Kfar Baram synagogue ( he, כְּפַר בַּרְעָם), also Kafar Berem synagogue, is the ruins of two ancient Jewish synagogues at the site of
Kafr Bir'im
Kafr Bir'im, also Kefr Berem ( ar, كفر برعم, he, כְּפַר בִּרְעָם), was a former village in Mandatory Palestine, located in modern-day northern Israel, south of the Lebanese border and northwest of Safed. The village was s ...
, a
depopulated Palestinian village which in medieval times was the Jewish village of Kfar Bar'am. Today, it is located 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 ...
, 3 kilometers from the Lebanese border.
The façade of the 3rd-century synagogue faces south, towards Jerusalem, as the custom of most synagogues, and was replete with a covered
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
containing six stone columns.
It was first identified as a synagogue in modern times in 1852 – along with other similar remains in Galilee – by
Edward Robinson in his ''
Biblical Researches in Palestine
''Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea'' (1841 edition), also ''Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions'' (1856 edition), was a Travelogues of Ottoman Palestine, travelogue of 19th-century Palestine an ...
''.
Etymology
The name is often assumed to mean "Son of the People," incorporating the
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
word ''bar'' בר, meaning "son" and the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
word ''am'' עם meaning "people". However, if like at
Shfar'am
Shefa-Amr, also Shfar'am ( ar, شفاعمرو, Šafāʻamr, he, שְׁפַרְעָם, Šəfarʻam) is an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In it had a population of , with a Sunni I ...
, both elements are Hebrew, the name could derive from a literary Hebrew word בר indicating cleanliness, purity, pristineness and wholesomeness - "The wholesome people" or "wholesomeness of the people".
History
Kafr Bir'im
Kafr Bir'im, also Kefr Berem ( ar, كفر برعم, he, כְּפַר בִּרְעָם), was a former village in Mandatory Palestine, located in modern-day northern Israel, south of the Lebanese border and northwest of Safed. The village was s ...
was established in ancient times. According to Jewish tradition,
Pinchas ben Yair
Pinchas ben Yair ( he, פנחס בן יאיר) was a '' Tanna'' of the 4th generation who lived, probably at Lod, in the late 2nd century. He was the father-in-law of Shimon bar Yochai and a fellow disciple of Judah haNasi. He was more celebrat ...
(2nd-century
CE) was buried in Kfar Bir'im. After a period of Muslim inhabitation, by the 19th century the village was entirely Christian, comprising
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
s and
Melkite
The term Melkite (), also written Melchite, refers to various Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite and their members originating in the Middle East. The term comes from the common Central Semitic Semitic root, ro ...
s.
[Robinson and Smith, 1856, pp]
68
71 A
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
on the site, the
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
church, was in regular use.
The village was badly damaged in the
Galilee earthquake of 1837
The Galilee earthquake of 1837, often called the Safed earthquake, shook the Galilee on January 1 and is one of a number of moderate to large events that have occurred along the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system that marks the boundary of t ...
. The local church and a row of columns and other standing remains of the ancient synagogue were thrown to the ground.
Along with other such structures in the Galilee, the ruins were first identified as a synagogue in modern times in 1852 by
Edward Robinson in his ''
Biblical Researches in Palestine
''Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea'' (1841 edition), also ''Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions'' (1856 edition), was a Travelogues of Ottoman Palestine, travelogue of 19th-century Palestine an ...
''.
Robinson wrote of his visit to
Kafr Bir'im
Kafr Bir'im, also Kefr Berem ( ar, كفر برعم, he, כְּפַר בִּרְעָם), was a former village in Mandatory Palestine, located in modern-day northern Israel, south of the Lebanese border and northwest of Safed. The village was s ...
:
As these remains were the first of the kind that we had yet seen; and were of a style of architecture utterly unknown to us ; we were at a loss for some time what to make of them. They were evidently neither Greek nor Roman. The inscription, if authentic, obviously marks both structures as of Jewish origin ; and as such, they could only have been synagogues. We were, however, not satisfied on this point, until we found at Meirôn the same species of architecture, in the acknowledged remains of an ancient Jewish synagogue. We afterwards found the ruins of like structures at Irbid
Irbid ( ar, إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of the Irbid Governorate. It also has the second largest metropolitan population in ...
, Tell Hum, Kedes, and perhaps other places in Galilee; all marked with the same architectural peculiarities. The size, the elaborate sculptured ornament, and the splendour of these edifices, do not belong to a scattered and down-trodden people ; such as the Jews have been in these regions ever since the fourth century. These costly synagogues, therefore, can be referred only to the earlier centuries of the Christian era ; when Galilee was the chief seat of the Jews ; and Jewish learning and schools flourished at Tiberias. All these circumstances would seem to mark a condition of prosperity and wealth and influence among the Jews of Galilee in that age, of which neither their own historians, nor any other, have given us any account.
The village was captured October 31, 1948 by the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
during
operation Hiram
Operation Hiram was a military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was led by General Moshe Carmel, and aimed at capturing the Upper Galilee region from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) forces ...
and the villagers forced to leave. In 1949, due to frequent cross-border infiltration, they were barred from returning to the border zone. On June 16, 1949,
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
Bar'am
Bar'am ( he, בַּרְעָם, ''lit.'' Son of the People), sometimes spelled as Baram, is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located approximately 300 meters from Israel's border with Lebanon near the ruins of the ancient Jewish village of Kfar Bar' ...
was founded nearby by
demobilized
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...
Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
soldiers.
Archaeology
![29](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/29.Ruines_d%27une_synagogue_a_Kefr-Berim.jpg)
The Kfar Bar'am synagogue is preserved up to the second story and has been restored. The architecture is similar to that of other synagogues in the Galilee built 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 cente ...
ic period. In 1522, Rabbi Moses Basula wrote that the synagogue belonged to
Simeon bar Yochai
Shimon bar Yochai ( Zoharic Aramaic: שמעון בר יוחאי, ''Shim'on bar Yoḥai'') or Shimon ben Yochai (Mishnaic Hebrew: שמעון בן יוחאי, ''Shim'on ben Yoḥai''), also known by the acronym Rashbi, was a 2nd-century ''tannaiti ...
, who survived the Second Jewish War in 132-135 CE (the
Bar-Kochba
Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא, translit= Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ ; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא, translit=Šīmʾōn bar ...
revolt). Archaeologists, however, have concluded that the building was built at least a century later. According to another tradition, the synagogue was built in honor of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and bore his name. Israeli archaeologist Lipa Sukenik (1889–1953), who was instrumental in establishing the Department of Archaeology at the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
, excavated a relief in one of the synagogues in 1928, and dated the Bar’am synagogue to the 3rd century CE.
The synagogue is made of basalt stone, standard for most buildings in the area, and its façade faces south, towards Jerusalem, as the custom of most synagogues. The six-column portico is unusual. The front entrance of the synagogue has three doorways that face
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. In front of the entrance are some of the (originally eight) columns with Attic bases which supported a porch. There is an inscription under the right window on the facade, which reads: "Banahu Elazar bar Yodan", which means "Elazar bar Yodan built it". Elazar bar Yodan is a
Jewish Aramaic
Judaeo-Aramaic languages represent a group of Hebrew-influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages.
Early use
Aramaic, like Hebrew, is a Northwest Semitic language, and the two share many features. From the 7th century BCE, Aramaic became the ...
name. The interior of the synagogue was divided by rows of columns into three aisles and an ambulatory.
An unusual feature in an ancient synagogue is the presence of three-dimensional sculpture, a pair of stone lions. A similar pair of three-dimensional lions was found at
Chorazin
Chorazin ( gr, Χοραζίν ; also Chorazain) or Korazim ( he, כורזים; also Chorizim) was an ancient village in the Roman and Byzantine periods, best known from the Christian Gospels. It stood on the Korazim Plateau in the Upper Galilee on ...
. A carved frieze features a winged victory and images of animals and, possibly, human figures.
There was a second, smaller synagogue, but little of it was found. A lintel from this smaller synagogue is at the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
. The Hebrew inscription on the lintel reads, ''"Peace be upon the place, and on all the places of Israel."
[Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world: toward a new Jewish archaeology, Steven Fine, Cambridge University Press, 2005, Chapter 1, ''Building an Ancient Synagogue on the Delaware,'' pp. 12-21]
In 1901, publication of photos of the ancient synagogue led the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia, (now the
Albert Einstein Medical Center
The Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia is a non-profit hospital located in NorthPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania. The hospital is a part of the Einstein Healthcare Network. The medical center offers residency and fellowship training programs in many ...
,) to erect a synagogue, the
Henry S. Frank Memorial Synagogue, inspired by Bar'am and other ancient Israeli synagogues. The hospital's synagogue replicated the round arch of the door of the standing ruin and the lintel from the smaller synagogue that is now in the Louvre.
[Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world: toward a new Jewish archaeology, Steven Fine, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 13-14]
See also
*
Ancient synagogues in the Palestine region
**
Ancient synagogues in Israel
Ancient synagogues in Israel refers to synagogues in the modern State of Israel, built by the Jewish and Samaritan communities from antiquity to the Early Islamic period.
The designation ancient synagogues in Israel requires careful definition. ...
*
Archaeology of Israel
The archaeology of Israel is the study of the archaeology of the present-day Israel, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. The ancient Land of Israel was a geographical bridge between the political and cultu ...
*
Bar'am National Park
*
Oldest synagogues in the world
Historic synagogues include synagogues that date back to ancient times and synagogues that represent the earliest Jewish presence in cities around the world. Some synagogues were destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site. Others wer ...
Bibliography
*
References
External links
Bar'am synagogue (Talmudic period)article written by Jacqueline Schaalje, from Jewish Magazine, June 2001 Edition
Bar’am National Park, an ancient synagogue and a Maronite churchCoexistence - Kafar Berem{Dead link, date=February 2020 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes article written by Hanna F. Farah
Archaeological sites in Israel
Ancient synagogues in the Land of Israel
Esther
History of Purim