Ancient Land of Israel History: 2016

Monday, December 5, 2016

King David’s Descendents Making Case to Reclaim Ownership of Temple Mount

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz August 1, 2016 , 10:30 am

Then Shlomo began to build the house of Hashem at Yerushalayim in mount Moriah, where [Hashem] appeared unto David his father; for which provision had been made in the Place of David, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. II Chronicles 3:1 (The Israel Bible™)

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(Breaking Israel News/Shutterstock)

In another manifestation of Biblical precepts interacting with modern life, a private foundation representing the descendants of King David recently launched a lawsuit presenting a legal claim to ownership of the Temple Mount.

While their claim is legally sound and verifiable, it faces significant political hurdles. One of the suit’s beneficiaries, who claims descent from the Davidic Dynasty, is ready for the legal battle but cautiously pragmatic.

This story has simple beginnings. In 2004, Dr. Boruch Fishman, then a recent immigrant to Israel from America, went to tour the tomb of Samuel the prophet north of Jerusalem, which led to a chance meeting with Israel Aurbach, the owner of a nearby farm. Inspired by the Biblical roots of the setting, they began to discuss the link between the House of David and the Temple Mount. They noted that King David purchased the site, originally for a simple altar.

So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto Hashem, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. II Samuel 24:24-25

The pair concluded that since the site was originally the property of King David, and no one else has legally purchased it in the interim, the Temple Mount should have been passed along as an inheritance to his male descendants.

As a result of the discussion, Dr. Fishman hit upon the idea of creating a legal entity to represent all the descendants of King David. Anyone who could prove male lineage from the house of David would have a legal claim to inherit the Temple as property. Dr. Fishman established a foundation to advance the claim of Temple Mount ownership by King David’s descendants, naming it Canfei Nesharim L’maan Hakahal (Wings of Eagles for the Assembly).

At present, the legal entity created by Dr. Fishman represents two claimants who have genealogical records documenting their lineage back to King David through male descendants.

Genealogy from the Royal House of David can be traced through oral tradition, rabbinic sources, historical data and extensive research. Several families claim descent “ben akhar ben” (father to son) in a direct line, most notably the Dayan, Shealtiel and Charlap/Don Yechia families. The descendants of King David are believed to have settled in Aleppo, Syria, so most claimants trace their lineage back to that city. An online project has been set up to maintain a list of these claimants.

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By definition of the foundation, any other all male descendants of King David who wishes to join the suit can do so at any time.

Breaking Israel News asked the foundation’s lawyer, Baruch Ben Yosef, about the strength of their case.

“Surprisingly, the Temple Mount is not listed in Israel Land Authority,” Ben Yosef explained.

Ben Yosef is referring to an aspect of land ownership in Israel, where less than ten percent of land in Israel is privately owned. Over 90 percent of the property in Israel is owned by the Israeli government, via the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Israel Lands Administration. When land is purchased in Israel, it must be registered with these authorities and is, essentially, a long-term lease. Since the Temple Mount is not registered under these authorities, it can be considered privately owned.

“The fact that it is under the authority of the Waqf or Jordan is not a legal claim to ownership. It is a temporary condition based on power and not a valid legal claim,” Ben Yosef said. “You would think that the State of Israel owns it, but by not registering it, they have clearly expressed they don’t have an interest in owning it.

“Since it can be privately owned, the people who claim lineage to King David have a legal claim,” Ben Yosef concluded. “If we make a claim in court, the court would have to disprove the claim. The burden of proof would be on them. But in the meantime, the Land Authority won’t do anything without a court order from the High Court.”

Mitch Dayan claims descent from King David. (Courtesy)

Breaking Israel News contacted one of the litigants represented by the legal entity. Mordechai Mitchell Dayan from Chicago has verifiably traced his family lineage back 87 generations via male descendants to King David.

“A militant takeover of the Temple Mount is certainly not my goal,” prefaced Dayan. “You don’t have to establish that we legally own the land in order to bring Messiah. We also have to deal with world opinion and the opinion of the Israeli government in a realistic manner.”

World opinion contradicts his claim. UNESCO has denied any historical Jewish ties to the site. Dayan felt that the obstacle preventing the Jews from taking their rightful place on the Temple Mount had little to do with the justification of his claim.

“It is universally accepted that King David purchased the Temple Mount,” he said, clarifying, “Well, everywhere except the United Nations.”

Dayan acknowledged that on that basis, he has a valid legal claim and, as a religious Jew, his interests are for the good of the Jewish people. Nonetheless, he feels the question is not one of legality, but of political interests.

“Who is going to judge this? Who do I make my claim to? Even if I wanted to make this claim, the High Court of Israel doesn’t want to hear this. The State of Israel doesn’t want to hear this. The world is willing to lie about it. My entire ancestry has been wronged, but there is no court I can take this to.”

Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/73044/descendants-king-david-still-temple-mount/#ve6s9Pztihi8uz13.99

First Temple-Era Gate Shrine Unearthed in Israel [PHOTOS]

By Jonathan Benedek September 28, 2016 , 1:30 pm

“Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Hashem as in the days of old and as in ancient years.” Malachi 3:4 (The Israel Bible™)

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The Tel Lachish National Park and the gate structure (left) that was exposed. (Guy Fitoussi, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Archaeologists have unearthed a city-gate and shrine dating to the First Temple Era.

An Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) team headed by Sa’ar Ganor discovered the ruins in the Tel Lachish National Park.

“Tel Lachish was the most important city in Judea, after Jerusalem,” Ganor told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “This is the biggest city-gate we have found in the Land of Israel.”

Sa’ar Ganor, an archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority (Hillel Maeir/TPS)

“The size of the gate is consistent our historical and archaeological data that indicates Lachish was a major city and the most important one after Jerusalem,” Ganor said.

The city gate is approximately 24 by 24 meters in area and contains six chambers, three on each side of the main city street. Ganor said the size of the gate, as well as the discovery of engraved benches, appears to match the Biblical narrative.

Findings found at the Tel Lachish site. (Hillel Maeir/TPS)

“The city gate was the place where ‘everything’ took place: City elders, judges, governors, kings and officials – everyone would sit on benches in the city gate,” explained Ganor.

Researchers also discovered a wealth of smaller artifacts, including dozens of pottery jars, utensils (scoops) and ancient bowls. “On the handles of the jars we found ancient government seals written in ancient Hebrew script. One of the stamps was inscribed with the letters “lmlk hbrn,” or “To the King of Hebron.” Another read “lnhm avadi,” translated as “to Nachum, my servant,” who was a city official during the reign of King Hezekiah.”

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The city-gate was large enough to have included an ancient shrine as well. Archaeologists found a staircase leading to a two rooms, one of which included a bench that served as a religious altar while the second was apparently a “Holy of Holies.”

The excavation team also discovered additional details indicating a desecration of the shrine, possibly by King Hezekiah.

The excavation work in the gate-shrine that was exposed. The altar with its truncated horns is visible in the center of the frame. (Saʽar Ganor, Israel Antiquities Authority.)

“Inside the Holy of Holies, we found two altars with four truncated horns,” shared Ganor. “King Hezekiah broke the horns when implementing religious reform as he pushed for everyone to only perform Temple rituals in the Temple in Jerusalem.”

“There was also a toilet in the room,” he added. “We know in the Bible that the sanctity of such shrines was desecrated by placing a toilet in the holy of holies.”

Toilet placed at the shrine to desecrate its holiness. (Hillel Maeir/TPS)

Ganor was also exposed to a war scene from the past, depicted from the discovery of weaponry used in battles between King Hezekiah’s forces and the Assyrian King Sennacherib’s massive invading army that managed to destroy the gate in 701 BCE.

“We found arrowheads and other weapons showing that there was face-to-face fighting between Hezekiah and Sennacherib,” Ganor said to TPS. “It’s like taking the Bible and holding it in your hands.”

Michael Bachner contributed to this article.

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Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/76457/first-temple-era-gate-shrine-unearthed-israel-photos/#QbXoU0xCv6jHiM8T.99

You Won’t Believe Where the Oldest-Known Carving of the Ten Commandments Is Found

By Tsivya Fox September 23, 2016 , 7:00 am

“And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even the ten words; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:13 (The Israel Bible™)

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Los Lunas Decalogue Stone with ten commandments written in Paleo-Hebrew, located in New Mexico. (Wikimedia Commons)

It may surprise many people to learn that the oldest known Ten Commandments written in Hebrew on stone may not be in the Holy Land, but in America. The controversial carving resides west of Los Lunas, New Mexico at the bottom of a place called Hidden Mountain. Named the Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, it is also known as “Mystery Stone”, “Phoenician Inscription Rock”, or “Mystery Rock”. It contains the text of the Ten Commandments written in ancient Paleo-Hebrew.

“Paleo-Hebrew predates our modern style of Hebrew writing,” Roni Segal, the academic adviser for eTeacher, an online language academy, explained to Breaking Israel News. “This form of Hebrew writing was used for approximately one thousand years and fell into disuse around 500 BC.”

The 80-ton boulder on which the writings were carved is so large that it may have been in its present-day location since the time of King Solomon, who ruled from 1014 BC to 974 BC. “The more square-like Hebrew script used today came into common use after King Solomon’s reign,” continued Segal. “Since the writing on this stone is in Paleo-Hebrew script, archaeologists surmise that this stone dates back to Biblical times.”

During King Solomon’s rule, it is known that the Israelites maintained reverence for the Ten commandments and wrote with Paleo-Hebrew characters. As the Hidden Mountain site was accessible by ship in ancient times, it is plausible that the Israelites landed there during their voyages.

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King Solomon was an affluent and powerful king whose monarchy was marked by many years of peace. He is considered “the wisest of all men” who ordered sea voyages around the world to satisfy his curiosity about all things near and far. In addition, it is possible that the Israelites had been sent to the Hidden Mountain to find raw materials for King Solomon’s vast building projects, which included the building of the first Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

And Hiram sent his men–sailors who knew the sea–to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. 1 Kings 9: 26-27

Harvard scholar Robert Pfeiffer, an expert in Semitic languages, confirmed the Paleo-Hebrew script and translated the writings as the Ten Commandments which include, “I am the Lord, thy God, who brought you out of the land” and “Thou shalt have no other gods”.

The stone is not without detractors. Professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University, Kenneth Feder has declared that “the stone is almost certainly a fake” as it seems to make use of some modern Hebrew punctuation and contains numerous stylistic and grammatical errors.
The late professor and archaeologist Frank Hibben was the first to mention the stone in 1933. He stated that he was first shown the Decalogue by a guide who claims to have found it in the 1880s. However, Hibben had a reputation for fabricating archaeological data. Unfortunately, because of the stone’s enormous weight and years of unprofessional cleaning the inscriptions, its authenticity has never been proved by a laboratory.

However, Hebrew scholar Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University near Boston, among others, has vouched for the stone’s authenticity.

“We know that Hebrew was important to America’s founding fathers and that other ancient Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions have been found in North America,” Segal told Breaking Israel News. “Hebrew not only connects us back to our Godly and Biblical roots but also connects people back to their North American roots!”

Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/76113/oldest-paleo-hebrew-ten-commandments-found/#toVQlbuPRjWkV2vb.99

Archaeological Proof of David vs. Goliath Battle On Display in Jerusalem

By Tazpit Press Service August 31, 2016 , 9:30 am

“And the men of Israel and of Yehuda arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou comest to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron.” I Samuel 17:52 (The Israel Bible™)

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The Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Site. (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Spokesperson)

By: Anna Rudnitsky

Biblical archaeology was revolutionized several years ago when evidence of the existence of the alleged kingdom of David was brought to light in the form of a fortified Iron Age town excavated in the Elah Valley by Hebrew University Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologist Saar Ganor. The place was described by the Bible as the location of the battle between David and Goliath. The highlights of the findings of the Elah Valley excavations will be presented to the public for the first time at an exhibition scheduled to open at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem on September 5.

“Archaeology cannot find a man and we did not find the remnants linked to King David himself,” Professor Garfinkel told Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “But what we did find is archaeological evidence of the social process of urbanization in Judea.”

According to Prof. Garfinkel, the evidence of urbanization fits in with what is described in the Bible as the establishment of the Kingdom of David, when small agrarian communities were replaced by fortified towns. “The chronology fits the Biblical narrative perfectly. Carbon tests performed on the olive pits found in Khirbet Qeiyafa show that the town was built at the end of the 11th century BCE,” Garfinkel explained to TPS.

Two phenomena particularly attracted the attention Garfinkel and Ganor of when they began excavations at the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa about ten years ago. Numerous iron stones were found and a wall of unusual form, with hollows in two places, enveloped the site.

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The archaeologists only realized in the second year of their excavations that they had found a fortified town from the Iron Age that perfectly fit the description of the Biblical town of Shaarayim. The name in Hebrew means “two gates,” and the hollows in the modern wall, built on top of the ancient one, were precisely in the same place as the previous existence of two gates, which is quite a rarity for a relatively small town.

The geographical location of the town also fits right in line with the Biblical depiction of Shaarayim, mentioned in the context of the aftermath of the battle between David and Goliath when the Philistines “fell on the way to Shaarayim.” The town is also mentioned in the book of Joshua as being situated near Socho and Azeka, two archaeological sites surrounding Khirbet Qeiyafa.

The southern gate of the Khirbet Qeiyafa archaeological site. (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Spokesperson)

Other remarkable findings at the site include two inscriptions in the Canaanite script that are considered to be the earliest written attestation to date as to the use of the Hebrew language. A pottery shard contains the distinctly identifiable Hebrew words of “king,” “don’t do,” and “judge.”

The Bible Lands Museum exhibition, called “In the Valley of David and Goliath,” will feature the pottery shards as well as a clay model of a shrine found at the site and the huge stones used in the casemate wall around the town. “Although I led the excavations, I myself was amazed to see the different pieces brought together in a way that allows visitors to get a clear picture of how the town looked and that gives them an opportunity to go back in history to the times of the kingdom of David,” Professor Garfinkel said.

Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/74892/archaeological-evidence-kingdom-david-now-display-jerusalem/#ZZsmtp43VlXP0shx.99

For First Time Ever, Archaeological Evidence Proves Jewish Temple Stood on Temple Mount [PHOTOS]

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz September 6, 2016 , 12:30 pm

“And He said unto me: ‘Son of man this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Yisrael for ever.’” Ezekiel 43:7 (The Israel Bible™)

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Collection of Herodian floor tiles believed to be part of the Second Temple complex. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

An incredible new discovery at the Temple Mount has produced the first-ever physical and archaeological evidence that the Jewish Second Temple stood on the Mount 2,000 years ago, upsetting Arab claims, increasingly endorsed by the international community, that the Temples never existed.

Archaeologists from the Temple Mount Sifting Project, salvaging artifacts from Muslim destruction at the Temple complex, have completed the restoration of ornate floor tiles which experts believe likely decorated the courtyard of the Second Jewish Temple. The project provides visible and incontrovertible proof, backed up by ancient texts and historical context, of a Jewish Temple on the Mount.

In total, archaeological teams have uncovered approximately 600 colored stone floor tile segments, with more than 100 of them positively dated to the Herodian Second Temple period (37-4 BCE).

An eight-pointed star floor tile from the Second Temple. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

The importance of the discovery is undeniable.

“This represents the first time that archeologists have been able to successfully restore an element from the Herodian Second Temple complex,” said Zachi Dvira, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

The Sifting Project began in the Tzurim Valley National Park in 2004 in an attempt to salvage whatever archaeological artifacts it could from destruction caused by illegal construction projects on the Temple Mount led by the Jordanian Waqf that controls the Mount.

This destruction of irreplaceable archaeological artifacts is considered to be part of a larger trend of Temple denial. Denying Jewish connection to the Temple Mount began at the 2000 Camp David Summit, when the Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat insisted that “the Temple” existed near Shechem (Nablus), and not on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

This claim has been taken up in the international narrative as UNESCO passed an initiative claiming the Temple Mount as an exclusively Muslim holy site. This claim went mainstream last October when the New York Times published an article questioning whether the two Jewish Temples ever existed at all.

Breaking Israel News asked Dr. Gabriel Barkay, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, if this first-of-its-kind restoration was absolute proof refuting Temple denial.

“You are asking me if I have proof that water is wet,” he responded emphatically. “I don’t need to prove anything. I found facts.”

Dr. Barkay compared denial of the Jewish Temples to denying the Holocaust. “I myself am a Holocaust survivor, and I couldn’t care less about people who deny what I know to be true. For the Holocaust, we have the camps, we have the films and photographs, and we have the survivors,” he told Breaking Israel News.

“For the Temple, we have the Mishnah (Oral Law), the New Testament, we have the writings of Flavius Josephus (a 1st Century Romano-Jewish historian). We have mountains of archaeological evidence. I don’t want to relate to what is nothing less than a political misuse of history.

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Do you agree the Jewish people have a Biblical right to Jerusalem?

“There are people who approach me, especially Europeans, and ask what proof I have there was a Jewish Temple. I say that I don’t have proof and I am not interested in proof,” Dr. Barkay stated. “The fact is there was a Temple. Our discovery simply shows the glory that was the Temple.”

Speaking of proof, the tiles fit perfectly into a description of the Temple complex given by historian Josephus, who saw Temple with his own eyes. He wrote in his work “The Jewish Wars” that “the uncovered [Temple Mount courtyard] was completely paved with stones of various types and colors”.

The find also agrees with Talmudic literature about the construction of the Temple Mount which describes rows of green, blue and white marble. The tile segments, mostly imported from Rome, Asia Minor, Tunisia and Egypt, were made from polished multicolored stones cut in a variety of geometric shapes.

Floor tiles from the Second Temple. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

Another point of historical proof is that this style of flooring is consistent with floors found in contemporary works built by Herod, the builder of the Second Temple. Similar flooring has been found at Herod’s palaces in Masada, Herodian, and Jericho, among others. A key characteristic of the Herodian tiles is their size, which corresponds to the Roman foot, approximately 29.6 cm.

The restoration is proof of a theory that large expanses of the Temple Mount during the Second Temple were covered with a special type of ornate flooring called opus sectile, Latin for “cut work.” The idea was first put forward in 2007 by archaeologist Assaf Avraham, director of the Jerusalem Walls National Park. The new discovery confirms it.

“So far, we have succeeded in restoring seven potential designs of the majestic flooring that decorated the buildings of the Temple Mount,” said Frankie Snyder, a member of the Temple Mount Sifting Project’s team of researchers and an expert in the study of ancient Herodian style flooring, explaining that there were no opus sectile floors in Israel prior to the time of King Herod. “The tile segments were perfectly inlaid such that one could not even insert a sharp blade between them.”

Floor tile from the Second Temple. (Temple Mount Sifting Project/Zachi Dvira)

Dr. Barkay noted that not only is the find an archaeological treasure, but a way for Jews to connect to their holiest place, which today’s generations can only imagine.

“This represents the first time that we can see with our own eyes the splendor of the flooring that decorated the Second Temple and its annexes 2,000 years ago,” said Dr. Barkay.

“Referring to the Temple that Herod built, the Talmud says that ‘Whoever has not seen Herod’s building has not seen a beautiful building in his life’. Though we have not merited seeing the Temple in its glory, with the discovery and restoration of these unique floor tiles, we are now able to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Second Temple, even through this one distinctive characteristic.”