Page 31 - HaMizrachi #27 Purim USA 2021

PLACES IN ISRAEL THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND

Eve Harow

Bar’am and Purim

ust three kilometers from Lebanon and the grounds and this is also the case fifth century building of churches and
on Israel’s northern border lie the in other Galilean Talmudic towns where Samaritan synagogues around the Land.
Jremains of the ancient Jewish village the synagogues are older than the signs One of the interesting traditions con-
of Kfar Bar’am. Founded in all likelihood of settlement around them. nected to Bar’am is of it being the
during the Second Temple period, the How can this be explained? The latest burial place of Mordechai and Esther,
town remained Jewish for centuries until theory is the buildings are put together
some time between the early Muslim from stones in secondary use, mean- in a tomb in the National Park near the
synagogue. On Purim in 1949, Jews from
conquest in the seventh century and the ing they were carved earlier for other Tzfat read the Megillah there, reviving
Ayyubids in the late 12th/early 13th cen- buildings elsewhere and reused in these a Middle Ages tradition to celebrate
tury when it was abandoned and occu- new sites. It’s clear, for example, that Shushan Purim at the site. We have
pied by Muslims. Maronite Christians the lintel of the Bar’am synagogue is
lived there till 1948, and in 1949 the not the original. What possible reason evidence from as early as 1215 of trav-
ellers and explorers writing that Queen
secular Hashomer HaTzair established would there be for this taking apart and Esther had instructed ‘her son Cyrus’
Kibbutz Bar’am on the land where they rebuilding?
now cultivate orchards of plums, nec- to bury her there and it soon became
a site of pilgrimage. It’s unclear though
tarines, apples and pears.
what the source of the tradition is and
After the destruction of Bayit Sheini the more accepted version is that they
(70 CE) and the demolishing of Judean are buried in Hamadan, Iran, possibly
towns as punishment for the Bar Kochba ancient Shushan. But still…
Revolt (132-135/6 CE), the Galilee and
Golan became the center of Jewish life In another Tzfat-Bar’am connection,
in Israel under the Roman and Byzantine there’s a tradition that the facade of the
Tiferet Yisrael synagogue in the Old City
Empires. Many synagogues in the area
were built from the third century and are of Jerusalem was inspired by the arches
mentioned in Mishnaic and Talmudic of the ancient synagogue of… Bar’am.
literature. There are a few in the south- As the story goes, after the devastat-
ern Chevron Hills (Eshtamoa, Sussya, Remember that quarrying, carving and ing earthquake of 1837, survivors from
Maon, Carmel) and some in the Jordan moving stones in the ancient world was Tzfat came to live in Jerusalem and in a
Valley Rift (Ein Gedi, Jericho) but the an expensive, time-consuming and dif- desire to remember their beloved Gali-
vast majority are in the eastern Gali- ficult endeavor, so there was much sec- lee, designed the synagogue to look like
lee and Golan. These are some of the ondary and even tertiary use of stones. the one in Bar’am.
earliest synagogues we know and there It’s likely the Romans didn’t allow the Traditions, conjecture, history, holidays.
has been much debate about the time of Jews to have monumental buildings for We may never know the ‘truth,’ but we’ve
their building. Of the two synagogues in worship and they could only do it at a come home and can once again cele-
Kfar Bar’am, one has been preserved and later time. Perhaps they weren’t allowed brate, in the Land of Israel, the Purim
restored and is the subject of scholarly to carve anything new and could just miracle that happened in the galut.
investigation. The synagogue itself has recycle what had already been built. It’s
been dated to the third century based on also more than possible that the very
a relief and other evidence, however the early original synagogues mentioned Eve Harow is a licensed tour guide, pod-
caster and public speaker.
archaeological survey of the area around by the Sages were very simple affairs,
it has remains only from the fifth cen- more like a beit midrash, and these eveharow.com • eve.harow@gmail.com
tury. Much has been discussed about impressive buildings were constructed A member of the Mizrachi Tour Guides Bureau
this discrepancy between the building later, perhaps commensurate with the ` mizrachi.org/tour-guides

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