Yodfat ( he, יוֹדְפַת), is a

moshav shitufi A moshav shitufi ( he, מושב שיתופי, lit. ''collective moshav'', pl. ''moshavim shitufiim'') is a type of cooperative Israeli village, whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation ...

in northern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located in the Lower Galilee, south of Carmiel and in the vicinity of the Atzmon mountain ridge, north of the

Beit Netofa Valley The Beit Netofa Valley ( he, בקעת בית נטופה) is a valley in the Lower Galilee region of Israel, midway between Tiberias and Haifa. Covering 46 km2, it is the largest valley in the mountainous part of the Galilee and one of the lar ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Misgav Regional Council The Misgav Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית משגב, ''Mo'atza Azorit Misgav'' ISO 259-3 ''Moˁaça ʔazorit Miśgabb'') is a regional council in the Galilee region in northern Israel. The regional council is home to 27,421 people, ...

. In it had a population of . Modern Yodfat is named after the Second Temple period town of the same name and is situated to the north of the archaeological tell.''Encyclopedia Judaica'', ''Joptapata'', Keter Publishing, Jerusalem, 1978, volume 10, p. 300. Yodfat was established in 1960 by graduates of the

Hebrew Reali School , motto_translation = ''Walk Humbly'' , address = Hertzel 16 , city = Haifa , zipcode = 3312103 , country = Israel , coordinates = , other_name ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

History

Antiquity

Ancient Yodfat (Jotapata), situated to the south east of the modern moshav, is mentioned in the

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

as a fortified Jewish village dating from the time of

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

, corresponding with the Iron Age.''

The Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

'', (ed.)

Herbert Danby Herbert Danby (20 January 1889 – 29 March 1953) was an Anglican priest and writer who played a central role in the change of attitudes toward Judaism in the first half of the twentieth century. Education Danby was educated at Church Middle Cl ...

, ''Arakhin'
9:6 (p. 553 - note 10)
/ref> "Jotapata may be the same as Jotbah which was the birthplace of Meshullemeth, ... the mother of

Amon Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Momonym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah Given name * Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...

, King of Judah (2 Kgs. 21:19)." Archaeological explorations of the site, however, have thus far revealed a modest village established some time during the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

, between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. As the Hasmonean kings extended their influence into the Galilee during the last decades of the 2nd century BCE, a change of population occurred at Yodfat and the village was populated by Jews. According to the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...

, the town of Yodfat was encompassed by a wall before the Israelite conquest of

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

under

. Greeks called it Iotapata ( grc, Ἰωτάπατα).

First Jewish–Roman War

By the first century CE Yodfat had expanded to encompass an area of 50 dunams (13 acres). Its siege and subsequent destruction in 67 CE are described in Josephus Flavius'

The Wars of the Jews ''The Jewish War'' or ''Judean War'' (in full ''Flavius Josephus' Books of the History of the Jewish War against the Romans'', el, Φλαυίου Ἰωσήπου ἱστορία Ἰουδαϊκοῦ πολέμου πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ...

, his chronicle of the Revolt against the Romans. Led by future emperor

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...

, three

Roman legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period o ...

s — Legio V ''Macedonica'', X ''Fretensis'', and XV ''Apollinaris'' — besieged Yodfat, meeting strong Jewish resistance. After 47 days the city fell by treachery, and Josephus describes the death of 40,000 Jews and the enslavement of 1,200 women and children. Yodfat was razed and burnt on the first of the Hebrew month of

Tammuz Dumuzid or Tammuz ( sux, , ''Dumuzid''; akk, Duʾūzu, Dûzu; he, תַּמּוּז, Tammûz),; ar, تمّوز ' known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd ( sux, , ''Dumuzid sipad''), is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with shep ...

. While a few dozen remaining fighters committed suicide, Josephus managed to survive this pact and was captured by the Romans. After its capture by the Romans, Yodfat was re-established at a nearby site by refugees from

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, among them the priestly family of Miyamin. This town is mentioned in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

as the home of Rabbi Menachem of Jotapata (Zev. 110b). It flourished for another 300 years, before being destroyed once again.

Modern era

Modern Yodfat was established in 1960 by graduates of the

Hebrew Reali School , motto_translation = ''Walk Humbly'' , address = Hertzel 16 , city = Haifa , zipcode = 3312103 , country = Israel , coordinates = , other_name ...

. It is currently an agricultural Jewish community, located about 1 km north-west of the ancient ruins. The modern village was built by traditional Jews, seeking to preserve traditional values in parallel to agricultural work. At first, the village was an observation site of the JNF, while its inhabitants were mostly the JNF employees. Later, the village became an agricultural society, with most of its residents working the nearby lands. By the 1990s, the village turned into a larger communal center, with a larger variety of professions for its residents. Today it includes 200 families. Agricultural community of Yodfat

Economy

In 1968, Yodfat established a flower bulb nursery which exports millions of bulbs throughout the world. The nursery employs forty people and has an R&D facility for developing new hybrids, including the ''

Ornithogalum dubium ''Ornithogalum dubium'', common names sun star, star of Bethlehem or yellow chincherinchee, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. It is a South African (Cape Province) endemic. The Latin specific epi ...

'' and ''

Cyclamen persicum ''Cyclamen persicum'', the Persian cyclamen, is a species of flowering herbaceous perennial plant growing from a tuber, native to rocky hillsides, shrubland, and woodland up to above sea level, from south-central Turkey to Lebanon-Syria and the ...

''. Yodfat's Jerusalem hybrid F1 anemones and Galilee hybrid F1 anemones are hand-pollinated and unique in the cut-flower trade. A short walk from Yodfat there is the "Goats with the Wind farm", a family-run organic

goat cheese Goat cheese, or chèvre ( or ; from French ''fromage de chèvre'' 'goat cheese'), is cheese made from goat's milk. Goats were among the first animals to be domesticated for producing food. Goat cheese is made around the world with a variety ...

farm and restaurant, founded in 1993 by former residents of Yodfat. The farm's walls and buildings were constructed over time out of stones collected from the surrounding area.

Archaeology

Ancient Yodfat was first identified in 1847 by Ernst Gustav Schultz (1811–1851), Egyptologist and Prussian consul in Jerusalem, using the geographical and topographical descriptions provided by Josephus, as well as by the phonetic similarity to the adjacent ruin of ''Khirbet Shifat''. Six excavation seasons were carried out at the site between 1992 and 2000, under the direction of Mordechai Aviam of

Kinneret Academic College The Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: המכללה האקדמית כנרת בעמק הירדן), also known as Kinneret College and Academic Kinneret (As part of rebranding in February 2019), is a college located on the south ...

on behalf of the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...

and the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

. These have revealed remains of fortifications, cisterns and extensive evidence of the large scale battle which took place at Yodfat, including a mass grave containing human remains. The last season ended in November 2020. According to Aviam, the residents poured boiling oil on the Roman soldiers as they climbed the town wall on ladders.When Jews used olive oil as a weapon
Haaretz

References

External links

Yodefat-A Town in Galilee

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ, translit. ''Misrad HaHutz''; ar, وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية) is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministry's ...

Goats with the Wind farm