The Cave of the Patriarchs or Tomb of the Patriarchs, known to Jews by its Biblical name Cave of Machpelah and to Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham, is a series of caves situated 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank. According to the Abrahamic religions, the cave and adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot, although most historians believe the Abraham-Isaac-Jacob narrative to be primarily mythological. The site is considered a holy place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper mixed with about 1 percent tin, although no metallic copper remained in the strips; the action of the centuries had been to convert the metal into brittle oxide. The so-called 'scrolls' of copper were, in reality, two separated sections of what was originally a single scroll about 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) in length. Unlike the others, it is not a literary work, but a list of 64 places where various items of gold and silver were buried or hidden. It differs from the other scrolls in its Hebrew, its orthography, palaeography and date.
In Jewish religious law, there is a category of specific Jewish purity laws, defining what is ritually pure or impure: ṭum'ah and ṭaharah are the state of being ritually "impure" and "pure", respectively. The Hebrew noun ṭum'ah, meaning "impurity", describes a state of ritual impurity. A person or object which contracts ṭum'ah is said to be ṭamé, and thereby unsuited for certain holy activities and uses until undergoing predefined purification actions that usually include the elapse of a specified time-period.
The Tomb of Benei Hezir, previously known as the Tomb of Saint James, is the oldest of four monumental rock-cut tombs that stand in the Kidron Valley, adjacent to the Tomb of Zechariah and a few meters from the Tomb of Absalom. It dates to the period of the Second Temple. It is a complex of burial caves. The tomb was originally accessed from a single rock-cut stairwell which descends to the tomb from the north. At a later period an additional entrance was created by quarrying a tunnel from the courtyard of the monument known as "the Tomb of Zechariah". This is also the contemporary entrance to the burial complex.
As Samu' or es-Samu' is a town in the Hebron Governorate of the West Bank, Palestine, 12 kilometers south of the city of Hebron and 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. The town had a population of 26,011 in 2017.
Beit She'arim necropolis is an extensive necropolis of rock-cut tombs near the remains of the ancient Jewish town of Beit She'arim. In early modern times the site was the Arab village of Sheikh Bureik; it was depopulated in the 1920s as a result of the Sursock Purchases, and identified as Beit She'arim in 1936 by historical geographer Samuel Klein.
Shimon HaTzadik is an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, established around the Tomb of Simeon the Just, after whom it was named. The neighborhood was established in 1890 and abandoned during the 1948 Palestine war. At the beginning of the new millennium after a long legal battle, Jewish residents settled down in the area near the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Givat HaMivtar is an Israeli settlement and a neighborhood in East Jerusalem established in 1970 between Ramat Eshkol and French Hill. It is located on a hill where an important battle took place in the Six Day War. Archaeological excavations have revealed important ancient Jewish tombs in the region. Givat Hamivtar was one of the first "Build Your Own Home" neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
Impurity of the land of the nations is a rabbinic edict stipulating a specified degree of tumah (impurity) on all lands outside the Land of Israel. The demarcation lines of foreign lands effectually included all those lands not settled by the people of Israel during their return from the Babylonian exile during the Second Temple period, and was meant to dissuade the priests of Aaron's lineage from venturing beyond the Land of Israel where graves were unmarked, and who may inadvertently contract corpse uncleanness and thereby eat their bread-offering (Terumah), unawares, in a state of ritual impurity and becoming liable thereby to kareth. The declaration with respect to foreign lands includes also the "virgin soil" of those lands, and was, therefore, a safeguard meant to prevent the priests from inadvertently transgressing the Law of Moses.
Tombs of the Sanhedrin, also Tombs of the Judges, is an underground complex of 63 rock-cut tombs located in a public park in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sanhedria. Built in the 1st century CE, the tombs are noted for their elaborate design and symmetry. They have been a site for Jewish pilgrimage since the medieval period. The popular name of the complex, which has the most magnificently carved pediment of ancient Jerusalem, is due to the fact that the number of burial niches it contains is somewhat close to that of the members of the ancient Jewish supreme court, the Great Sanhedrin, namely 71.
Horvat 'Ethri, or Umm Suweid, is an archaeological site situated in the Judean Lowlands in modern-day Israel. Excavations at the site have uncovered the remains of a partially restored Jewish village from the Second Temple period. The site features an ancient synagogue, wine presses, cisterns, mikvehs, stone ossuaries, and an underground hideout system.
The Batei Mahse is an apartment complex built from 1857 to 1890 in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, intended to house the city's poorer residents.
Uriel Rappaport was an Israeli historian. His area of research focus was the Second Temple period, including Hellenistic Judaism, the Maccabean Revolt, the Hasmonean kingdom, and the First Jewish–Roman War. He became a professor of Jewish History at the University of Haifa and served as a rector of the university from 1983 to 1985. He was a member of the Council for Higher Education in Israel in 1987–1989 and 1998–2001, and served as a chairman of the Humanities Committee at the Israel Science Foundation. Rappaport took emeritus status at Haifa in 2003, and served as president of Kinneret College in 2002–2006.
Tel Eton is an archaeological site measuring 60 dunams, located in the Telam Valley, near Nahal Adoraim in the southeast of the Judean Lowlands, near Moshav Shekef. The tell's current name comes from the nearby village that was inhabited between the Byzantine period to the Arab period, Kharbat Eyton.
Deir ed Darb is a monumental Jewish tomb with an elaborate façade dated to the 1st century CE. The site is located in the West Bank about 1/2-mile SE of the village center of Qarwat Bani Hassan. Its Arab name derives from the ancient road passing near it and refers to a monastery.
Hurvat Ganim is an archaeological site located near Yish'i, in the Shephelah region of Israel.
Kfar Dvora was a Jewish settlement during the Talmudic period in the upper Gilbon River in the Golan Heights. At the site, remains of a Jewish settlement, synagogue, a Beth midrash, 5 inscriptions in Aramaic, 1 in Greek, and one in Hebrew were discovered, which was a novelty in research, as it indicated the existence of a Beth midrash in the place. Many decorated stones were also found, integrated into secondary construction and scattered in the area. On the ruins of Kfar Dvora, the Syrian village of Daburiya was established, which is currently abandoned. Before the Six-Day War, the village was inhabited by Bedouins of the Na'arna tribe, who made secondary use of the stones from the ancient Jewish settlement for construction purposes. The village is currently located northwest of the settlement of kidmat Tzvi.
Kiryat Arbaya is an ancient settlement mentioned in two letters written by Simon Bar Kokhba, discovered in the Cave of Letters in Nahal Hever. The settlement has been proposed to be identified with the Arab village of Al-Arroub south of Gush Etzion or with Khirbet Arbaya nearby, close to the road between Bethlehem and Hebron. This area is located between Ein Gedi and Betar, where Bar Kokhba's main camp was likely situated. The literal meaning of the name is 'City of the Arabs' or – what might be more plausible in light of the letter's content – 'City of the Willows'. Additionally, some have suggested identifying Kiryat Arbaya from Bar Kokhba's letters with the legend of the birth of the Messiah that appears in the Jerusalem Talmud and in Lamentations Rabbah.
The Mount Scopus quarry and stone vessels production cave is a man-made underground quarrying and stone vessels manufacturing complex, dating to the late Second Temple period, more exactly the first century up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. It is located on the northern slope of a promontory extending east from the Mount Scopus and Mount of Olives ridges, beside the road leading from Jerusalem to Ma'ale Adummim.
Umm el-Umdan or Khirbet Umm el-Umdan is a Jewish archeological site within the municipal boundaries of the Israeli city of Modi'in, between the city of Modi'in and Latrun. Archeological excavations at the site discovered the remains of a Jewish village. The findings show that he place was inhabited during the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Early Muslim periods. The village was destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
