Eshtemoa Synagogue
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Eshtemoa Synagogue
The Eshtemoa Synagogue, located 15 km south of Hebron in as-Samu, West Bank, refers to the remains of an ancient Jewish synagogue dating from around the 4th–5th century CE. History Eshtemoa, identified as modern as-Samu, was an ancient city named in the Bible (). During Roman and Byzantine period, Eshtemoa was described as a large Jewish village. The Jerusalem Talmud (''Nedarim'' 6:10 - Leiden Ms.) recalls a man who lived there, named Ḥasa of Eshtemoa. Description of synagogue The remains of the synagogue were identified by L. A. Mayer and A. Reifenberg in 1934, in which site they describe a recess in the wall, once used as a Torah Ark ("Heikhal"). In 1969–70, a full excavation of the site under the guidance of Ze'ev Yeivin revealed that the building occupied the most prominent site in the village. Ancillary buildings attached to the synagogue were removed in order to reveal the old structure. The old synagogue was built in "broadhouse" style without columns and meas ...
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West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in Western Asia that forms the main bulk of the Palestinian territories. It is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east and by Israel (see Green Line (Israel), Green Line) to the south, west, and north. Under Israeli occupation of the West Bank, an Israeli military occupation since 1967, its area is split into 165 Palestinian enclaves, Palestinian "islands" that are under total or partial civil administration by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and 230 Israeli settlements into which Israeli law in the West Bank settlements, Israeli law is "pipelined". The West Bank includes East Jerusalem. It initially emerged as a Jordanian-occupied territory after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, before being Jordani ...
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Keter Publishing House
Keter ( he-a, כֶּתֶר, Keter.ogg, link=yes, ''Keṯer'', lit. "crown") also known as Kether, is the topmost of the sephirot of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. Since its meaning is "crown", it is interpreted as both the "topmost" of the Sephirot and the "regal crown" of the Sephirot. It is between Chokhmah and Binah (with Chokhmah on the right and Binah on the left) and it sits above Tiferet. It is usually given three paths, to Chokhmah, Tiferet and Binah. Keter is so sublime, it is called in the Zohar "the most hidden of all hidden things", and is completely incomprehensible to man. It is also described as absolute compassion, and Moses ben Jacob Cordovero describes it as the source of the 13 Supernal Attributes of Mercy. Keter is invisible and colorless. Description According to the book Bahir: "What are the ten utterances? The first is supreme crown, blessed be His name and His people."Arthur Green. Guide to the Zohar The first Sephirah is called the Crown, since a ...
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Biblical Cities
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a variety of forms originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include instructions, stories, poetry, and prophecies, among other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text can vary. The religious texts were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of the Bible. It is called the Torah in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning ''five books'') in Greek; the second oldest part was a colle ...
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4th-century Establishments In The Byzantine Empire
The 4th century (per the Julian calendar and Anno Domini/Common era) was the time period which lasted from 301 ( CCCI) through 400 ( CD). In the West, the early part of the century was shaped by Constantine the Great, who became the first Roman emperor to adopt Christianity. Gaining sole reign of the empire, he is also noted for re-establishing a single imperial capital, choosing the site of ancient Byzantium in 330 (over the current capitals, which had effectively been changed by Diocletian's reforms to Milan in the West, and Nicomedeia in the East) to build the city soon called Nova Roma (New Rome); it was later renamed Constantinople in his honor. The last emperor to control both the eastern and western halves of the empire was Theodosius I. As the century progressed after his death, it became increasingly apparent that the empire had changed in many ways since the time of Augustus. The two emperor system originally established by Diocletian in the previous century fell in ...
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Mosques Converted From Synagogues
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (sujud) are performed, including outdoor courtyards. The first mosques were simple places of prayer for Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than buildings. In the first stage of Islamic architecture, 650-750 CE, early mosques comprised open and closed covered spaces enclosed by walls, often with minarets from which calls to prayer were issued. Mosque buildings typically contain an ornamental niche (''mihrab'') set into the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca (''qiblah''), ablution facilities. The pulpit (''minbar''), from which the Friday (jumu'ah) sermon (''khutba'') is delivered, was in earlier times characteristic of the central city mosque, but has since become common in smaller mosques. Mosques typically have segregated spaces for men and w ...
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Synagogues In The West Bank
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish language, Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino language, Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Judaism, Jewish house of worship. Synagogues have a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller Chapel, chapels), where Jews attend religious Services or special ceremonies (including Wedding, Weddings, Bar Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvahs or Bat Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvahs, Confirmation, Confirmations, choir performances, or even children's plays), have Beth midrash, rooms for study, social hall(s), administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious school and Hebrew school, sometimes Jewish preschool, preschools, and often have many places to sit and congregate; display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork throughout; and sometimes have items of some Jewish historical significance or history about the Synagog ...
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Archaeological Sites In The West Bank
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. It is usually considered an independent academic discipline, but may also be classified as part of anthropology (in North America – the four-field approach), history or geography. Archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology is distinct from palaeontology, which is the study of fossil remains. Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for which, by definition, there are no written records. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of ...
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Ancient Synagogues In The Land Of Israel
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progress. While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood at ...
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Salah A-Din
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, Ayyubid territorial control spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, the Maghreb, and Nubia. Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a military general of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate in 1164, on the orders of Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader as ...
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Mihrab
Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla wall". The ''minbar'', which is the raised platform from which an imam (leader of prayer) addresses the congregation, is located to the right of the mihrab. Etymology The origin of the word ''miḥrāb'' is complicated and multiple explanations have been proposed by different sources and scholars. It may come from Old South Arabian (possibly Sabaic) ''mḥrb'' meaning a certain part of a palace, as well as "part of a temple where ''tḥrb'' (a certain type of visions) is obtained," from the root word ''ḥrb'' "to perform a certain religious ritual (which is compared to combat or fighting and described as an overnight retreat) in the ''mḥrb'' of the temple." It may also possibly be related to Ethiopic ''məkʷrab'' "temple, sanctua ...
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Muslim Conquest Of Syria
The Muslim conquest of the Levant ( ar, فَتْحُ الشَّام, translit=Feth eş-Şâm), also known as the Rashidun conquest of Syria, occurred in the first half of the 7th century, shortly after the rise of Islam."Syria." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 October 200Syria – Britannica Online Encyclopedia/ref> As part of the larger military campaign known as the early Muslim conquests, the Levant was brought under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate and developed into the provincial region of Bilad al-Sham. The presence of Arab Muslims, Arab Muslim troops on the southern Levantine borders of the Byzantine Empire had occurred during the lifetime of Muhammad, with the Battle of Mu'tah, Battle of Muʿtah in 629 formally marking the start of the Arab–Byzantine wars. However, the actual conquest did not begin until 634, two years after Muhammad's death. It was led by the first two Rashidun, Rashidun caliphs who succeeded Muhammad: Abu Bakr and ...
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Rockefeller Museum
The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), and which before then housed The Imperial Museum of Antiquities (''Müze-i Hümayun''; 1901–1917), is an archaeology museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ... located in East Jerusalem that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in the region of Palestine, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. With the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the Palestine Archaeological Museum was renamed "Rockefeller Museum", and it has since then been under the management of the Israel Museum. The museum today houses the head office of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The Museum's most priced collection, the Dead Sea S ...
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