Beit She'arayim | |
&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Beit_Shearim_in_Lower_Galilee.jpg) Ancient ruin of Beit Shearim in Lower Galilee | |
&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Israel_location_map_with_stripes.svg)  Shown within Israel | |
| Alternative name | Sheikh Abreiḳ |
|---|---|
| Location | Israel |
| Coordinates | 32°42′08″N 35°07′45″E / 32.70222°N 35.12917°E |
| History | |
| Founded | Hellenistic period |
| Abandoned | 20th century |
| Periods | Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Early Arab |
| Cultures | Jewish, Graeco-Roman, Byzantine |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1953, 1954, 1955 |
| Archaeologists | Benjamin Mazar, Nahman Avigad |
| Condition | Ruin |
| Public access | yes |
Beit She'arim (Hebrew: בית שערים / Imperial Aramaic: בית שריי / Bet Sharei)[1] or Besara (Greek: Βήσαρα)[2] was a Roman-era Jewish village from the 1st century BCE until the 3rd century CE which, at one time, was the seat of the Sanhedrin. The village was later known as Sheikh Bureik, and was depopulated in the early 1920s as a result of the Sursock Purchase.
In the mid-2nd century, the village briefly became the seat of the rabbinic synod under Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (compiler of the Mishnah),[3][4] who was buried in the adjoining necropolis.[5]
It is today part of the Beit She'arim National Park.
- ^ The name of site is occasionally rendered as Bet She'arāyim (Hebrew: בּית שערַיִם, lit. 'House of Two Gates').
- ^ In the Jerusalem Talmud (Kila'im 9:3; Ketubbot 12:3 [65b]; Eruvin 1:1 [3a]), the town's name is written in an elided-consonant form, (Hebrew: בית שריי), which follows more closely the Greek transliteration in Josephus' Vita § 24, (Greek: Βησάραν).
- ^ Avigad, N. & Schwabe, M. (1954), p. 1
- ^ Sherira Gaon (1988). The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon. Translated by Nosson Dovid Rabinowich. Jerusalem: Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press - Ahavath Torah Institute Moznaim. p. 88. OCLC 923562173.; cf. Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashana 31b, Rashi s.v. ומיבנא לאושא; Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 32b).
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud (Ketubbot 12:3 [65b]); Babylonian Talmud (Ketubbot 103b–104a)