Mosaics Depicting Noah’s Ark, Splitting of the Red Sea Uncovered at Ancient Synagogue By Ariella Mendlowitz - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

Mosaics Depicting Noah’s Ark, Splitting of the Red Sea Uncovered at Ancient Synagogue

By Ariella Mendlowitz July 10, 2016   BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.” Exodus 14:21 (The Israel Bible™)

Fish swallowing an Egyptian soldier; “Parting of the Red Sea” mosaic, Huqoq Synagogue. (Photo: Jim Haberman/UNC Chapel Hill).

Mosaics depicting two of the Bible’s most famous stories were uncovered amid excavations at an ancient synagogue in Israel’s Lower Galilee, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) announced last week.

Now in its sixth summer, the excavation, which is taking place at the 5th century CE Huqoq Synagogue in Northern Israel, has revealed mosaic artwork depicting Noah’s Ark (Genesis 6) and the splitting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14).

“The panel with Noah’s Ark depicts an ark and pairs of animals, including elephants, leopards, donkeys, snakes, bears, lions, ostriches, camels, sheep and goats,” the university said in a statement.

Donkeys in Noah’s ark mosaic from Huqoq Synagogue. (Photo: Jim Haberman/UNC Chapel Hill).

“The scene of the parting of the Red Sea shows Pharaoh’s soldiers being swallowed by large fish, surrounded by overturned chariots with horses and chariot drivers,” UNC’s statement described.

Both the Noah’s Ark and Splitting of the Red Sea mosaics decorated the floor of the synagogue’s nave (center of the hall).

The dig is being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and UNC. In the past several years, students and staff working at the site have unearthed beautiful floor mosaics featuring both people and animals which have never been seen before in Jewish houses of worship.

“These scenes are very rare in ancient synagogues,” Jodi Magness, the UNC professor who has headed the dig, explained. “The only other examples that have been found are at Gerasa/Jerash in Jordan and Mopsuestia/Misis in Turkey (Noah’s Ark), and at Khirbet Wadi Hamam in Israel and Dura Europos in Syria (the parting of the Red Sea).” Working with Magness is Assistant Director Shua Kisilevitz of the IAA.

The first mosaics were discovered at the late Roman-era synagogue in 2012 and excavations have continued every summer since. In 2012, a mosaic depicting the story of Samson and the foxes (Judges 15:4) was uncovered in the building’s east aisle. In the summer of 2013, an adjacent mosaic showing Samson carrying the gate of Gaza (Judges 16:3) on his shoulders was uncovered.

A mosaic depicting the first non-biblical story ever found decorating an ancient synagogue was discovered and excavated in the synagogue’s east aisle in 2013 and 2014, according to the UNC statement. The scene is thought to be that of the “legendary meeting” between Alexander the Great and the Jewish Kohen (high priest).

Then, in 2015, a mosaic panel containing a “Hebrew inscription surrounded by human figures, animals and mythological creatures including putti (cupids),” UNC divulged. The 2015 discovery was located close to that of the scene depicting Alexander the Great.

“This is by far the most extensive series of biblical stories ever found decorating the mosaic floor of an ancient synagogue,” said Magness. “The arrangement of the mosaics in panels on the floor brings to mind the synagogue at Dura Europos in Syria, where an array of biblical stories is painted in panels on the walls.”

The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation, researchers said, and the excavated areas have since been backfilled.

The team plans to continue with their excavations at Huqoq in 2017.

The Splitting of the Red Sea and the State of Israel By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

The Splitting of the Red Sea and the State of Israel

By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo   BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS April 20, 2016

Jewish history consists of many epoch- making events. However, not all of these events have made an inroad into the consciousness of the Jewish people. For this to happen, the event must become, as the Jewish philosopher Emile Fackenheim calls it, a “root experience,” a moment in which the hand of God becomes most apparent through His active participation in Jewish history.

Still, this alone is not sufficient to transform an event into a root experience of enduring value. It is also necessary that the experience takes place in front of the multitude, as in the case of the splitting of the Red Sea, when “even the maidservants saw what the prophet Yehezkel ben Buzi could not see.” It is not the opening of the heavens, but rather the transformation on Earth that is decisive in affecting all future Jewish generations.

However, above and beyond all, a third element is necessary. It must be possible for later generations to have access to this vision. Only then can one speak of an actual root experience. If a vision cannot be shared with later generations, it will turn into a claim of the past and lose much of its religious value within Judaism.

IN THIS context it is most important to realize that it is not the conventional understanding of a miracle that is of importance here. While nobody will deny that the splitting of the Red Sea was a violation of the laws of nature, this is not the source of its religious power or message. The most important quality of a miracle is not that it is supernatural, or super-historical, but that it is a moment which, even when it can be argued away in terms of science and brought into the nexus of nature and normal history, remains miraculous in the eyes of the person to whom it occurred.

The real power of a miracle is that it is an astonishing experience of an event in which the current system of cause and effect becomes, as it were, transparent; permitting a glimpse of the sphere in which another unrestricted Power is at work. As such, it destroys the security of all knowledge and undoes the normalcy of all that is ordinary. It is the abiding astonishment which is crucial.

The religious person stands in wonder; no knowledge or cognition can weaken his astonishment. Any natural explanation will only deepen his wonder.

It is in this sense that a historical miracle becomes a root experience and allows later generations to have access to it through its own experience. It is possible for later generations to relive the experience, not because of what happened, but through the way it was perceived.

THE ESTABLISHMENT of the State of Israel was no doubt an epoch-making event. It is the completely astonishing nature of this event that stands out – the transformation of the earthliness of the Jewish people into a radically different situation. While miracles no doubt occurred to enable it to happen, the most important religious dimension is, again, the abiding astonishment at this event in terms that could be expected, especially after the events of the Holocaust.

Only when the establishment of the State of Israel is seen in the light of the miracle at the Red Sea will its fascination continue. And this is exactly where the greatest danger to Israel’s continued existence lies. Just as we are informed that the miracle at the Red Sea lost its religious impact on the Israelites and normalcy became the call of the day, whereby the Israelites complained that God had left them, so we see a similar component at work in today’s Israeli society and leadership.

Just as the complaints concerning food and water took on a new impetus after the great miracle at the sea, so we see a mentality of psychological denial and existential dullness in the State of Israel in which many people – but most of all its leaders – no longer understand the wonder of the State’s very existence.

Just as the Israelites in the desert paid a heavy price, so will Israeli society if it does not force itself once again to look through the clouds, see the miracle and rejuvenate itself through it.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post