Aseret ( he, עֲשֶׂרֶת) is a community settlement on the coastal plain of south-central Israel. Located near

Gedera Gedera, or less commonly known as Gdera ( he, גְּדֵרָה), is a town in the southern part of the Shfela region in the Central District of Israel founded in 1884. It is south of Rehovot. In , it had a population of . History Gedera ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Gederot Regional Council Gederot Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית גדרות, ''Mo'atza Azorit Gderot'') is a regional council (Israel), regional council in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It is located between Ashdod, Yavne and Ged ...

. It was founded in 1954 on the ruins of the depopulated Palestinian village of

Bashshit Bashshayt ( ar, بشيت), also Beshshayt, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located southwest of Ramla about half a mile from wadi Bashshit. Archaeological artifacts from the village attest to habitation in the Early Is ...

. The word "Aseret" means ten, and the community is named after the ten members of Bilu who founded Gedera. In its population was .

History

Historical map series for the area of Bashshit (1940s with modern overlay)

Aseret was founded in 1954 as the municipal center of Gederot Regional Council. It continues to serve this function today. Aseret is the center, both geographically and municipally, of the other six communities in the council:

Meishar Meishar ( he, מֵישָׁר) is a moshav in south-central Israel. Located in the Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain near Gedera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gederot Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The moshav was ...

, Misgav Dov, Kfar Aviv,

Kfar Mordechai Kfar Mordechai ( he, כְּפַר מָרְדְּכַי) is a moshav in central Israel. Located about 30 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, between Ashdod, Gedera and Yavne, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gederot Regional Council. In it had a popu ...

Shdema Shdema ( he, שְׁדֵמָה) is a moshav in south-central Israel. Located near Gedera in the coastal plain, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gederot Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The moshav was founded in 1954 to abs ...

and Gan HaDarom. Aseret was built on the lands of

, a Palestinian village depopulated in the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

. There is an old tomb associated with

Seth Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...

, the son of

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

in the Hebrew Bible. According to scholars of the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study ...

, the name Bashshit was derived from ''Beit Shit'', meaning the "house of Seth.

(PEF), 1838
p. 84
The tomb lies within a triple-domed mosque located on the side of a hill.

References

{{Gederot Community settlements Populated places in Central District (Israel) Populated places established in 1954 1954 establishments in Israel