encoded in the Book of Esther: In the listing of Haman's 10 sons, three Hebrew letters -- taf, shin and zayin, representing the year 5707 -- are written unusually small. (This anomaly appears in every authentic Megillah scroll, written that way for over 2,000 years.) Incredibly, when Nazi officer Julius Streicher ascended the gallows to be hanged at Nuremberg, he shouted, "Purimfest 1946."

Today in Jewish History - Shvat 24

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In 354 BCE, the prophet Zechariah predicted the rebuilding of Zion, as recorded in the biblical Book of Zechariah (1:7). King Darius of Persia had given permission to rebuild the second Holy Temple, and Zechariah rebuked the people for not quickly taking the opportunity to do so.

2500-year-old First Temple seal found in Jerusalem

Via JPost:

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archaeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.

A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar.

Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said.

The Bible refers to the Temech family:

"These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].

The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.

The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or "Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archaeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

The find will be announced by Mazar at the 8th annual Herzliya Conference on Sunday.

The archaeologist, who rose to international prominence for her recent excavation that may have uncovered King David's palace, most recently uncovered the remnants of a wall from Nehemiah.

The dig is being sponsored by the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute where Mazar serves as a senior fellow, and the City of David Foundation, which promotes Jewish settlement throughout east Jerusalem.

Today in Jewish History - Shvat 1

Sponsored by Aish.com:

On this date, as the Jewish people were completing 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses gathered the entire the nation and began his farewell address. Moses' speech would continue for 40 days until his death, as described in the Book of Deuteronomy. Moses reviewed the commandments of the Torah, gave a historical reflection, prophesized about future events, and offered poetic blessings. Also during this time, Moses wrote 13 Torah scrolls -- one for each tribe, plus one to place in the Ark of the Covenant.

Did King Solomon’s Navy Discover America?

A very interesting read, via Tamar Yonah's blog:

Mystery Mountain, Los Lunas, New Mexico. That’s where a fascinating find was discovered with the Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments. What is amazing about this find, is that the ten commandments were written in a Hebrew script that is so ancient, it was last used around and up to the Babylonian expulsion. This means it was probably written between 2,500-3,000 years ago! How did this script, as well as the text of the ten commandments wind up in New Mexico, so many centuries ago?

“Over two thousand years before Columbus "discovered" America there were people of semitic origin in New Mexico worshipping the God of Israel. How can this possibly be reconciled with known history? It is seemingly apparent that the financial backing to launch a Hebrew-Phoenician voyage of world exploration could have readily occurred during the reign of King Solomon of Israel. Solomon worshipped the true God of Israel and had the means to fund explorative voyages to other lands. With Solomon's main port being located on the Red Sea it would be difficult to explain how his fleet would have entered America through the Atlantic drainage. (Reference note: Kings I 9:26) :
And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

Update: See this email from historian and author Steve Collins here:

http://www.britam.org/collins/lo...s/ losLunas.html.

He speaks about Judean coins being found there as well. The presence of Phoenician/Hebrew inscriptions in North America and all over the globe is evidence that Solomon's fleets literally explored the globe during his reign. There are many more Hebrew inscriptions in North America than the Los Lunas and Decalogue artifacts. Another one was the Bat Creek stone, a Hebrew inscription from the American Southeast, which the establishment declared to be a forgery until it was realized they were trying to read it upside down.

Today in Jewish History - Tevet 1

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In 355 BCE, Esther, after having won a kingdom-wide beauty pageant, was taken to King Achashverosh (Esther 2:16). Esther's presence in the king's palace enabled her to advocate on behalf of the Jews, and gain a reversal of Haman's decree to annihilate the Jewish people. This series of miraculous events is recorded in the biblical Scroll of Esther, and commemorated each year on the holiday of Purim.

Palestinian Poll: Most Support Right of Return to Israel, Want Jerusalem as Muslim Capital

G-d Forbid. Zechariah 12: 2-3 is the warning. From Palestinian Poll: Most Support Right of Return to Israel, Want Jerusalem as Muslim Capital via Daily Alert:

According to a Palestinian poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center on Nov. 3-6, 67% favor the return of all Palestinian refugees to their original homes and not just to a Palestinian state. 53% see the best solution for Jerusalem as being a capital of the Muslims.

Understanding the Halachos of Getting Out of Bed

Al Netilas Yadayim - Washing the Hands

When a person dies, the soul leaves the body, rendering it impure. Sleep is like death, and while a person is asleep, a similar type of impure spirit (ruach ra'ah) descends on his hands. He should wash his hands as soon as possible, in order that this impure spirit should be removed.

Most authorities agree that one recites the blessing of “netilas yadayim” only when doing a mitzvah. Washing away an impure spirit is only a protective measure and not a mitzvah (Pri Migadim, Eshel Avraham 4,1; Mishna Berura 4,8). Why, then, do we say a blessing after we wash our hands in the morning?

Some early commentators connect this washing to the renewal of our life- force each morning. Just as a Cohen had a mitzvah to purify himself before starting his service in the Temple, we also have a mitzvah to wash our hands each morning to start a new day of Divine service (Responsa of Rashba 1,191).

Others write that there is a mitzvah to wash our hands before each regular prayer, lest we had touched a place on the body that is generally covered (Responsa of Rosh 4,1). Since this act is considered to have the status of a mitzvah, we therefore recite a blessing. These two reasons give the washing the status of a mitzvah and are sufficient to obligate making a blessing on the washing.

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Text Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Daniel Travis and Torah.org

The Roots of Evil

Excerpted from Torah.org:

What would it take for the entire world to be condemned to destruction? What heinous sins would society have to commit for Hashem to decide to wipe it out and start over again? We do not have to look far for the answer. In this week’s Torah portion, the world is inundated by the Great Flood, its cities, its institutions, its people, even its animals, all swept away. Only the hand-picked passengers on Noah’s ark were allowed to survive. What brought this on?

The Torah gives a lurid account of the level of depravity to which society had fallen, widespread idolatry, promiscuity and adultery so pervasive that even the animal kingdom was perverted, the total collapse of moral standards, the degeneracy and the shamelessness. And yet, the Torah tells us, the final decree of annihilation was triggered by pecuniary crimes - “vatimalei haaretz chamas,” and the land was filled with robbery. Why was the crime of robbery considered worse than all the other horrendous crimes of society? After all, robbery is not a capital crime, while some of the others are indeed punishable by death. Why then was robbery the fuse that ignited the explosion called the Great Flood?

To further complicate matters, the Midrash that the robbery so prevalent in society was of a quite peculiar nature. Legally, a robber is not required to return stolen goods worth less than a small coin called a prutah. Such small sums are considered unworthy of litigation, and the victim undoubtedly writes it off. The people in antediluvian society would, therefore, steal from each other numerous times but always no more than the most minuscule sums. Over a long period of time, however, they were able to secure the property of their victims in a legal manner. But let us stop and think for a moment. This was no brazen robbery, no flaunting of the established authorities! Why should just this form of robbery be considered the worst possible offense, sufficient cause for the total inundation of society? How did this genteel, almost white-collar form of theft surpass idolatry and adultery in pure evil?

The answer goes to the heart of the Torah perspective on the relationship between sin and evil. Hashem does not consider people as individuals or society as a whole to be evil simply because they committed a sin, even a very serious sin. Hashem recognizes that people are but flesh and blood and that sometimes it is exceedingly difficult to control the impulse to transgress, to step over the line. Sinners are not necessarily evil and incorrigible.

The powerful attraction of sin does not, of course, exonerate the sinner. It does not absolve him from having to take responsibility for his actions and suffer the consequences. After all, he was given free will, and it is his moral obligation to exercise it when faced with temptation. But if he fails, if he is still not beyond hope. When the momentary weakness passes and he faces the enormity of his transgression, he can still feel shame and remorse. He can still find room in his heart for repentance.

But what if the sinner contrives loopholes and stratagems to give his sins a patina of legality? Such a person is truly evil and incorrigible. He pats himself on the back for his strict adherence to the law, even as he thrusts his hand into another man’s pocket. This person acts not on impulse but with loathsome preparation and premeditation. What chance is there that such a man will have a change of heart, that he will repent? Not very likely. And therefore, Hashem recognized the corruption of society as permanent and irreversible. It was time to wash it away.

A ship was sinking, and land was just a faint line on the horizon. The dust-encrusted life rafts were unfortunately all leaky, but the passengers ran to grab them anyway.

One wise man ignored the rafts and prepared to plunge into the water.

“Don’t you want a raft?” asked the captain. “I can get you one.”

“No,” said the wise man. “If I know that I must swim with all my might I have a chance of surviving. But if I mistakenly think I have a raft under me, I am surely doomed.”

In our own lives, we may sometimes find ourselves rationalizing our transgressions and shortcomings, maneuvering to find a path through the minefields of our moral dilemmas. We must recognize these tendencies as danger signals, as warnings that we are turning down a path that leads to corruption. We should take advantage of these moments to reevaluate ourselves, to transcend the frailties of the human condition and choose goodness for its own sake. At these very moments, when we stand on the brink of ruination, the right choice can elevate and enrich us for the rest of our lives.

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Text Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.

Testing G-d - JewishAnswers.org

Hat tip to JewishAnswers.org

Question: In Numbers 14:22 it states our ancestors tested G-d ten times before the incident under discussion. What are those ten tests? Were the people testing G-d or does it mean they were failing His tests?

Answer: There are many lists made of the ten tests. A good place to look is any explanation of Pirkei Avos 5:6.

As to testing G-d, it is actually a prohibition in the Torah, though a rather unusual one. See Deuteronomy 6:16, “Don’t test G-d, as you tested him at Masah.”

This is part of a whole section of the Torah that is focused on our relationship with G-d.

“You should love G-d your Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.”

“These words should be upon your heart.”

“Be careful never to forget G-d [and all the ways He has cared for you].”

“You should go beyond the letter of the law with G-d (literally, do what’s straight and also what’s good), and it’ll be good for you, too…”

Not testing G-d is a part of that focus. When two people, let’s say, have a very close and loving relationship, one of them giving tests to the partner shows a lack of trust. “If you really love me, you’ll…”

It’s hurtful; it can harm the relationship. Two people who love one another are supposed to be focused on giving, not taking; on helping the other, not on making sure that they themselves can count on getting what they need. The same is true of G-d and Israel. It could have harmed our relationship with G-d when in the wilderness we kept saying, “We don’t know if you will give us water, or bread, or meat. We’re not sure if you’re going to help us conquer the land of Canaan. If you’re really our G-d, you need to do [such and such].”

Though it was wrong to test G-d, He did pass all the tests. What Israel did was hurtful, but G-d continued to love and care for them, and always to seek their good. And so He always continues to care for us.

The Siloam Spring

From OHR:

A recent news item about Jerusalem's Mayor Uri Lupolianski's asking the Turkish government to return to Israel the ancient Siloam inscription called attention to the history of the tablet.

In Divrei Hayamim II (32:2-3) it is recorded that King Chizkiyahu ordered the stopping up of the springs around Jerusalem, which were the source of water for the city, in order to deprive the invading Assyrian army of Sancherib from making use of them. To make those waters still available for his people "he brought them straight down to the west side of the City of David" (ibid. 32:30).

Historians say that this refers to the 450-meter long tunnel that the king's workers hollowed out of bedrock. The Siloam inscription, named for the spring whose waters flowed through this tunnel, records the dramatic moment when the two teams of excavators that dug in opposite directions met to celebrate the completion of the project.

The Siloam inscription was discovered in 1880 and taken by the Ottoman rulers to an Istanbul museum. Mayor Lupolianski asked the Turkish ambassador to Israel to arrange for the return of the historic tablet as a gesture of good will between allies. It should be noted that while the stopping up of the springs may have been a clever military strategy, Chizkiyahu was criticized by the Sages for taking such a drastic step rather than relying on G-d's promise (Melachim II, 19:34) that "I will defend the city to save it." (Pesachim 56a)

Bishop urges Christians to call God 'Allah'

The next time a Christian insinuates that I am going to go to hell because I do not believe that Christ is the real Messiah, I'm going to ask them if they think Allah is the real name of G-d. From WND:

Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, says a Dutch bishop.

Tiny Muskens, the bishop of Breda, told the Dutch TV program "Network" Monday night he believes God doesn't mind what he is called, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.

The Almighty is above such "discussion and bickering," he insisted.

Muskens points to Indonesia, where he served 30 years ago, as an example for Dutch churches. Christians in the Middle East also use the term Allah for God.

"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years," Muskens said. "In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"

Muskens thinks it could take another 100 years, but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches, promoting rapprochement between the two religions, he said, according to Radio Netherlands.

However, a survey published today in the Netherlands' largest newspaper, De Telegraaf, showed 92 percent of the more than 4,000 people polled oppose the bishop's view, the Associated Press reported.

You dare to know what The One and Only deems as above "bickering"? You're wrong, Tiny. The real G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a jealous God and He is absolutely precise in His definition of Who He Is.

This priest is ignorant of the true word of G-d which specifically reserves for HaShem His own particular identity and Is intolerant of liberal interpretation thereof.

For thou shalt bow down to no other god; for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God; ~~ Exodus 34:14

This scripture does not apply to any other substitute deity like "allah", "beezlebub", "zeus" or any other but the One True G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This "priest" has made the cardinal sin of substituting his own liberal humanism for the truth of Scripture.

The month of Elul

"I have set before you life and death . . Therefore, choose life, that both you and your seed may live." -Deuteronomy 30:8

Oh, do I want to live, yes, more than anything, I want to know life and a life full of love and prayer and obedience to HaShem. I suppose you can say that I live an emotional life, not always predicated by my intellect, but a life in which I respond to things with a feeling more often than with an intellectual response. In some cases, being emotional has saved my life, because I felt danger and I reacted. In other cases, it made me happy, because I fell in love and married a wonderful guy. But probably the majority of the time, I feel sadness, because I still grieve for my father, I miss my dog, my aging mother is lonely and sad and I can't do anything to prevent it, I have had to abandon my trust in others, I have no relationship with my brother, I mourn the loss of being able to demonstrate my pride in being an American because the "Hate America" crowd is too powerful in this country, I miss my youth, I miss the old days with my family, I regret that I have not yet been to Israel to make aliyah, and the list goes on and on.

One feeling that I have that has just begun to stir my heart is the fact that Yom Kippur is coming; this is the month of Elul. I just feel it, I feel something and it is unusal for me to even think about it weeks before it has arrived. This never happened to me before. My spirit is being moved. I hope it means that HaShem is finding merit in me. Why else would the spark in me be so noticeable now? The smell in the afternoon air a few days ago and the way the cool wind blew, and the shadow of the sun as it was beginning its descent into the evening sky reminded me that Yom Kippur is coming and that we are at the beginning of the month of repentance. Indeed, Rosh Chodesh Elul begins at sundown on Monday, August 13, 2007. The month of Elul is a month of preparation for the month of Tishre and the Days of Awe, Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur. During this entire month we sound the Shofar every morning after our prayers to help prepare us to repent and purify ourselves for a good New Year. The most important time of the Jewish year is often the most awesome and inspiring as well as the most misunderstood. Here's all the basics you need to know.

The Philistines are upon you, Samson

This post was moved to SmoothStoneBlog

Today in Jewish History - Av 9

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In 423 BCE, the first Holy Temple was destroyed by fire, as Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian troops conquered Jerusalem. Also on this day, the second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Tisha B'Av has long been a day of calamity for the Jewish people: on this day, during the time of Moses, Jews in the desert accepted the slanderous report of the 12 Spies, resulting in the decree postponing enter to the Land of Israel. Other grave misfortunes throughout Jewish history occurred on the Ninth of Av: The Spanish Inquisition culminated with the expulsion of Jews from Spain on Tisha B'Av in 1492. World War I broke out on the eve of Tisha B'Av in 1914 when Germany declared war on Russia; German resentment from the war set the stage for the Holocaust. On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942, the mass deportation began of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka. Today, Tisha B'Av is the Jewish national day of mourning, when we don't eat, drink or bathe. Lights in the synagogue are dimmed, and we read the Book of Lamentations, Jeremiah's poetic lament over the destruction of Jerusalem.

Tiny tablet provides proof for the Torah

A fragment of cuneiform - This fragment is a receipt for payment made by a figure in the Old Testament

Via The Telegraph:

The sound of unbridled joy seldom breaks the quiet of the British Museum's great Arched Room, which holds its collection of 130,000 Assyrian cuneiform tablets, dating back 5,000 years.

But Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out such a cry last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact.

Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered - Nabu-sharrussu- ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.

Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim.

Nebo-Sarsekim, according to Jeremiah, was Nebuchadnezzar II's "chief officer" and was with him at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the Babylonians overran the city.

The small tablet, the size of "a packet of 10 cigarettes" according to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, is a bill of receipt acknowledging Nabu-sharrussu- ukin's payment of 0.75 kg of gold to a temple in Babylon.

The tablet is dated to the 10th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 595BC, 12 years before the siege of Jerusalem.

Evidence from non-Biblical sources of people named in the Bible is not unknown, but Nabu-sharrussu- ukin would have been a relatively insignificant figure.

"This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," Dr Finkel said yesterday. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power."

Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing and was commonly used in the Middle East between 3,200 BC and the second century AD. It was created by pressing a wedge-shaped instrument, usually a cut reed, into moist clay.

The full translation of the tablet reads: (Regarding) 1.5 minas (0.75 kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu- ukin, the chief eunuch, which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

Miriam's Well, Transplanted to Kinneret - Found!

Via Israel National News:

Archaeologist Yossi Stepansky, based on centuries-old texts and legwork around the Kinneret Sea, says he's found the long-lost site of Miriam's Well, as identified by the Kabbalist sage Rabbi Yitzchak Luria.

Yosef Idan, writing for the Hebrew NFC news site, reports in detail on the most recent discovery of the found-again, lost-again holy site. Archaeologist Stepansky has discovered the pillars of ancient synagogues alongside the Kinneret Sea, which have long been considered the landmarks for Miriam's Well, near the Tiberias Municipal Beach, in the southern part of the city.

The famous preeminent Kabbalist master known as the Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of 16th-century Jerusalem, Egypt and Tzfat, was the first to note the location of Miriam's Well - somewhere in the Kinneret. It is on his authority, in fact, that many of the burial sites of famous Talmudic sages and others in the Land of Israel are known.

A work by one of the Arizal's students, called "Shaar HaGilgulim," states that the Arizal identified an area of the Kinneret as the site of Miriam's Well. However, the book did not specify the precise location. In another work, however, entitled Nagid U'Mtzaveh by Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach, written 60 years after the Arizal's death, the following is cited:

"When I, Chaim [Rabbi Chaim Vital, possibly the Arizal's top student], came to my teacher of blessed memory [the Arizal] to study this [Kabbalistic] wisdom, my teacher of blessed memory went to Tiberias and took me with him... and when we were on a boat in the water, opposite the pillars of the old synagogue, my teacher of blessed memory then took a cup and filled it with water from between the pillars, and gave me that water to drink, and said to me: Now you will attain with this that wisdom, for this water that you have drank is from Miriam's well. And from then on, I began entering the depths of this wisdom."

A 19th-century source - Rabbi Chaim HaLevy Horowitz, in his work Hibat Yerushalayim - states, "When one goes from within the city to the Tiberias Hot Springs, somewhere in the middle of the way, where are found ruins of 13 syngagogues, there are rocks jutting out of the Kinneret, and one walks on them for a few strides... and there is the well."

Based on these descriptions, archaeologist Stepansky searched the shores of the Kinneret in and around Tiberias, and found what appears to be the remains of the pillars. They are located south of the municipal beach, near the shoreline of the Holiday Inn Hotel (formerly the Ganei Hamat Hotel). Four hundred years ago, the site was underwater, as the level of the Kinneret was some two meters higher than it is today.

Two photos on the NFC site - one found by Stepansky in the National Archives and a more recent one taken by Stepansky - show the site as it appeared 100 years ago and as it appears today.

The well in question is actually more like a "rock full of holes" from which water used to trickle, and which "ascended mountains with [the Israelites in the desert] and descended to the valleys with them" (Tosefta Sotah 11:1). After it completed its purpose in the wilderness, it was taken into the Land of Israel. The Talmud and Midrash say it can be seen from the top of a mountain as a type of sieve in the sea (though the mountain is identified differently in the various sources). One ancient Midrash tells of a person who "suffered from boils and went down to immerse in the waters in Tiberias, and it was an opportune time, and he saw Miriam’s Well and washed in it and was healed... The well was opposite the main entrance to the ancient synagogue of Tiberias..."

Though it now appears that the site of the well, as identified by the Arizal, has been found once again, the Tourism Office of the Tiberias Municipality informed Arutz-7 that there are no current plans to develop the area as a tourist attraction.