Mosaic of Rehob

The Mosaic of Reḥob, also known as the Tel Rehov inscription and Baraita of the Boundaries, is a late 3rd–6th century CE mosaic discovered in 1973, inlaid in the floor of the foyer or narthex of an ancient synagogue near Tel Rehov, south of Beit She'an and about west of the Jordan River, containing the longest written text hitherto discovered in any mosaic in the Land of Israel, and also the oldest known Talmudic text.

Unlike other mosaics found in the region, the Reḥob mosaic has very little in the form of ornate design and symmetric patterns, but is unique due to its inscription, acclaimed by scholars to be one of the most important epigraphical findings discovered in Israel in the last century. Its text sheds invaluable light on the historical geography (toponymy) of Palestine during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, as well as on Jewish and non-Jewish ethnographic divisions in Palestine for the same periods and their relation to one another, specifically, on agricultural produce cultivated by farmers, and the extent of Jewish law regulating the use of such farm products grown in different regions. These eight regions are: the area of Scythopolis (modern-day Beit She'an) and the Jordan valley (the longest paragraph), Susita (Hippos) and its neighbouring settlements on the east bank of the Sea of Galilee, Naveh ( Nawā) in the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, Tyre and its neighbouring cities to the south, and the Land of Israel proper, dealt with in the second-longest paragraph, followed by the cities of Paneas and Caesarea, finishing with villages from the vicinity of Sebaste.Ben David, Chaim (2011), pp. 231-240

By delineating the boundaries of the Land of Israel, it seeks to establish the legal status of the country in its various parts from the time of Israel's return from the Babylonian captivity, and whether or not local farm products acquired by Jews from other Jews, or from gentiles and Samaritans, are exempt or obligated in what concerns the laws of Seventh Year produce, and of '' demai'' produce. The mosaic also describes different kinds of fruits and vegetables that were cultivated in the country at the time, and the laws which applied to them at the time.

History

A Late Roman and Byzantine-period Jewish village located about one kilometre (half mile) northwest of Tel Rehov has preserved the old name in the form of Rehov (Hebrew) or ''Roob''/''Roōb'' (Latin). Mazar, A. (1999)Onomasticon (1971), "Roōb" (entry No. 766)Marcellius, R.P. Henricus (n.d.), p. 469 (s.v. Roob)

According to excavator F. Vitto, the village synagogue underwent three phases of construction and reconstruction: first built as a basilical hall in the 4th century CE, it was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in the following century, with the addition of a bemah, of a new mosaic floor and a plaster coating for the walls and pillars, decorated with several inscriptions; and the last phase, dating to the 6th or 7th century CE, when the narthex was added on whose floor the halakhic inscription was laid. Others put the creation of the halakhic inscription in the late 3rd century CE at the earliest. The synagogue was probably abandoned after being destroyed in an earthquake.Alexandre, Yardenna (2017)

The site of the ancient Jewish village was later taken by the Palestinian village of Farwana, documented at least since the Ottoman period, and depopulated during the 1948 war. Kibbutz Ein HaNetziv was established in 1946 on land including the ancient site.

The remains of the ancient synagogue were first discovered by members of Kibbutz Ein HaNetziv while preparing their lands for cultivation in the late 1960s. An archaeological excavation of the site in 1973, led by a team under IAA's Fanny Vitto, revealed the mosaic and its content, which has been on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem since 1978.

Description of mosaic

The mosaic pieces are made of black limestone tesserae contrasted against a white background, measuring , with an accompanying text written on 29 lines, comprising a total of 364 words, with an average length of to each line. It begins with the salutation, "Shalom" – Peace!, followed by a long halakhic text, and ends with the salutation, "Shalom," followed by an appendix where it lists some eighteen towns in the vicinity of Sebaste (the ancient city of Samaria) whose fruits and vegetables were exempt from tithes and the stringencies applied to Seventh Year produce. There is little uniformity in the size of the letters, while the spelling of some words is faulty. Portions of the main text contain elements that are related to late second-century rabbinic literature, particularly that found in the Tosefta (''Shevi'it'' 4:8–11), the Jerusalem Talmud (''Demai'' 2:1; ''Shevi'it'' 6:1) and Sifrei on Deuteronomy 11:24, although the mosaic of Reḥob expands on aspects of each. Some scholars have raised the hypothesis that the content of the mosaic was copied from a letter sent by the Sages of Israel to the heads of the synagogue. The more ancient text in the Reḥob mosaic has been used to correct errors in transmission of extant rabbinic texts.

Of especial interest to philologists, the system of spelling in the mosaic follows the Beth-Shean practice of enunciation, where ''ʻayin'' () is often interchanged with ''aleph'' (), and ''ḥet'' () is often interchanged with ''he'' (), just as it is alluded to in the Jerusalem Talmud (''Berakhot'' 2:4)

Legal (''halakhic'') background

The text in the Reḥob mosaic can only be understood in the context of Jewish law at the time, which required the tithing of agricultural produce six years out of a seven-year cycle, as well as the observance of Seventh Year law strictures on the same produce once in every seven years. This, too, was contingent upon lands that had been settled by returning Jews from the Babylonian captivity. The underlying principle in Jewish law states that when the Jewish exiles returned from the Babylonian captivity in the 4th century BCE, the extent of territories resettled by them in Galilee and in Judea did not equal nor exceed the territory originally conquered by Israel at the time of Joshua, more commonly referred to as "those who came-up from Egypt." The practical bearing of this restructuring of boundaries (although still part of the biblical Land of Israel proper) meant that places then settled by non-Jewish residents in the land (whether Phoenicians, Syrians, Grecians, or otherwise) and not taken by Israel were not deemed as consecrated land and, therefore, fruits and vegetables grown in such places and purchased by Jews were exempt from the laws of tithing, and of Seventh Year restrictions. However, if fruits and vegetables were purchased by gentile vendors from Israelites in their respective places and transported into these non-consecrated places in order to be sold in the marketplaces, they were still made subject to tithing as '' demai''-produce by prospective Jewish buyers. The fruits and vegetables mentioned in the Reḥob mosaic with respect to Beit She'an (as detailed in the Jerusalem Talmud) were not locally grown in Beit She'an, but were transported there from places settled by Israel. Beit She'an was a frontier city along the country's eastern front with Transjordan, and since it was not initially settled by Israelites upon their return from Babylon, although later Israelites had joined the local inhabitants, all home-grown fruits and vegetables there were made exempt from tithing in the days of Rabbi Judah HaNasi. Rabbi Judah HaNasi also made Beit Gubrin exempt from tithes and from the seventh-year observance, since that stretch of country had been settled by the Idumaeans (Esau's descendants) when the people of Israel returned from the Babylonian captivity.

Translation of ancient text

rustics or in some cases non-Jews, who had bought them from Jewish planters in other regions of the country to be sold in the marketplace of Beit She'an. To this list can be added the special fruits peculiar to the Hebrew nation and mentioned in Mishnah ''Demai'' 2:1, if perchance they were acquired by a Jew from his fellow co-religionist who was unskillful in the laws of his countymen, such as a cultivar of dates grown only in Israel, cakes of dried figs that were prepared strictly in Israel, and carob-fruit of a quality found only in Israel. In this case, they too would require the removal of the tithe known as ''demai''. All other fruits and vegetables cultivated in Beit She'an would have been exempt from tithing altogether, seeing that when Rabbi Judah HaNasi permitted the eating of vegetables in the Seventh Year in Beit She'an, it was one and the same enactment, namely, the release from the Seventh Year obligations and the release from tithing all produce throughout the remaining six years of the seven-year cycle.]

[Excursus: The import of detailing the above frontier towns and villages was to show the boundaries of the Land of Israel as retained by the Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity. Where agricultural produce was prohibited unto Jews living in these areas, this implies that these places were originally part of those places settled by the Returnees from Babylon, and that since the land was consecrated by their arrival in those parts, all fruits and vegetables were prohibited until the time that they could be tithed, and the land was required to lie fallow during the Seventh Year. However, where the places were designated as "dubious," this is explained in the Tosefta (''Shevi'it'' 4:8) as meaning that initially these places were permitted (as there was no requirement to tithe produce grown in these places), but later the Sages of Israel made all fruits and vegetables in these places prohibited until they were first tithed. This may have been the result of produce being brought into these towns and villages from regions liable to tithing and sold there, or else it was not clear unto the Sages if these places had actually been settled by the people of Israel who returned from Babylon. In any case, the practice is to behave stringently with regard to such produce.]

Regulation of produce between Achziv (Chezib) and Tyre

The maritime city of Akko (Ptolemais), and the river south of Achziv (Chezib), a small coastal town ca. north of Acre, according to the Mishnah (''Demai'' 1:3 and ''Gittin'' 1:2), were the extent of the northern boundary settled by Jews returning from the Babylonian captivity in the days of Ezra. Produce locally grown in the country beyond Achziv was exempt from the rules of ''demai''-produce, but if purchased from Achziv itself, it required tithing. Although the towns and villages (in what follows here) were traditionally outside of the territorial bounds occupied by Jews returning from Babylonia, still, these cities attracted Jewish settlement. In addition, fruits and vegetables grown in the Land of Israel were often transported northward, along the route known as the Promontory of Tyre (Heb. סולמות של צור). Israelites who frequented these areas, or who had moved there, were likely to buy fruits that had not been properly tithed in Israel, or had been marketed during the Sabbatical Year. The emphasis on the regulation of agricultural produce obtained by Israel in the following northern areas, or, as the Rehob inscription says, "what an Israelite has purchased" in those parts, was because of its doubtful nature.

Boundary of the Land of Israel in the 4th c. BCE

The following frontier cities once marked the boundary of the Land of Israel, or the extent of places repopulated after the return from Babylonian exile. In a broader sense, the list of frontier towns and villages herein named represent the geographical limits of regulations imposed upon all agricultural produce, making them fully liable to tithing and to sabbatical-year restrictions within that same border, or, in the event of being purchased from the common people of the land, to separate therefrom only the '' demai''-tithe. As one moved further east of Achziv, the border extended northward, into what are now portions of south Lebanon, and as far east as places in the present-day Kingdom of Jordan. While the settlements here named reflect a historical reality, bearing heavily on Jewish legal law (Halacha), they did not always reflect a political reality, insofar that the political borders and demographics have since changed owing to a long history of occupiers and conquerors.

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