Gush Halav Synagogue

Die jüdische Gemeinde

Gush Halav, Gischala in Greek, was a Jewish town in the Second Temple period, set among olive groves; the region was known for its olive oil. The Jewish Virtual Library recalls that Yokhanan of Gush Halav, known in English as John of Gischala, was one of the leaders of the Great Revolt against Rome, and that when the town could no longer be held he and his men withdrew to Jerusalem. Jewish settlement continued after the revolt, and the excavators and later writers date Jewish buildings and tombs in and around the town to the third to sixth centuries CE. Jewish tradition places here the graves of the sages Shemaya and Avtalyon. According to the same source, Jews lived at Gush Halav until the fourteenth century, and the present village was founded in the eighteenth. Nothing is known of the size of the congregation that used the valley synagogue, of its officers or of its rabbis; the only member known by name is the donor of a column, recorded in an Aramaic inscription.

Architektur und Gestaltung

The synagogue is a basilica of an unusual, almost square plan, built of limestone ashlar; its prayer hall measured almost 14 metres from north to south and 11 metres across. Two rows of four columns, standing on stylobates, divided the hall into a nave and side aisles; the columns carried Ionic capitals. A corridor ran along the western side. The building had a single portal in the southern facade, the wall facing Jerusalem, and its lintel, which the excavators date to about 280-330 CE, was carved with an eagle with spread wings at the centre holding the ends of two garlands. The Torah was read from a bema built against the south wall in the south-western part of the hall. The excavators found an earlier, larger Roman-period bema and a smaller Byzantine one that replaced it after the earthquake of 363. One of the nave columns bears a short Aramaic dedication by its donor. The excavators judged that the plan was not substantially altered in the later building periods: after each earthquake the building was repaired along the same lines, with stylobates shored up and corners and walls strengthened. Seating capacity, roof form and any gallery are unknown.

Leben in der Synagoge

Little is recorded about worship in the building beyond what the excavation shows. The bema against the south wall marks where the Torah scrolls were kept and read, facing Jerusalem, and its rebuilding on a smaller scale in the Byzantine period shows that the congregation kept using and adapting the hall after earthquake damage. The floors were renewed several times in the last phase. One column carries an Aramaic inscription naming a donor, Yose son of Nahum, and asking a blessing for him: the kind of gift by which members paid for parts of the building. In the western corridor the excavators found a hoard of about 1,953 coins, the latest struck around 491-518 CE, which they took to have been hidden before the final collapse; one scholar has argued it may have been deposited afterwards. Jewish and Christian amulets were also found in the area, a sign of the mixed population of the Upper Galilee in the Byzantine period.

Zerstörung

No human destruction of this synagogue is recorded; by the excavators' account it was ruined by earthquakes. Meyers and his team identified damage from an earthquake they dated to about 306 CE, after which the stylobates were shored up, and from a second in 362 or 363, after which corners, stylobates and walls were reinforced and the hall was quickly brought back into use, with a new, smaller bema. They concluded that the building was destroyed and abandoned in the great earthquake of 551 CE, citing the collapse of about 19 metres of carved moulding in the western corridor in a single event. These dates are disputed. Netzer found no evidence of destruction in 363, Russell questioned the dating of the final collapse, and Magness argued that the first synagogue was not built before the second half of the fifth century and that occupation lasted until the late seventh or early eighth century. The collapsed remains were left largely undisturbed until the excavation of 1977-78.

Das Schicksal der Gemeinde

The sources consulted do not describe how or when the Jewish community of Gush Halav came to an end. The valley synagogue went out of use after its final collapse, which the excavators place in 551 CE and other scholars somewhat later. The synagogue at the top of the hill also fell out of use, and a church was later built on its remains. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Jews continued to live at Gush Halav until the fourteenth century, so Jewish life in the town outlasted the valley synagogue by many centuries; no source read here says where that later community prayed. The present village of el-Jish was founded in the eighteenth century, according to the same source. The ruins now lie within the lands of the village.

Der Ort heute

The ruins of the valley synagogue lie in an orchard below and east of the village of Jish, near the spring of Ein Gush Halav. The Jewish Virtual Library describes the visible remains as two rows of columns with side aisles, parts of the roof structure and a column bearing an ancient inscription. Recent photographs on Wikimedia Commons show several columns standing on their bases along the stylobates and ashlar walls surviving a few courses high; no source read gives the wall height. The eagle lintel of the south door was recorded on site. Wikipedia cites a conservation project of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Gush Halav. The upper synagogue lies beneath the church of Mar Boutros in the village, with column fragments visible nearby.

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