#jerusalem biblical sites

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Why pool make eyes STING please?

Your eyes sting in the pool because of chlorine. Chlorination of pools has been normal since biblical times to prevent bacterial and insect egg growth. It was first noted at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. Being Bethesda it was of course full of bugs, so to keep it clean, they poured in chlorine (known back then as "The Bile of Samael") to keep the water clear.

Soon after, people noted healing properties to the pools, and they became a pilgrimage site. Far from superstition, the chlorine was metastatic, entering the bodies of those present and having an antibiotic effect. Thus a pool's healing force can be predicted from having a high meta-chlorine count.

[theonion]

In an astounding find that experts say offers a look at the intimate home life of Jesus of Nazareth, a team of archaeologists announced Wednesday they had uncovered the ancient Big Dog shirt that Christ wore to sleep in. “The discovery of this XL Big Dog shirt that Jesus Christ wore to bed confirms the theory that after a long day of sermons, He just wanted to come home and relax in a soft, familiar garment,” said Andrei Munteanu, lead archaeologist at the dig site in Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood where excavators found the T-shirt, which features a dog wearing sunglasses along with the phrase “Who’s yer daddy?” “We’ve long believed such a discovery was possible, as it’s based on ancient biblical evidence indicating the apostle Philip gave Christ a T-shirt that he was planning to throw out. Previous theories had contended that Christ actually wore a ‘Tennis is life’ T-shirt when lounging around His home, but this artifact obviously proves that Renaissance-era notion incorrect.

Full Story

[fairuzfan]

How history directly plays a part in the colonization of Palestine

"The modern claim that Joseph's Tomb is directly related to the biblical Joseph appears to have emerged as a result of claims by William Cooke Taylor in the 1830s. Cooke was an Irish journalist traveling in the area motivated by interest in biblical history but with no expertise in the field. Although in his writings he claims the site was believed be the tomb of the patriarch and that all the religions agreed as much, no other geographers who ventured into the area in the decades that followed reported anything of the sort. And it is unclear from his writings what local Palestinians, the people who were actually living in and around the shrine and worshipping there, believed about the shrine. British geographers subsequently took up Taylor's claim, however, and over the years it was forgotten that it had been more or less made up based on conjecture.

But the claims of biblical archaeologists had a strong role in how the Zionist movement would come to understand and conceive of the landscape.6 As European Jews migrated to Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century, they drew upon biblical archeology's claims. They adopted archeologists' claims that Palestinian holy sites were directly linked to ancient biblical figures. In many cases, they focused on occupying those sites in order to legitimize the colonial endeavor by giving it a sense of deeper history. In many cases, this would mean evicting the Palestinians who actually frequented these holy sites.

When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, religious Zionists began flocking to Joseph's Tomb. The tomb, which was previously open to pilgrims of all faiths, began to fall under exclusively Jewish control. As growing numbers of armed Jewish settlers were escorted to the tomb under military escort, the area became increasingly viewed with apprehension by Palestinians living around the site. In 1975, the Israeli military banned Palestinians – that is, the Samaritans, Muslims, and Christians living around the site – from visiting, a ban that has remained in place until this day. When I visited in summer 2015, the tomb was shut closed, but a sympathetic guard allowed me and a friend to look around, under his close watch.

Unsurprisingly, the ban has ignited intense anger over the years. This is true particularly given that frequent visits by Jewish settlers to the shrine are accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers, who enter the area and run atop the rooftops of local Palestinians to “secure” the tomb. As a result, Joseph's Tomb has increasingly become associated with the Israeli military and settlement movement in the eyes of Palestinians. Its presence has become an excuse for frequent military incursions that provoke clashes and lead to arrests and many injuries in the neighborhood.7

Some fear that Israelis will attempt to take over the shrine to build an Israeli settlement around it. This fear is not unfounded, given the fact that Israeli settlers have done exactly that all across the West Bank in places they believe are connected in some way to Jewish biblical history. The notoriously violent Jewish settlements in Hebron, for example, were built there due to the location of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in that southern West Bank town. Following the initial years of settlement, settlers even managed to convince Israeli authorities to physically divide the shrine – which is holy to local Palestinians – and turn the whole area into a heavily-militarized complex. Other shrines have become excuses for the Israeli military to build army bases inside Palestinian towns, like Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem – which is surrounded by twenty-foot high concrete walls on three sides to block Palestinian access. The village of Nabi Samwel near Jerusalem, meanwhile, was demolished in its entirety to provide Jewish settlers access to the tomb at its heart."

—Excerpt from Why Do Palestinians Burn Jewish Holy Sites? The Fraught History of Joseph's Tomb by Alex Shams

[tikkunolamresistance]

3,000-year-old artifact inscribed with earliest mention of the House of King David found in Israel provides archaeological evidence for the foundational narratives of three monotheistic faiths.

The Tel Dan Stele, a 9th century BCE stone monument fragment, containing the earliest mention of the royal House of David outside of the Hebrew Bible, will be on view at the Jewish Museum for a limited time. On loan from The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, the stone slab's inscription lends archaeological evidence to the existence of the Biblical King David as a historical figure, in parallel with the narrative of the Bible. 

Discovered in northern Israel in the early 1990s, the Stele—an archaeological term for an upright monument used in ancient cultures to commemorate a person, place, or event—was once part of an inscription on a basalt victory Stele commemorating the military victories of King Hazael of Aram (a region in present-day Syria) between c. 842 and 806 BCE. Although Hazael’s name is not cited in the inscription, scholars believe him to be its author. 

In the inscription, the Aramaic king boasts that he defeated King Jehoram of Israel and King Ahaziahu of Judah, a reference to Israel’s two kingdoms at the time, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, the latter also commonly known as the House of David. The engraved inscription’s mention of a “king of the House of David,” is a direct reference to ancient Israel’s monarch and his royal dynasty, corresponding with the Bible’s historical narrative. 

The first fragment comprising the Stele was unearthed in July 1993, during excavations of an ancient stone wall in Tel Dan, Israel. The following year, two additional fragments were discovered at the same site and linked to the original fragment. 

Building on the archaeological evidence of King David’s reign in Israel, the Tel Dan Stele will be exhibited alongside five late 8th century BCE handles stamped with royal seals, once part of large clay storage jars, from the Jewish Museum’s archaeology collection. The seals on these fragments are inscribed “[Belonging] to the king” in ancient Hebrew, attesting to the existence of kingship in ancient Israel. The jars were likely part of a royal provisioning system. Three of the jar handles cite the city of Hebron in their royal seal impressions, and two mention the city of Socoh in the ancient kingdom of Judah.

The Tel Dan Stele is presented within Engaging with History: Works from the Collection, a selection of rarely exhibited objects from the Museum’s holdings of over 30,000 works including new acquisitions by Carrie Mae Weens, William Kentridge, and others on view for the first time in dialogue with Museum treasures reflecting millenia of global Jewish culture.

The presentation of the Tel Dan Stele was initiated by James S. Snyder, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, in collaboration with Dr. Haim Gitler, Tamar and Teddy Kollek Chief Curator of Archaeology at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.  

This installation is made possible with generous support from the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, in collaboration with the Jerusalem-based Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, The Israel Museum, and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

[eretzyisrael]

by Peter Baum

Several months ago, I wrote an article in Blitz debunking the Palestinian narrative relating to their claims of being indigenous to the geography that is Israel, biblical Judea and Samaria. These named areas are all according to international law within Israel’s sovereignty. The League of Nations Mandate 1922 endorsed by the United Nations Charter 1945, Article 80, and the international legally binding principles of Acquired Rights, Estoppel and Uti Possidetis Juris confirm, ratify and endorse Israel’s territory inclusive of these areas.

In that previous article I cited the numerous historical invasions – Persian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Crusader and Saracen and discovered no Palestinian opposition to that colonization to reclaim their indigenous lands.  Of course, the paradox has to be explained to the pro Palestinians, the Dreyfus mob as I now refer to them.

Despite repeated requests via my articles, social media confrontation, debates, in halls on radio and TV, not one of the Dreyfus mob could enlighten us on historical Palestinian efforts nor name any indigenous Palestinian leaders who fought militarily or politically against any foreign invasion.  Needless to say, the Dreyfus mob could not identify any Palestinian flag nor emblem nor currency the indigenous Palestinians used during their habitation of the geography. There must be some burial sites then surely? None. Okay, okay I ask, what about any historical constructions, either destroyed or still standing built by persons who identified themselves as Palestinian. Of course not.

So, did anyone see these people, this race, tribe, nation or culture who have created fact from mythology. According to my research they must have been invisible as no itinerant scribe ever documented their existence.

It is worth reposting selected paragraphs from my previous post to establish the simple facts that numerous travelers to the geography who diarized their journeys, travels and experiences all seemed to have missed the indigenous habitants we call now the Palestinians.

Abbot Richard of Saint – Vanne, 970 -1046 in his 11th century Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, made no reference to the Palestinians. Jews, Muslims yes, but no collective known as Palestinian.

The 13th century Arab biographer, Yakut wrote:

“Mecca is holy to Muslims and Jerusalem is holy to Jews”. Never in his writings referring to the Palestinians.

Ibn Khaldun, Arab historian and philosopher who died in 1406, wrote in 1377:

“Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, extended over 1400 years and it was the Jews who implanted the culture and customs of the permanent settlement”. Again, not one note alluding to the Palestinians.

Siebald Rieter, 1426 – 1488 penned a series of essays including Maps to Jerusalem (1426 – 1428) describing his journeys throughout the area and naturally no reference to the Palestinians.

Similarly, Bernard Von Breydenbach, 1440 – 1497 in his Pilgrimage, A Travel Report (Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam) and Sir Richard Guylforde 1450 – 1506 Pilgrimage, during their extensive travels and detailed diaries also seemed to have missed the Palestinian population.

Maybe Felix Fabri, died 1502 in his Pilgrim and Preacher, Peter Fassbender 1450 – 1518 in his Pilgrim Libraries or Martin Kabatnik, died 1503, From Jerusalem to Cairo discovered the Palestinian people. Absolutely not.

Kabatnik wrote, “The heathens (non-Jews) oppose the Jews at their pleasure, in spite of all the tribulations and the agonies they suffer at the hands of the heathen, the Jews refuse to leave the Holy Land that has been promised to them”. The heathens were the itinerant Bedouins.

Let’s now refer to John Mandeville in his Travels published between 1357 and 1371; Paul Walther Guglingen, in his Jerusalem Travels, 1482/3, describes in detail the inhabitants of the area and Arnold Van Hoff ‘s 1471 – 1505 journals , Pilgrimage , surprise surprise – not one reference to a people, race, tribe or culture identifying as Palestinian.

Father Michael Naud, a Jesuit Priest, in his works The Jerusalem Connection, 1674 penned:

“The Jews of Jerusalem were resigned to paying a heavy price to the Turk for their divine right to stay there”.

Just for good measure the following diarists also managed to ignore, forget or missed the Palestinian people during their travels.

Sir George Adam Smith, died 1790, Jerusalem; Edward Robinson, died 1863, Biblical Researches; Alphonse de Lamartine, died 1869, From Marseilles to Jerusalem; and Sir George Gawler, died 1869, Syria and its New Prospects.

The above are just some examples of historical, documented works, diaries and journals of respected travelers to the geography known since time immemorial as Israel and during colonial invasions temporarily called Palestine. None of these written documents alludes to a human collective we know today as Palestinians who claim with the support of many that they are the indigenous people to the geography.

Indeed, no traveler noted the language of the Palestinian nor what any mythical Palestinian called themselves in their mother tongue and in conclusion this requires explanation and elaboration.

The evidence is that Arab militant, political organizations dedicated to the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel were created in the 1960’s through the 1980’s. Their charters are written in Arabic. However, there is no sound for the letter P in Arabic so what therefore did the old, (nonexistent?) Palestinians or do the newly formed Palestinians call themselves in their mother tongue? The letter P in Arabic is pronounced with either a B or F sound, thus they would be calling themselves Balestinians or Felastinians. Well once again history is lacking any such people although the word Felastinian does exist in Arabic and the definition only mocks the Palestinian claims to being indigenous to the geography. You see, Felastinian is the pronunciation for Philistine – an extinct race of people originating from the Greek Islands. The more recent definition of Philistine is uncouth, uncultured heathens. Which definition do you think today’s Palestinians would prefer?

Like silicone breast implants the Palestinians were invented in the 1960’s.

[mylight-png]

Hi I have a hot take after seeing too much TikTok bullshit.

Islam and Christianity are religions of appropriation.

This is something that bothered me for a while but specifically came to my attention after seeing a TikTok where someone made the joke that the Christian pride flag is just the colors of Joseph's coat, based on the musical about it.

And fine, maybe that is a little funny. But the story of Joseph and his coat isn't Christian. It was Jewish first. It's still Jewish. Fine, they believe in it too (because they originally broke off from Judaism) but to claim it's Christian like that just rubbed me the wrong way.

So so so many people claim that Prince Of Egypt is a Christian "Bible movie" except it isn't. Or at the very least, it shouldn't be. Because it isn't Christian, it's Jewish. The Christians weren't led out of Egypt by G-d's hand. It was us, the Jews.

I know I seem petty, these are just movies, just musicals, and to some they are just stories. But this removal of Judaism from originally Jewish texts feeds into a larger problem.

Why do Muslims and Christians care at all about Israel? About Jerusalem, specifically? It's because they took our Torah and made it their "old testament" and claim it is the root of their religion. They claim they have equal, if not greater at times, claim to the land they only care about because we care about it.

If these religions were not Abrahamic then they wouldn't give a crap about Moses or Israel or Joseph's coat.

Any claim that any of the stories (for lack of a better word) from the Torah are Muslim or Christian is appropriation. Sorry not sorry. They were Jewish first, are Jewish now, and will forever be Jewish.

Can people of other Abrahamic faiths believe in them? I don't give a shit, I won't tell them what to believe, it's their religion. But they have no right to claim those stories as their own. To believe them and to claim them is vastly different.

When sharing in a culture that isn't your own, it's generally acknowledged to be wrong if you say that it's now part of your culture. Because it isn't. It still belongs to the original culture you took it from.

And since they do believe in the Jewish texts and claim them as their own, they are appropriating Judaism.

Shortly after October 7th, when my mom was talking to a coworker about what was going on, her coworker lamented the safety of the sacred sites. She said nothing of my mom's family living there, even though she knew. She, as a Christian, felt more entitled to care about the "sacred sites" (sacred to them because the land was first sacred to us) than about the Jewish blood being spilled.

I've said it before, to them, Jewish blood is cheap. And this appropriation only serves to cheapen it further.

This appropriation and entitlement has been an issue throughout history. The Crusades, the taxes on Jews for not being Muslim, this repeated and continued oppression of Jews under the justification of the other two Abrahamic religions, it's because those other groups feel entitled to our heritage, because they believe they're the ones "doing it right" and say we're doing it wrong even though what they do has strayed so far from their origins that such a claim is absurd.

I do not think Christians and Muslims should convert to Judaism. We don't encourage conversion (we accept y'all, but we aren't a proselytizing religion, not meant to offend Jewish converts).

What I am saying, however, is that Muslims and Christians should back the hell off from any claim to anything within their religion that is originally Jewish. And yes, that includes their entitlement to Israel and Jerusalem, and any and all "Biblical" stories that originated in the Torah. Those aren't Muslim or Christian, they're Jewish.

Again, I don't give a shit what people believe or practice, but what I am saying is for people to start giving credit where credit is due, and to back off from claiming other people's cultures and religions as reasons for your own entitlement.

Hell, I'm not even saying that only Jews can live in Israel. Anyone can live there now and that's fine. The issue is more so when claims start that Israel is equally important to all of us, or that Jews have no claim to the land. First, you care about it only because we did, that's not equal importance. And second, whether you like it or not, Jews are from Judea. We always have been, are, and always will be indigenous to Israel.

So yeah. Back off. Believe and practice what you want, but back off of what was ours first.

...

If this gets too much hate I'll just delete it tbh. It's a hot take and I recognize that the truth isn't for everyone.

[soon-palestine]

JVL Introduction

The Presidents of three leading US universities were falsely accused of condoning anti-Semitism on their campuses in a highly partisan ambush in front of US congressional hearing in December. Now the Columbia President, Minouche Shafik, is being summoned and 23 of her Jewish faculty are urging her not to give in to attempts to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism and to defend academic freedom at her campus.

They strongly contest assertions that antisemitism is rife at Columbia. They accept that many students are unsettled by the intensity of debate around the Gaza catastrophe but being uncomfortable is far from being discriminated against or threatened.

They deplore the recent actions of the University’s management to use disciplinary processes to clamp down on protest and see this as an abandonment of Columbia’s record of confronting smears and slanders levelled against staff and students and committing to free inquiry and robust disagreement.

MC

This article was originally published by Columbia Spectator on Wed 10 Apr 2024. Read the original here. Jewish faculty reject the weaponization of antisemitism

by 23 Columbia and Barnard faculty, Columbia Spectator

Dear President Shafik,

We write as Jewish faculty of Columbia and Barnard in anticipation of your appearance before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, where you are expected to answer questions about antisemitism on campus. Based on the committee’s previous hearings, we are gravely concerned about the false narratives that frame these proceedings to entrap witnesses. We urge you, as the University president, to defend our shared commitment to universities as sites of learning, critical thinking, and knowledge production against this new McCarthyism.

Rather than being concerned with the safety and well-being of Jewish students on campuses, the committee is leveraging antisemitism in a wider effort to caricature and demonize universities as hotbeds of “woke indoctrination.” Its opportunistic use of antisemitism in a moment of crisis is expanding and strengthening longstanding efforts to undermine educational institutions. After launching attacks on public universities from Florida to South Dakota, this campaign has opened a new front against private institutions.

The prospect of Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of congress with a history of espousing white nationalist politics, calling university presidents to account for alleged antisemitism on their campuses reveals these proceedings as disingenuous political theater.

In the face of these coordinated attacks on higher education, universities must insist on their freedom to research and teach inconvenient truths. This includes historical injustices and the contemporary structures that perpetuate them, regardless of whether these facts are politically inexpedient for certain interest groups.

To be sure, antisemitism is a grave concern that should be scrutinized alongside racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and all other forms of hate. These hateful ideologies exist everywhere and we would be ignorant to believe that they don’t exist at Columbia. When antisemitism rears its head, it should be swiftly denounced, and its perpetrators held to account. However, it is absurd to claim that antisemitism—“discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews,” according to the Jerusalem Declaration’s definition—is rampant on Columbia’s campus. To argue that taking a stand against Israel’s war on Gaza is antisemitic is to pervert the meaning of the term.

Labeling pro-Palestinian expression as anti-Jewish hate speech requires a dangerous and false conflation of Zionism with Jewishness, of political ideology with identity. This conflation betrays a woefully inaccurate understanding—and disingenuous misrepresentation—of Jewish history, identity, and politics. It erases more than a century of debates among Jews themselves about the nature of a Jewish homeland in the biblical Land of Israel, including Israel’s status as a Jewish nation-state. It dismisses the experiences of the post-Zionist, non-Zionist, and anti-Zionist Jews who work, study, and live on our campus.

The political passions that arise from conflict in the Middle East may deeply unsettle students, faculty, and staff with opposing views. But feeling uncomfortable is not the same thing as being threatened or discriminated against. Free expression, which is fundamental to both academic inquiry and democracy, necessarily entails exposure to views that may be deeply disconcerting. We can support students who feel real and valid discomfort toward protests advocating for Palestinian liberation while also stating clearly and firmly that this discomfort is not an issue of safety.

As faculty, we dedicate ourselves and our classrooms to keeping every student safe from real harm, harassment, and discrimination. We commit to helping them learn to experience discomfort and even confrontation as part of the process of skill and knowledge acquisition—and to help them realize that ideas we oppose can be contested without being suppressed.

By exacting discipline, inviting police presence, and broadly surveilling its students for minor offenses, the University is betraying its educational mission. It has pursued drastic measures against students, including disciplinary proceedings and probation, for infractions like allegedly attending an unauthorized protest, or moving barricades to drape a flag on a statue. Real harassment and physical intimidation and violence on campus must be confronted seriously and its perpetrators held accountable. At the same time, the University should refrain whenever possible from using discipline and surveillance as means of addressing less serious harms, and should never use punitive measures to address conflicts over ideas and the feelings of discomfort that result. Where the University once embraced and defended students’ political expression, it now suppresses and disciplines it.

The University’s recent policies represent a dramatic change from historical practice, and the consequences are ruinous to our community and its principles. In the past, Columbia has periodically confronted attacks against pro-Palestinian speech, ranging from the vile slanders against Professor Edward Said to the reckless accusations from the David Project. But where for decades the University stood firm against smear campaigns targeting its professors, it has now voluntarily accepted the job of censoring its faculty in and outside the classroom.

Columbia’s commitment to free inquiry and robust disagreement is what makes it a world-class institution. Limiting academic freedom when it comes to questions of Israel and Palestine paves the way for limitations on other contested topics, from climate science to the history of slavery. What’s more, students must have the freedom to dissent, to make mistakes, to offend without intent, and to learn to repair harm done if necessary. Free expression is not only crucial to student development and education outside the classroom; the tradition of student protest has also played a vital role in American democracy. Columbia should be proud of having participated in nationwide student organizing that helped secure civil rights and reproductive rights and helped bring an end to the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa.

We express our support for the University and for higher education against the attacks likely to be leveled against them at the upcoming congressional hearing. We object to the weaponization of antisemitism. And we advocate for a campus where all students, Jewish, Palestinian, and all others, can learn and thrive in a climate of open, honest inquiry and rigorous debate.

Many members of our University community share our perspective, but they have not yet been heard. Columbia students, staff, alumni, and faculty can sign here to show your support for this letter’s message.

Sincerely,Debbie Becher, Barnard College Helen Benedict, Columbia Journalism School Susan Bernofsky, School of the Arts Elizabeth Bernstein, Barnard College Nina Berman, Columbia Journalism School Amy Chazkel, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Yinon Cohen, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Nora Gross, Barnard College Keith Gessen, Columbia Journalism School Jack Halberstam, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Sarah Haley, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Michael Harris, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Jennifer S. Hirsch, Mailman School of Public Health Marianne Hirsch, Faculty of Arts & Sciences (Emerita) Joseph A. Howley, Faculty of Arts & Sciences David Lurie, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Nara Milanich, Barnard College D. Max Moerman, Barnard College Manijeh Moradian, Barnard College Sheldon Pollock, Faculty of Arts & Sciences (Emeritus) Bruce Robbins, Faculty of Arts & Sciences James Schamus, School of the Arts Alisa Solomon, Columbia Journalism School

The 23 authors of this letter are Jewish faculty members of Barnard College and Columbia University. This letter derives from a much longer one by these same 23 faculty sent to President Shafik on April 5.

[secular-jew]

Remarkable Discovery at the Tower of David: A 2,000-year-old bronze coin featuring King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, known for his role in the Maccabean 3-year long Bar Kokhba Revolt (the Jews vs the Romans in 133-136 AD), has been unearthed within Jerusalem's historic citadel.

Found by chief conservator Orna Cohen during routine maintenance, this coin showcases Antiochus with a crown and a goddess with a scarf on its reverse. This surprising find at a site thought to have been fully excavated reveals a tangible piece of the tumultuous Hasmonean era, linking the Jews, once again, directly to biblical history, and proving their indigenous connection to Judea.

[blueiscoool]

Biblical Steps Where Jesus 'Healed a Blind Man' Unearthed by Archaeologists

In Jerusalem, a recent excavation effort uncovered stairs that had been hidden for more than 2,000 years near the spot where the New Testament says Jesus treated a blind man.

A new excavation project in Jerusalem has unearthed steps unseen in over 2,000 years at a place where the New Testament records Jesus as having healed a blind man.

The Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel National Parks Authority and the City of David Foundation early this year announced that the Pool of Siloam, a biblical site cherished by Christians and Jews, will be open to the public for the first time in 2,000 years in the near future.

In recent weeks, archeologists achieved significant progress in the excavation, unearthing some eight steps descending into the Pool which had not been seen in 2,000 years — around the time when Jesus walked the Earth.

“The ongoing excavations within the City of David — the historic site of Biblical Jerusalem — particularly of the Pool of Siloam and the Pilgrimage Road, serve as one of the greatest affirmations of that heritage and the millennia-old bond Jews and Christians have with Jerusalem,” Ze’ev Orenstein, director of International Affairs – City of David Foundation said.

“Not simply as a matter of faith, but as a matter of fact,” he added.

The City of David Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1986, “dedicated to the preservation and development of the City of David and its environs, and is committed to connecting people of all faiths and backgrounds to ancient Jerusalem.”

“The half-mile running through the City of David, from the Pool of Siloam in the south, continuing along the Pilgrimage Road, up to the footsteps of the Western Wall, Southern Steps and Temple Mount, represents the most significant half-mile on the planet,” Orenstein said.

“There is no half-mile anywhere on Earth which means more to more people – not to millions, but to billions — than the half-mile that is the City of David,” he added.

The pool was first built roughly 2,700 years ago as part of Jerusalem’s water system in the eighth century B.C.

The construction unfolded during the reign of King Hezekia as cited in the Bible in the Book of Kings II, 20:20, according to the two Israeli agencies and the City of David Foundation.

According to estimates, the Pool of Siloam passed through many stages of construction and reached the size of 1.25 acres.

According to a passage in the Gospel of John, Jesus restored the sight of a man born blind at the Pool of Siloam.

A small section of the pool, which has been fully excavated, has been accessible to the public for several years.

The vast majority of the pool is being excavated and will either be opened piecemeal or once the entire site is unearthed.

Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, told Fox News Digital in January that, “In the Pool of Siloam, we find evidence of history preserved for us, revealed at just the right time.”

“Theologically, it affirms Scripture, geographically it affirms scripture, and politically it affirms Israel’s unquestionable and unrivaled link to Jerusalem. Some discoveries are theoretical. This one is an undeniable. It is proof of the story of the Bible and of its people, Israel,” he said.

A stroke of luck revealed the pool in 2004, when infrastructure work carried out by the Hagihon water company uncovered some of the pool’s steps.

The Israel Antiquities Authority, under supervision of professors Roni Reich and Eli Shukron, launched a survey.

As a result, the northern perimeter, as well as a small section of the eastern perimeter of the Pool of Siloam, were uncovered.

“Whether in the halls of the United Nations, ongoing efforts by Palestinian leadership, or on university campuses, Jerusalem’s Biblical heritage is under assault,” said Orenstein.

Orenstein noted that in few years time, visitors to the City of David will be able to witness the factual history for themselves and “see with their own eyes, touch with their own hands, and walk with their own feet upon the very stones their ancestors walked thousands of years ago, as they made their way to Jerusalem on pilgrimage.”

[girlactionfigure]

⚫ Mon morning  - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

⭕ BALLISTIC MISSILE at Eilat, intercepted.  From the Houthis.  Shot down by Arrow.  (( And why aren’t we firing back? ))

⭕ ROCKETS from Hezbollah at Hurfeish, Alkosh, Matat - towns not previously targeted in the north.

🔥FIRE TERROR - Almon, Judea.  (( Nothing shows your love for the land of Palestine like burning it. ))

♦️IDF ATTACKS SYRIA.. Aleppo, Syria, a “factory”.

♦️IDF ATTACKS LEBANON.. artillery attacks on the Shiite town of Alma al-Sha'ab, opposite Israeli town Hanita.

♦️AND GAZA.. 50 airstrikes in the past day.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR.. Ramon (Ramallah area), Hassan, Shechem, Aqaba (Tubas area), 

▪️HERO HOSTAGE (BODY) FOUND - NOT KIDNAPPED.. The body of Dolev Yehud was located in Kibbutz Nir Oz after a strenuous investigation and in collaboration with anthropologists and after scientific identification.  He was a medic and was murdered on Oct. 7 as he left his home to help save lives.

May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge his blood!

▪️WAR GUIDANCE ORG - 42% OF RELEASED TERRORISTS KILL AGAIN.. bring data studies showing 42% of terrorists released in the Shalit deal killed again - from public data.  They add: with confidential data likely it is higher. 

▪️MORE ON THE BIDEN DEAL..

.. details from the proposal: Israel mostly agrees with the outline for the release of the hostages drawn up by Hamas.

.. MK Shikli: the deal presents an outline to stop the war for six weeks without knowing the fate of the hostages - it's not a deal, it's a joke.

.. HAMAS SAYS: "The military of Hamas and Islamic Jihad are putting pressure on the families of the captives  through psychological warfare so that they will put pressure on Netanyahu."  (( Exactly. ))

.. Hamas demands a written document that includes everything that US President Biden said on Saturday evening with an additional declaration that includes full and enforceable guarantees from the United States

▪️MORE ON THE RAMMING TERRORIST ON THE LOOSE IN SHECHEM.. He ran to the Palestinian police station, he claimed an accident, the PA proposed a joint investigation committee and Israel refused, he was thrown out of the police station for fear that the IDF would invade the station and is now on the run.

▪️RELIGIOUS IDIOCY AT THE TOMB OF JOSEPH.. (monthly visits to this holy site, in the middle of the Arab city of Shechem, are closely coordinated and guarded by the IDF - first hand report)  Last night a limited visit was overwhelmed with overloaded buses, with IDF escort, to visit Kever Yoseph (the tomb of the biblical patriarch Joseph).  

A controversial Breslev rabbinical figure instructed his followers to go to the tomb or the lookout to the tomb (Mitzpe Yosef, Israel controlled area).  50-100 of the overzealous followers decided to enter Shechem by foot because the buses were already at capacity, sneaking around the IDF soldiers.

The IDF had to stop the controlled entry of the buses and chase after the followers on foot, to prevent them from being kidnapped or killed.  At least one of the followers made it further into the city, was beaten and taken by PA police.

▪️3 DAY SEARCH IN THE KINNERET.. 25 year old woman fell  into the Kinneret the evening of May 31 from a small boat without a life jacket.  After 3 days of searching her body was found.

▪️ILLEGAL PALESTINIAN WORKERS.. police caught a group of 16 workers in a Rami Levy supermarket in Hadera (with fake-issued permits -  the worker-company doing the falsification), and 17 caught trying to infiltrate Jerusalem via a “double sided” hidden compartment in a box truck.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Painting of the same title [Love Among The Ruins] , inspired by Browning's poem, by Edward Burne-Jones

+

Here. Have a poem. A beautiful poem. And read it, if you can make time, and if you can stretch your ever-shrinking attention span (like mine is). Not sure why this one today. Maybe because Jerusalem has risen to glory and fallen to desolation repeatedly. It has never been so populous with so many buildings and so much life. It doesn't seem possible it could be desolate yet again. But it probably didn't seem possible at any previous pinnacle either. It certainly didn't to the author of the biblical Lamentations, whose speaker stares in disbelief after its sack by Babylon, as they ask in the opening verse, How sits the city solitary, that was full of people. How is she become as a widow. She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how has been laid low.

Someday, maybe not all that far off, this place where I love, charmed as I remain by its layers of history and poetry, could resemble Browning's vision. Maybe our great edifices will greet people like broken Ozymandias as an unintended caution against arrogance and vainglory. Certainly enough of that to go around these days. Can it be avoided? Seems like that would be bold new territory for this city, and perhaps all humanity.

Or, maybe just because I love this poem.

+ Love among the Ruins ~Robert Browning

Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles, Miles and miles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Half-asleep Tinkle homeward thro' the twilight, stray or stop As they crop— Was the site once of a city great and gay, (So they say) Of our country's very capital, its prince Ages since Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far Peace or war.

Now the country does not even boast a tree, As you see, To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills From the hills Intersect and give a name to, (else they run Into one) Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires Up like fires O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall Bounding all Made of marble, men might march on nor be prest Twelve abreast.

And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass Never was! Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'er-spreads And embeds Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, Stock or stone— Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe Long ago; Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame Struck them tame; And that glory and that shame alike, the gold Bought and sold.

Now—the single little turret that remains On the plains, By the caper overrooted, by the gourd Overscored, While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks Through the chinks— Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time Sprang sublime, And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced As they raced, And the monarch and his minions and his dames Viewed the games.

And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve Smiles to leave To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece In such peace, And the slopes and rills in undistinguished grey Melt away— That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair Waits me there In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul For the goal, When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb Till I come.

But he looked upon the city, every side, Far and wide, All the mountains topped with temples, all the glades' Colonnades, All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts,—and then All the men! When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand, Either hand On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace Of my face, Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech Each on each.

In one year they sent a million fighters forth South and North, And they built their gods a brazen pillar high As the sky Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force— Gold, of course. O heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns! Earth's returns For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin! Shut them in, With their triumphs and their glories and the rest! Love is best.

(Ori Hanan Weisberg)

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

By MELANIE LIDMAN

A network of fortified cities around Jerusalem has been dated to the time of King David, more than 200 years earlier than previously thought, offering support to the theory that King David ruled over a complex and large kingdom. The proof, however, wasn’t freshly excavated from the earth, but rather came to light after an archaeologist spent years digging through old archaeological publications.

In a new academic paper, Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University claims he has found evidence of urban settlement in organized cities dating to around 1,000 BCE, during the reign of King David.

His article, published Monday in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, a peer-reviewed publication of Hebrew University, supports the theory that King David ruled over a well-developed kingdom, complete with roads connecting between cities. This runs counter to the belief of some scholars from the minimalist school of thought who have previously suggested that since there is scant evidence of cities during King David’s reign, his position as a ruler of a great kingdom as written in the Bible could be exaggerated.

“What is a kingdom?” countered Garfinkel. “You need cities and roads and military power and economic power and writing.”

Garfinkel’s paper, “Early City Planning in the Kingdom of Judah: Khirbet Qeiyafa, Beth Shemesh 4, Tell en-Naṣbeh, Khirbet ed-Dawwara, and Lachish V,” explores evidence of King David’s rule in five cities that were between half a day and a day’s walk from Jerusalem.

“If you take all these sites, they have the same urban concept, they are all sitting on the border of the kingdom and sitting where you have a main road leading to the kingdom,” he said. “These cities aren’t located in the middle of nowhere. It’s a pattern of urbanism with the same urban concept.”

[beardedmrbean]

Question do the Jews have a special name for King David? Like if I do a story where a Jew find his corpse, would they like call him “Father” in ancient Hebrew or something?

Actually where are the supposed tombs of Israeli kings and other biblical figures from the Old Testament are? Sorry I was playing Assassin Creed Odyessy. And they went with the idea that Classical Greeks could have seen their Mycenaean ancestors the same way modern Greeks see classical ones.

The game start off in Kephallonia, where odysseus supposedly rule. And you can even go to the ruins of his house.

It really change my perspective on how OLD humanity is. And I’m curious did the Israeli after the Old Testament did the same?

I'm going to trust this guy knows what he's talking about

Cave of the Patriarchs is where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are said to be interred.

David's Tomb, not likely his actual tomb since above is supposed to be where the "Last Supper" was, which it's highly likely it's not that either, but that's where we start debating the difference between truth and facts and I don't like getting into those since they end up in fights all the time. (truth can be different for different people, facts are the same for everyone)

Tombs of the Kings of Judea is supposed to be in "City of David" which is a archeological site now be the original boundaries of Jerusalem, back when David conquered it, because somehow during the time of Judges and the first two kings of the united tribes a not Jewish group still had a important fortified city smack dab in Judea.

Not all of the kings are there and it's just the Davidic line, kings of the northern kingdom after Solomon in Samaria have theirs not sure where.

There's also various tombs all over the middle east of different prophets and important people

Tomb of Esther and Mordechai, fittingly is in Iran since they weren't always bent on genociding the Jews there, well one of them was (a curse on haman, spits) back before it was Persia when it was Assyria but they hadn't had that kerfuffle with the Spartans yet I don't think

Place is one of those "Truth vs Facts" things again, same with most all of the different tombs of Biblical figures, most everything in the books of kings and chronicles can be attested with extrabibical sources, big stuff at least, kings and such.

Tombs of kings from a tiny kingdom don't get on the big stele's sadly, but we know the people existed and the stories are real historical fact, with some likely fudging of the numbers here and there to make armies and victories seem more thrilling and such.

But ya there's a lot of different tombs for various biblical figures dotted all over the middle east, it's helps that Islam appropriated both Jewish and Christian prophets and teachers and tried to make them theirs since they built or rebuilt a bunch of the structures outside the geographical boundaries of the Levant.

[eretzyisrael]

Sixty-seven Hebron Jews were massacred 95 years ago

It’s another tragic anniversary: 95 years have passed since the Hebron massacre, which claimed the lives of 67 Jews. Unable to protect its Jewish inhabitants, the British mandate authorities evicted them from the city. It remained judenrein until 1967, when Israel took control. The World Jewish Congress has a useful summary:

On 23-24 August 1929, over 60 Jews were murdered in what became known as the Hebron Massacre, which would go down in history as one of the bloodiest slaughters of Jewish civilians during British rule of Mandatory Palestine.

Hebron is one of the most ancient cities in the Land of Israel and is the resting place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs. Jews had been living peacefully in Hebron among their Muslim and Christian neighbors for hundreds of years prior to the massacre. A steady flow of religious students traveled to Hebron from the around the world to attend its yeshivot (religious seminaries) in the city.

In August 1929, violent rioters brutally attacked the Hebron Jewish community after the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, a notorious antisemite, claimed that Jews were endangering Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount.

The massacre began on 23 August when local Arabs began staging small-scale attacks. American Jewish immigrant Aharon Reuven Bernzweig, who was visiting Hebron with his wife at the time, later wrote to his family, “We had forebodings that something terrible was about to happen—but what, exactly, we did not know.” He added, “I was fearful and kept questioning the local people, who had lived there for generations. They assured me that in Hebron there could never be a pogrom, because as many times as there had been trouble elsewhere in Eretz Israel, Hebron had remained quiet. The local population had always lived very peacefully with the Arabs.”

By the next day, the violence had escalated, and mobs went door to door screaming, “Kill the Jews.” The angry crowd broke into Jewish houses and castrated, raped, and murdered the inhabitants. Many Jews went into hiding, and some were saved by Arab neighbors who hid Jewish friends until the violence had ended.

In his letter, Bernzweig described an Arab family who had protected him and dozens of other Jews: “Five times the Arabs stormed our house with axes, and all the while those wild murderers kept screaming at the Arabs who were standing guard to hand over the Jews. They, in turn, shouted back that they had not hidden any Jews and knew nothing.”

Read article in full

More about the Hebron massacre

[divinum-pacis]

Orthodox Jewish men pray during the mourning ritual of Tisha B’Av at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City, Aug. 13, 2024. The Jewish holy day of Tisha B’Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the biblical temples, is marked Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)