Malcolm in Israel

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Malcolm in Israel Touring the Holy Land of Israel, "If you have eyes then see, if you have ears then hear."
(39)

04/11/2024

LIVE LONG AND PROPEROUS.
Leonard Nemoy explains his personal memory and use of the Priestly Benediction sign of the Hebrew letter 'Shin' ש.

MARISHAPart of the Rehoboam "Maginot Fortress Line" around Judea.
04/11/2024

MARISHA
Part of the Rehoboam "Maginot Fortress Line" around Judea.

Beneath Israel’s hills lies Tel Maresha’s “Polish Cave,” an extraordinary 2,300-year-old columbarium dating back to the Hellenistic period, around the 3rd century BC. Carved into limestone by the Idumaeans—a people shaped by Greek, Phoenician, and Jewish influences—this vast underground complex has walls lined with over 2,000 niches, each once housing pigeons. Far from mere livestock, these pigeons were essential: their meat provided food, they were used in ritual sacrifices, and their droppings, rich in nitrogen, became vital fertilizer, sustaining agriculture in a region where fertile soil was a luxury.

What’s especially fascinating is the scale of the columbarium. Archaeologists believe it was meticulously designed to maximize space, ventilation, and access, showcasing an unexpectedly sophisticated system. The sheer size of the complex underscores how central pigeon farming was to daily life, reflecting the Idumaeans’ ingenuity in managing scarce resources.

Centuries later, during World War II, Polish soldiers stationed nearby stumbled upon this hidden site, leaving graffiti that gave it the name “Polish Cave.” Today, this columbarium stands as a rare intersection of ancient agricultural innovation and wartime history, where remnants of two distant eras converge underground—a quiet testament to survival, resourcefulness, and unexpected discovery.

04/11/2024

NOAH'S ARK?
Another theory with something to see.

OLDEST KNOWN MAP OF THE WORLD ENGRAVED ON CLAY TABLET FROM MESOPOTAMIA, HOUSED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
04/11/2024

OLDEST KNOWN MAP OF THE WORLD ENGRAVED ON CLAY TABLET FROM MESOPOTAMIA, HOUSED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

The Babylonian Map of the World is the oldest known world map. It shows Babylon in the center and several known regions surrounded by the ocean. Outlying regions are depicted in triangles surrounding the ocean. The inscriptions on the tablet record aspects of Babylonian cosmology.

HARRY HOUDINI
02/11/2024

HARRY HOUDINI

The Librarians | The National Library of Israel

ARCHAEOLOGY NEAR BET SHEMESHA site looking into life 5,000 years ago.
29/10/2024

ARCHAEOLOGY NEAR BET SHEMESH
A site looking into life 5,000 years ago.

Ancient inhabitants could have been precursors to biblical Canaanites; temple building found to contain unique collection of intact miniature, ritual ceramic vessels

22/10/2024

TOMB OF HEROD THE GREAT
Dr Jodi Magness elaborates her thoughts.

THE CUP BEARERAn elite and important court position.
22/10/2024

THE CUP BEARER
An elite and important court position.

NEHEMIAH: CUPBEARER (Persian, Rhyton) - Nehemiah was the cupbearer of Artaxerxes I (Neh. 1:11). “Cupbearer” (Hebrew mašqeh) is a hiphil participle of the verb šaqā and literally means, “one who gives (someone) something to drink.” It occurs twelve times in the Old Testament in the sense of “cupbearer,” for example, in 1 Kings 10:5 and 2 Chronicles 9:4 of Solomon’s attendants. In the Joseph story it occurs nine times (Gen. 40:1, 2, 5, 9. 13, 21, 23; 41:9...

Classical sources give us detailed descriptions of cupbearers at the Persian court. Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (1.3.9) describes one of his main duties as follows: “Now it is a well known fact that the cupbearers, when they proffer the cup, draw some of it with the ladle, pour it into their left hand, and swallow it down – so that, if they should put poison in, they may not profit by it.” That the cupbearer could have other responsibilities as well is indicated by Tobit 1:22: “Now Ahikar was cupbearer, keeper of the signet, and in charge of administration of the accounts, for Esarhaddon had appointed him second to himself.”

Various sources indicate that Nehemiah as a royal cupbearer probably had the following traits: He would have been well trained in court etiquette (compare Dan. 1:44ff). He was probably a handsome individual (compare Dan. 1:4, 13, 15; Josephus, Antiquities 16.230). He would certainly have known how to select wines to set before the king. A proverb in the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Qamma 92b) states: “The wine belongs to the master but credit for it is due to his cupbearer.” Nehemiah would have been a man of great influence as one with the closest access to the king, and one who could well determine who could see the king (Xenophon, Cyropedia 1.3.8-9).

See, Edwin M. Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1990), 258-259.

THE METEORA, MONASTIC BUILDINGS ATOP FINGER-LIKE PROJECTIONS OF ROCK.
21/10/2024

THE METEORA, MONASTIC BUILDINGS ATOP FINGER-LIKE PROJECTIONS OF ROCK.

Meteora In Greece is so Magical
📸: katerina katopis

18/10/2024

INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN EMBASSY IN JERUSALEM

THE 'STAR OF DAVID' IS NOT UNIQUE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE. THE SEVEN BRANCHED 'MENORAH' IS UNIQUE
18/10/2024

THE 'STAR OF DAVID' IS NOT UNIQUE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE. THE SEVEN BRANCHED 'MENORAH' IS UNIQUE

The Star of David from different cultures around the world

REMEMBERING "THE PIANIST."No life is not fair...
17/10/2024

REMEMBERING "THE PIANIST."
No life is not fair...

The story of Wladyslaw Szpillman is widely known to many of us. He was one of only 20 Jews still alive in Warsaw when he was discovered by a German officer in November of 1944. Szpillman, a well-known composer, was living in a bombed-out building, almost frozen and starving to death. The German officer provided food and supplies, and most importantly, safety. Wladyslaw Szpillman survived the war and composed and performed until his death in 2000, and his miraculous story of survival was the subject of the poignant film, “The Pianist”.

But what of the German officer? His name was Wilm Hosenfeld, a schoolteacher from Hunfeld in Germany and father of five. He was 44 years old in 1939 when he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to Poland. He was a member of the N**i Party in the 1930s, believing in its vision for Germany, but the brutality that he encountered in Poland changed all of that. He continued to perform his duties as a German officer, but when opportunities arose, he rescued Jews, hid them, helped them. His was a tiny personal crusade, a drop in the ocean, aiding a single person here and there, and one of those people happened to be the famous composer, Szpillman.

One would hope that his efforts were repaid in kind, but such was not the case. He was arrested by the Soviets at war’s end and convicted as a war criminal by virtue of being a German officer. He was sentenced to 25 years hard labor in a Soviet prison camp. Despite the testimony of Szpillman and other Jews that he had saved, the Soviets refused to release him. Wilm Hosenfeld died August 13, 1952, and these heartbreaking words were written of his death - “He had been tortured in captivity… he then suffered several cerebral strokes. By the end he was in a confused state of mind, a beaten child who does not understand the blows. He died with his spirit utterly broken.”

Heroism is a strange thing…a matter of conscience, of opportunity, of bravery, of split-second decision, and heroes are found at times in unexpected guises. After decades of effort by Wladyslaw Szpillman and others, Wilm Hosenfeld was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations 56 years after his death. ❤️

(The photo is Wilm Hosenfeld earlier in the war with an unknown Jewish man.)

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