Connecting the Land and the Book: the Omer and Ethics of the Fathers

A table for counting the Omer

In ancient Israel the first sheaf of the barley harvest was cut on the second day of the Passover festival and a measure of the grain, an “omer”, was taken to the Temple as an offering.   From this date Jews count the seven weeks that lead up to the festival of Shavuot -“the Feast of Weeks”.

“You shall count for yourselves, from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you bring the Omer as a wave offering, seven complete weeks.  To the day after the seventh week you shall count fifty days ...” Leviticus 23, 15

During these early summer weeks between Passover and Shavuot it is the custom to study the six chapters of Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, one chapter each Shabbat.  Ashkenazim continue to study these chapters of the Mishna until the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah.

Pirke Avot opens by tracing the line of transmission of the Oral Law from Moses via the Prophets, who received their inspiration directly from G-d, to the Sages, the Rabbis and teachers who discussed and expounded the Law on the basis of texts and the oral tradition which they received from their predecessors.

“Moses received the Torah at Sinai and handed it on to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it on to the men of the Great Assembly. ...” Pirkei Avot 1,1

Shimon HaTzadik was the last of the men of the Great Assembly.  From him the tradition was passed on to a man called Antigonos from Socho.

“Antigonos of Socoh received from Shimon HaTzadik.  He used to say: Do not be like servants who serve their master on condition of receiving a reward, but be like servants who serve their master not on condition of receiving a reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.” Pirkei Avot 1,3

Socoh


Across the Elah Vally towards Sochoh. Photo: Ram Eisenberg

Tel Socoh lies in the Shefela, the low hill country of Israel, in the Elah Valley near Azekah.  In

ancient times this was the border area between Israelite and Philistine held territory.  Socoh is mentioned four times in the Bible.  It was part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, fortified by King Solomon’s son Reheboam and later captured by the Philistines.  Most famously it appears in the dramatic story of David and Goliath. 

“The Philistines assembled their forces for battle; they massed at Socoh of Judah, and encamped at Ephes-dammim, between Socoh and Azekah.  Saul and the men of Israel massed and encamped in the valley of Elah.” 1 Samuel 17,1

The rest of the story is well known.  The Philistines send out a champion, the huge Goliath of Gath, to challenge the Israelites to single combat.  No-one dares to take up the challenge until the young David, who has been sent from Bethlehem to bring supplies for his brothers in Saul’s army, accepts.  Goliath is scornful but David, armed only with his faith in G-d and his sling and a bag of stones, kills him with a single sling-shot.

A lemelech seal

More than 300 years later, in 701 BCE, the Assyrians under the leadership of Sennacherib attacked the cities of Judah and besieged Jerusalem.  Amongst the archaeological finds from this time are more than 2,000 seal impressions on the handles of large storage jars, known as Lemelech stamps because of the Hebrew letters למלך (LMLK) found on them.  LMLK means “for, or belonging to the king”.  One theory is that these jars contained emergency military rations collected in anticipation of the Assyrian siege.  As well as the letters LMLK each of the seal impressions included the name of one of four towns; Hebron, Ziph, MMST and Socoh.   We don’t know all the details but we do know that Antigonos’ home town of Socoh must have been a place of some significance.  Last year, for the first time, a team from Tel Aviv University carried out excavations at Socho hoping to learn more about the part Socho played in the administration and economy of Judah.  



Spring on Givat Haturmusim

Nowadays Tel Socoh is most popularly known as Givat Haturmusim, Lupin Hill.  It is a glorious place to walk and to picnic especially in the early spring when there is a brilliant display of wild flowers. 

From Antigonos the tradition was passed through five pairs of rabbinic teachers who lived in successive generations during the time of the Second Temple.   Each of these rabbis offers us ethical advice.  The second of these pairs of sages were Yehoshua ben Perahya and Nittai the Arbelite.

“Yehoshua ben Perahya and Nittai the Arbelite received from them. ... Nittai the Arbelite used to say: Keep far from a bad neighbour, do not associate with a bad person, and do not despair of Divine retribution.” Pirkei Avot 1, 6-7 

The Arbel 

Ruins of the Arbel synagogue. Photo: Bukvoed

The rocky cliff of Mount Arbel rises for 380 metres and looks down from the west over the Sea of Galilee.  Just south of the cliff lie the remains of the Talmudic village where Nittai lived and of its synagogue.  Modern Moshav Arbel is nearby. 

In the year 38 BCE Mount Arbel was the site of a spectacular battle between Herod the Great and Jewish rebels.  Herod had returned from Rome where he had been proclaimed King of the Jews.  Now, to take control of his kingdom, he had to defeat the Hasmonean Matathias Antigonos and his Parthian and Jewish supporters.  The last rebels still in the Galilee had barricaded themselves in caves in the almost vertical face of Mount Arbel.   The approach to these caves was so steep and dangerous that at first Herod was confounded.  He embarked on a creative and daring plan. 

“He lowered the strongest of his soldiers in cradles down the side of the cliff until they reached the mouths of the caves; they then slaughtered the bandits with their families and threw firebrands at those who proved awkward.” Josephus, The Jewish War 1, 315



Arbel Cliff. Photo: Lior Golgher

Herod was not known for his mercy but Josephus records that he tried to save some of the rebels offering them the chance to surrender.  They fought to the death rather give themselves into his hands.  One old man expressing contempt for Herod killed his own wife and seven children before throwing himself over the precipice.

Today the Arbel National Park and Nature Reserve offers wonderful landscapes, rare and beautiful
flora and fauna, spectacular views and a glimpse into the history of the Land.

Of Kings and Queens and Jubilees

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee 1897

I spent a few weeks in England recently and was inevitably caught up in the four day public holiday marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee - the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.  Elizabeth is one of only two British monarchs to have reached their Diamond Jubilee.  Only her great-great-grandmother Victoria reigned for that long a time.

Thames Pageant. Photo: John Pannell

The celebrations were spectacular and reflected Britain’s love of ceremonial splendour mixed with a warm and genuine affection for the Queen herself.  They included a pageant of 1,000 ships on the River Thames and a huge concert ending in a stunning firework display outside Buckingham Palace.  Street parties were held across the country.  Thousands of beacons were lit creating a river of fire that linked all the countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations.  The finale was the appearance of the Queen and the Royal Family on the palace balcony to acknowledge the cheers of the many thousands of people who had gathered there and to watch a fly past by planes of the Royal Air Force.
 
Nowadays in the world at large a jubilee has come to mean something quite straightforward - the celebration of a special anniversary.  The original concept from the Torah is at once more specific and more complex.

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family.  Leviticus 25, v10..

The Torah details laws relating to agriculture, to the ownership of property and to the ownership of Israelite slaves in the jubilee year.  It was a year in which the earth itself rested, in which real estate was returned to its ancestral owners and in which those who had sold themselves into slavery to pay off their debts were granted their freedom.  The last jubilee was celebrated in the time of the prophet Ezekiel. 
 
No king of Israel or Judah during the biblical period reigned for as long as Elizabeth.  Two kings of Judah, Uzziah son of Amatzia and Menashe son of Hezekiah, ruled for more than 50 years and so reached what in modern terms would have been their Golden Jubilees.  They each came to the throne whilst they were still young.  Uzziah was sixteen years old at the start of his reign and Menashe only twelve.  Menashe’s grandson Josiah, however, was even younger - just eight years old when he began to rule over Judah.

Rembrandt's Uzziah

 
Uzziah started out well.  He “sought G-d” and took advice from the prophet Zechariah.  He became financially and militarily successful and developed Jerusalem and the whole of his kingdom.  His fame spread far and wide.  His great success, however, made him proud and his pride led him into a transgression that was his downfall.  He entered the Temple and offered up incense there on the golden altar – a task reserved for the priests.  Whilst the chief priest Azariah upbraided Uzziah and he was full of anger, for no king likes to be criticised, he was struck with tzara’at, an affliction that resembled leprosy.  He spent the rest of his life in isolation.

Menashe by Guillaume Rouille

 
In contrast to Uzziah, Menashe began his reign by doing “that which was evil in the sight of the Lord”.  He reversed the religious reforms that his father Hezekiah had instituted.  He reintroduced pagan worship, built altars to pagan gods and set up an idol in the Temple.  The Book of Chronicles relates that because of Menashe’s transgressions the Lord brought the hosts of Assyria against his kingdom.  Menashe was taken off in chains to Babylon.  There, in captivity, he repented and humbled himself and prayed to the Lord.  He returned to Jerusalem a changed man.  He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and strengthened the defences of the cities of Judah.   He removed the strange gods and the idol from the Temple and tore down the pagan altars.  He repaired the altar in the Temple, sacrificed offerings on it and commanded the people to serve the Lord. 
  
Walk through the streets of the Greek Colony in south Jerusalem and you will come across the names of the kings of Judah – not all of them, only those who “did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord”.  Uzziah just makes it because he started out doing good even though he transgressed in his later years.

The Uzziah Tablet

In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is an ancient inscribed limestone tablet.   It was found in 1931 amongst the collection of the Russian convent on the Mount of Olives by Eleazar Lipa Sukenik, the archaeologist who first recognised the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The Aramaic inscription reads:

“To here were brought the bones of Uzziah King of Judah. Do not open.”

We don’t know whether this tablet really marked Uzziah’s burial place.  There is no record of how it came to be in the convent’s possession.  The archaeologists tell us that it dates from the 1st century BCE or the 1st century CE.  Uzziah died centuries earlier in about 740 BCE and was buried in “the field of burial that belonged to the kings” in a grave that was set apart.  It is likely, however, that at the end of the Second Temple period when Jerusalem was expanding, his bones were moved for reasons of ritual purity to a place outside the city boundary.  This tablet then could have formed part of their final resting place. 
 
To find Menashe Street you have to cross the railway tracks from the Greek Colony into Baka but in this neighbourhood the streets are named for the tribes of Israel.  This street is not named for Menashe the king but for Menashe son of Joseph, the grandson of Jacob and the brother of Ephraim.   It’s just as well that his name found a home here.  King Menashe would not have qualified to have a street named for him amongst the righteous kings of Judah.

And the Egyptians ill-treated us...

One of the ways we describe the festival of Passover is “z’man heruteinu”.  It is the festival of our redemption, of our freedom from slavery in Egypt.  As a child this always puzzled me because my father ע"ה was born in Egypt, actually on the first day of Passover, and grew up there.  How did he sit with his family around the seder table celebrating having been taken out of Egypt when he was still living there?  It is a mystery to me!

The Bible tells us that the Egyptians enslaved the Children of Israel in Egypt.  The archaeologists and historians add that they ruled over the land of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age, from 1550 BCE to 1200 BCE.  In Biblical terms this was the time of Joseph in Egypt through the Exodus to the time when the Israelites approached the Land of Israel.  So where in Israel can we see evidence of those 350 years of Egyptian domination?

Megiddo

Megiddo City Gate Photo: Golf Bravo

Megiddo is a huge and impressive archaeological site.  It’s not surprising.  It was one of the mightiest city states in Canaan.  For thousands of years it dominated the ancient trade route between Egypt to the south and the empires to the north and east.  It has been the site of some critical battles.  The last of these was the British General Allenby’s defeat of the Turkish army in 1917.

Thutmose III attacks his enemies

from the temple at Karnak

In 1482 BCE the King of Mitanni was stirring up revolt in Canaan against Egypt.  Pharaoh Thutmose III marched north with his army to put down the rebellion.  The Canaanite forces gathered for battle near Megiddo.  Thutmose took the Canaanites by surprise by choosing the most dangerous but most direct route from the coastal road through the valleys to Megiddo.  The next day the two armies met on the battlefield.  When the Egyptian infantry charged the Canaanites fled and sought refuge in Megiddo.  Instead of pressing their advantage the Egyptian troops took time out to loot the Canaanite camp.  They lost the element of surprise.  It took a seven month siege before Megiddo fell to Thutmose.  Egypt continued to rule Caanaan for the next 300 years and established garrisons in Megiddo and around the country in Gaza, Beit Shean and Afeq.   In an inscription at the Temple of Karnak in Upper Egypt Thutmose recorded that 119 cities in Canaan had bowed down before him. 

Jerusalem

A letter from Tel el-Amarna

In 1887 a peasant woman was digging in the ruins of el-Amarna in Upper Egypt when she came across a pile of palm-sized clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform script in Accadian, the diplomatic language of the Late Bronze Age.  What she had discovered was Egypt’s Foreign Office archive from the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten.  These were mainly letters between the Egyptian administration and their representatives and client kings in Canaan and Amurru (modern Lebanon).  Six of the letters are from Abdi-Heba, the king of Jerusalem, to Pharaoh.  He pleads with Pharaoh to help defend against attacks from neighbouring cities and from nomadic fighters called the Apiru.  One letter opens:

“Say to the king, my lord: Message of Abdi-Heba, your servant. I fall at the feet of my lord 7 times and 7 times.  Consider the entire affair.  Milkilu and Tagi brought troops into Qiltu against me... ...May the king know (that) all the lands are at peace (with one another), but I am at war.  May the king provide for his land. ...”

In 2009, while the archaeologist Eilat Mazar was excavating a gatehouse tower in the wall of First Temple Jerusalem, a small fragment of a clay tablet with fragments of nine lines of Akkadian cuneiform script.  We don’t know for sure but this seems to be a fragment of one of Abdi-Heba’s letters to Pharaoh – a copy perhaps stored in his archive.  You can see it on display in the Davidson Centre in Jerusalem.

Anthropoid coffin from Deir el-Balah:

Hecht Museum, Photo: Hanay

At the entrance to the Archaeology Wing of the Israel Museum there is a group of strange anthropoid coffins from the Late Bronze Age.  They were discovered at Deir el-Balah, a few kilometres south-west of Gaza.  They may have been made for Egyptians but they certainly reflect the influence of Egypt in Canaan at that time.  The Hecht Museum in Haifa also has an anthropoid coffin from this period.

Beit Shean



Inscribed tablet governor's house

Beit Shean. Photo: Yukatan

Mention Beit Shean and most people think of the magnificent remains of Scythopolis, a Roman Byzantine city destroyed by an earthquake in 749.  At the northern edge of the Roman city is Tell el-Husn, the mound of ancient and biblical Beit Shean - an Egyptian regional centre for 300 years.  An Egyptian basalt stele (standing stone) was found here celebrating the defeat by Pharaoh Seti I of a group of Canaanite cities that tried to capture the city in 1318 BCE.  The governor’s house from the time of a later Pharaoh Ramses III was built in Egyptian style from mud bricks.  A bust of the Pharaoh stands in one of the rooms.  Over the doorpost was a stone tablet bearing the name of the governor, Ramse-Weser Khepesh, and his titles.  The stone artefacts on display are copies.  The originals are in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

Timna Valley

Solomon's Pillars Timna Valley

Photo: Chmee2

Copper has been mined in the Timna Valley,in the south west Aravah about 30 km north of Eilat, for over 6,000 years.   In the Late Bronze Age the Egyptians established a sophisticated copper mining and production centre here.  Their mine shafts can still be seen.  Three huge sandstone pillars, known as Solomon’s Pillars, stand near the copper mines.  At their base is a small temple to Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of mining.  The engraved stelae in the temple contain a lot of information about the groups of Egyptians who came to mine here.  Above the temple on the side of one of the sandstone pillars is a carving of Ramses III with Hathor.

A Final Word?

Merneptah Stele
Photo: Webscribe

Mernheptah, the son of Ramses II, reigned from 1213 – 1203 BCE.  He was the last Egyptian king to personally enter Canaan to put down a rebellion.  In 1896 A basalt stone known as the Merneptah Stele was found at the Pharaoh’s burial temple in Thebes in Egypt.  A part of the inscription refers to Mernheptah’s victories during a military campaign in Canaan.  It includes the earliest known reference to Israel.  It reads:

“Canaan is captive with all woe. Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized, Yanoam made nonexistent; Israel is wasted, its seed is no more.”

The scholars tell us that “Israel” here refers to a people, the Ancient Israelites, rather than to a state and that the “seed” refers to its supply of grain.  Even so this is one of many times when our conquerors have underestimated our resilience.  As the Passover Haggadah tells us:

“For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!”

Chag sameach!

Hug a Tree

“It’s Tu B’Shvat.” announced our 3 year old grandson on Wednesday.  “It’s the birthday of the trees” he went on “and it’s Daddy’s birthday too because my Daddy’s like a tree.”  Now it is true that our son-in-law is tall and strong and straight like a tree but what was most important to my grandson at that moment, I think, was that his Daddy’s name is Alon – and Alon is the Hebrew word for an oak tree.

Tu B’Shvat, the Mishna tells us, is the New Year for trees.  It marks the time when most of the winter rain has fallen and the sap is rising in the trees.  It’s a sign that Spring is on its way - a time to celebrate the amazing variety of climates, habitats and species that are found in this small country.

The Land of Israel, says the Bible, is a land of plenty, “a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey”.  Even though 60% of Israel is desert we have here over 2,800 different species of plants and among them many beautiful trees.

The Lone Oak Gush Etzion
Photo Refa'el Danziger

The oak tree is mentioned many times in the Bible.  By the oak trees of Mamre, just north of Hebron, Abraham is visited by G-d and runs to greet three men who turn out to be angels.  Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse is buried under an oak tree near Bethel.  The prophet Isaiah describes the oak as a tree whose stump will regenerate even when it has been cut down.

When the kibbutzim of the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem were overrun and destroyed in 1948 the Jordanians uprooted most of the trees that had been planted there.  An ancient oak tree survived and came to symbolise the yearning to re-establish the kibbutzim and to resettle the Land of Israel.  The tree came to be known as the Lone Oak.  For 19 years people would come to the Israeli-Jordanian border to gaze at it.  It stands now by Alon Shvut.

Coin of Vespasian
Judea Capta

The honey that the Bible mentions as produce of the Land is date honey.  Dates have been domesticated for over 6,000 years.  A source of food, shelter and shade the date palm came to symbolise the kingdom of Judea.  When the Romans destroyed the Temple and put down the Great Revolt in the year 70 AD the emperor Vespasian minted coins inscribed with the words Judea Capta showing a woman sitting forlornly under a palm tree.  The lulav that we wave on Succot is the bud of a date palm leaf that has not yet opened.

Date palm grove, Kalia, Dead Sea
Photo: Sharon Shlomo

During excavations in the 1960’s at the Masada fortress by the Dead Sea date palm seeds were discovered in a jar in one of Herod’s palaces.  Carbon dating showed them to be some 2,000 years old.  In 2005 three of them were treated with fertiliser and hormones and later planted at Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava.  One of them germinated and by the summer of 2010 the sapling had grown to about 2 metres. It is thought to be the oldest seed ever germinated. 

Acacia tree in the Negev
Photo: Mark A Wilson

“They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.”  The Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread and the walls of the Tabernacle itself were all made of acacia wood.  In Israel the acacia can be found on the side of wadis, dry river beds.

Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane
Photo: Chad Rosenthal

When a dove brought back an olive leaf to the Ark Noah knew that the waters of the Great Flood were receding.  Olive oil was used to anoint the kings of Israel.  It was used in sacrifices and to light the Menorah, the candelabrum in the Temple.  It is still used today to light Shabbat and Chanukah lights.  For centuries it has been a major ingredient of the economy and of the diet of people all around the Mediterranean. Olive leaves have a special beauty.  The trees are very hardy and can live to a great age.  It is claimed that some olive trees are as much as 2,000 years old.  Among these are the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

The Psalmist says: “How great are Your works O Lord.  You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of your creations.” 

The writer of the Tanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi wrote:
“All that we see –
The heaven, the Earth, and all that fills it –
All these things
Are the external garments of G-d.”

Like my grandson we should learn to celebrate the birthday of the trees and to understand what a wonderful gift they are.