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THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND PLACES IN ISRAEL

Shulie Mishkin

A Snapshot of Jewish Life

After the Temple’s Destruction

Ancient Sussya has learned Talmudic laws about the fact there are prominent meno-
property, courtyards, streets, rahs here and in other Southern
shops and more will find this Hebron Hills synagogues was
place fascinating, as it brings not unusual. But the orienta-
outh of what most people consider the text to life. tion of the synagogue is odd
the land of Judah, long past the city – east to west, even though
of Hebron, the landscape begins to Jewish elements of the town the ark is in the north; the
Schange. Instead of grapevines and abound. There is a niche in same orientation as the
green terraced hills, the surroundings are one of the doorposts, presum- Temple. The inscriptions here
more desert-like; dusty expanses with flocks ably for a mezuzah. A menorah are all in Hebrew or Aramaic,
of sheep and goats roaming in the distance. is incised on a stone in one of the unlike synagogues in the north
Welcome to the Southern Hebron Hills, the houses. Mikvaot (ritual baths) are every- where the language is more likely to be
desert edge of Judah. In Biblical times this where. And at the highest point of the town Greek. In addition, the inscriptions include
area was on the cusp of civilization. King is a beautiful synagogue, with a number of dates: not the date of the current Roman
David in his shepherding days protected the important mosaics as well as a secret tunnel emperor, but how many years since creation
flocks of the wealthy Naval, whose home that leads inside, which allowed the resi- and what year in the shemitah cycle it was!
and business dealings were in Maon and dents to hide in the synagogue if they were And finally, mentioned in the inscriptions
Carmel. The landscape does not look so besieged by invaders. are the names of kohanim (Mar Issi HaKo-
different today, even when you enter one In the excavations of Sussya conducted after hen), something not found in other ancient
of the beautiful Jewish communities down the Six-Day War, the archaeologists noticed synagogues.
here. Nestled in the desert is a place that is a some interesting and unique finds. Most
snapshot of Jewish life after the destruction prominent is the ubiquity of mikvaot. Over Do these pieces add up to a whole? Some
scholars think they do. Dr. Doron Sar-Avi of
of the Second Temple. 35 mikvaot were found here. This, in a time the Sussya field school, and others, suggest
Next door to the modern community of when the Temple has been destroyed for at that the Southern Hebron Hills became a
Sussya is the ancient town of Sussya. least three centuries! Who was so concerned refuge for kohanim after the Bar Kochba
Sussya is a town whose origins go back to about purity that they needed a mikveh for revolt. As the Jewish population aban-
late Second Temple times and it was settled every few households? doned Judea and moved north, one group
until at least the Moslem period (8th cen- The burial cave at the entrance to the town stubbornly stayed behind – the kohanim.
tury CE or so). The layer exposed to visitors was also curious. By this point in time, Jews They knew that even though the Temple
today goes back to the 4th–6th centuries CE. had abandoned burial in ossuaries, small was destroyed and the Jews were defeated
What makes Sussya so fascinating is that bone boxes, and had moved to burial in twice in one century, someday they would
the town was largely preserved intact and sarcophagi, like our coffins. But the Jews return to Jerusalem. And when that hap-
it was clearly a Jewish town. You can walk of Sussya were still using ossuaries. Why pened, the kohanim wanted to be close by.
the streets and see how wide they were, were they so behind the times? So they stayed in the neighborhood, holding
check out the alleyways and remember the on to old traditions regarding burial, putting
laws of carrying and eruv on Shabbat and The synagogue had its own interesting up a synagogue that reminded them of the
descend to the caves used by the residents quirks. The theme of a menorah is certainly Temple and continuing to eat their food in
for storage, living and security. Anyone who a common one in ancient synagogues, so purity. All the while saying, תי ֵּ ב ה ֶנ ָּ בִי ה ָר ֵה ְמ
ׁש ָ ּ ד ְק ִּ מ ַה, let the Temple be rebuilt speedily.
Amen!

Shulie Mishkin is an Israel tour guide
who specialized in “back to the sources”
tours.

A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
mizrachi.org/speakers

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