Internal Jewish Divisions Pose the Greatest Threat of All

Pini Dunner

Thousands of Jews gather for a mass prayer for the hostages in Gaza at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Yaacov Cohen

Temple Mount earth-filtering project discovers ancient clay tokens

JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

Tokens found in Temple Mount Sifting Project excavations may have been used by ancient pilgrims.

The clay token found in the sifting of dirt from the Temple Mount bearing the Greek Inscription ΔΟΥ-ΛΟ[Υ] (DOULOU) / (photo credit: ZACHI DVIRA)

More than a decade ago, a tiny clay token with a seal imprint depicting a wine jar (amphora) with a Greek inscription was discovered by a team working on the Temple Mount Sifting Project. Due to its resemblance to another clay token with an Aramaic inscription that had been found near the Temple Mount, scholars have wondered whether these sealings functioned as tokens for exchanging offerings used by pilgrims who ascended to the Temple.

Archaeologists are still trying to understand the nature of the 2,000-year-old mysterious clay token that was found in September 2011 while sorting pottery shards collected from previous siftings at the site. Archaeologist Gal Zagdon, who was in charge of the sifting facility, noted a tiny, irregularly shaped clay object. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that it was not a potsherd but a tiny lump of clay with a seal impression on it. Unlike common clay sealings (sometimes named bullae), its back side was pinched, suggesting it was a type of token given by hand to the recipient, unlike a sealing that was attached to a knot securing a document or container.

The seal impression depicts an amphora known from the second half of the first century CE (about 100 years before the Second Temple’s destruction). Six Greek letters appear around the wine jar; one of them was not well preserved in the imprint. The reading of the inscription, done with the kind help of Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) – an expert in ancient Greek epigraphy – resulted in the letters ΔΟΥ-ΛΟ[Υ] (DOULOU), the genitive (the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word) of the personal name Doulês. Such a name was common in Thrace, Macedonia and the northern regions of the Black Sea – areas where Jews had settled by the late Hellenistic-Early Roman periods.

The token may have been used as payment by pilgrims ascending to the temple

Two months after the discovery of the Greek token, another very similar one was found in excavations at the drainage channel under Robinson’s Arch (below the Western Wall’s southern section), directed by Eli Shukrun and Prof. Ronny Reich of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

This token bore an Aramaic inscription that had initially been translated by the archaeologists as “pure to God.” However, HU Talmudic scholar Prof. Shlomo Naeh later suggested that the token was used by pilgrims ascending to the Temple as a token to receive their offerings after payment, with the writing on the sealing intended to prevent forgeries by including the abbreviations of the sacrifice type, the day, the month, and the name of the priestly division of that week.

A drone view shows the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, at sunrise on the last Friday of Ramadan, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem’s Old City April 5, 2024. (credit: ILAN ROSENBERG/REUTERS)

This practice is described in Mishna tractate Shekalim (5:4), the art of the oral Jewish law compiled in the 2nd century CE. Other scholars, including Prof. Ze’ev Safrai and Dr. Avi Shweika, criticized this interpretation and suggested other meanings for the token.

The Aramaic token adds further context to the Greek-inscribed token from the Temple Mount. Notably, it depicts a wine jar, aligning with the Mishnaic text that discusses nesachim, a term for the wine libation poured on the Temple altar and also used to refer generally to all the offering components. The researchers said it is plausible that this token was intended for Greek-speaking pilgrims, possibly including Jews from the diaspora. Significantly, the Mishna confirms the presence of Greek writing in the Temple, noting in another chapter of Tractate Shekalim (3:2) that baskets in the treasury chamber were marked with Greek letters.

In research conducted for the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Yoav Farhi examined several clay tokens found in Jerusalem. Among them the two mentioned above, another token from the Temple Mount Sifting Project with a poorly preserved impression and another found in 1970 during the Jewish Quarter excavations by Prof. Nachman Avigad that bore a seal impression depicting a chalice symbol that also appeared on shekel coins from the last days of the Second Temple period, typically interpreted as one of the Temple vessels. Farhi confirmed Di Segni’s reading of the Greek inscribed token from the Temple Mount and examined the composition of the clay of the tokens, with the help of Prof. Yuval Goren from Ben-Gurion University, finding similarities between the token from the Jewish Quarter and that from the Temple Mount.

Clay sealings from the Early Roman period (the last two centuries of the Second Temple period) are very rare finds in Israel, and those with a pinched reverse side are not known from any other sites. All four tokens studied by Farhi were found in the proximity of the Temple Mount, and were likely associated in some way with the activities that took place in the Temple. Their style is completely different from that of other known tokens from the Roman world.

Many questions remain unanswered regarding these tokens: Who used them? Who issued them? How were they used? What is the significance of the wine jar symbol on the Greek inscribed token? Who was Doulês? Is the last letter in this name, which was poorly preserved, really an Upsilon? Are there other possible readings of this inscription?

The Temple Mount Sifting Project launched exactly 20 years ago aims to recover archaeological artifacts from 400 truckloads of soil rich with archaeological artifacts removed from the Temple Mount and dumped in the nearby Kidron Valley. This soil had been excavated illegally by the Waqf during construction activities in the late 1990s. The project’s goal is to salvage as many artifacts as possible from the discarded soil and study them extensively to shed new light on the archaeology and history of the Temple Mount. The sifting is carried out as a tourism-education attraction, with over 250,000 people participating so far, an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of archaeological research. The project has yielded more than half a million artifacts that are kept in its storage awaiting scientific and more widely popular publication.

As a result of the war, the Temple Mount Sifting Project has been plunged into a state of uncertainty regarding its future operations. Most of the project’s major donors have redirected their resources to support issues directly connected to the war, leaving the sifting operation facing potential closure in the coming months. In the last year, the project was approved for several government grants, and one was received just a few days before the war started. Still, all other grants are now on hold due to the government reallocating all available budgets to war-related issues.

Graphic New Hamas Video Shows Abduction of Three Hostages Into Gaza

Debbie Weiss

Disturbing footage of Hamas terrorists abducting three Israeli hostages from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, including Eliya Cohen (pictured). Photo: Screenshot

Disturbing footage of Hamas terrorists abducting three Israeli hostages from the Nova music festival, including dual US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was released for the first time on Monday evening.

The two-minute bodycam footage shows Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy, and Eliya Cohen bloodied but alive in the back of a pickup truck while being taken to Gaza, the Hamas-ruled enclave from which the Palestinian terrorist group launched its Oct. 7 invasion of and brutal rampage across southern Israel.

The families of the three made the decision to release the footage to highlight the “neglect” of the Israeli government in failing to secure their return 262 days after their abduction.

“Hersh, Eliya, and Or were kidnapped alive and so they have to return, today. Every day that passes endangers the abductees and may torpedo the ability to bring them home,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

WARNING: Viewer discretion advised. Some readers may find the following footage, which includes graphic content, disturbing and upsetting.

Goldberg-Polin, Cohen, and Levy were all in the same roadside bomb shelter when Hamas terrorists lobbed grenades inside.

Goldberg-Polin, who sought shelter with his friend Aner Shapira, had his arm blown off below the elbow. The video shows the 23-year-old American-Israeli clutching his arm with bone protruding out of it bound by a makeshift tourniquet.

Shapira caught seven of the grenades thrown inside the bomb shelter and managed to throw them back outside at the terrorists. The eighth grenade killed him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the new footage, saying it “breaks all of our hearts, and once again underlines the cruelty of the enemy that we have vowed to eliminate.”

“We will not stop the war until we bring all of our 120 loved ones home,” Netanyahu said, referring to the hostages still in Gaza. Over 250 people were initially kidnapped during the Oct. 7 massacre in which 1,200 people were killed. More than 100 hostages were released as part of a temporary truce in November, and Israeli forces have rescued others, both living and deceased, as part of their ongoing operations in Gaza.

Or Levy, 33, and his wife Einav attended the music festival, arriving in the early morning shortly before terrorists overran the area. The couple took refuge in the same shelter as Goldberg-Polin and Shapira. Einav was killed and Or was taken hostage. They left an only child, Almog, who will turn three years old on Tuesday.

Eliya Cohen arrived at the festival with his girlfriend Ziv Abud, her nephew, and the nephew’s girlfriend. When the attack began, the four sought refuge in the shelter. Abud’s nephew and his girlfriend were murdered. Cohen was kidnapped from the shelter, while Ziv survived by being buried under the bodies for six hours.

On April 24, Hamas released a propaganda video showing Goldberg-Polin for the first time since his capture. The footage revealed he was missing his right lower arm.

In the undated three-minute video, Goldberg-Polin mentioned being held captive for “nearly 200 days,” suggesting a recent filming date. His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, cited Israeli video experts as concluding that the footage was very recent.

Hamas murdered more than 360 people at the Nova festival and kidnapped a further 40. They also maimed and sexually assaulted both men and women at the scene.

Also on Monday evening, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed that hostage Sergeant Major Mohammed Alatrash, a tracker in the Gaza Division, was killed while battling Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, new findings have shown. Alatrash’s body was taken into Gaza. He was survived by two wives and thirteen children, the youngest of whom was born a month before his murder.

Protesters block PA workers’ entry to Efrat

JOSH HASTEN

“Following Oct. 7…we refuse to accept the notion that in order to build or run our town we need to hire people who support terrorism against us, or could themselves be a terror threat.”

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A protest organized by B’yadaim Shelanu to prevent the entry of P.A. workers to Efrat in Gush Etzion, June 23, 2024. Credit: B’yadaim Shelanu.

Some 120 protesters gathered in the Gush Etzion town of Efrat on Sunday morning to prevent local building contractors from bringing Palestinian laborers into the community.

The protest, the third of its kind over the past several weeks, was organized by “B’yadaim Shelanu” (In Our Hands), an initiative launched by a dedicated group of Efrat women in December 2023. The group opposes the reinstatement of Arab workers from the Palestinian Authority in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. 

According to Israeli intelligence, Arab workers from Gaza who had been allowed into southern Israeli kibbutzim aided Hamas’s attack, mapping out homes and passing detailed information to the terrorist group.

Before the war, 193,000 P.A. workers were employed throughout Israel, including 30,000 in Judea and Samaria. Today only around 8,000 P.A. workers are employed by Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria, mainly in local industrial zones or construction sites.  

According to an Israeli security official, while communities can request that P.A. workers be brought in, residents cannot keep them out.

“If a community wants to bring in P.A. workers, they can approach their local security chief and ask him to put in a special request with the IDF regional commander who makes the decisions,” the official, who asked not to be identified, explained to JNS. However, he continued, the only way to stop them being brought in is to “block the entrance.”

In addition to the protests, B’yadaim Shelanu has been raising awareness among local residents with the slogan “Efrat is not returning to Oct. 6.” The group has also been voicing their security concerns to local municipal leaders and Knesset members.

Social media strategist and activist Malkah Fleisher, one of the movement’s founders, has lived in Efrat for around seven years.

“Following Oct. 7…we refuse to accept the notion that in order to build or run our town we need to hire people who support terrorism against us, or could themselves be a terror threat,” she told JNS.

She went on to state that “polls have shown that an overwhelming number of residents of the P.A. support the wanton rape, murder, mutilation and kidnapping of Jewish children, women and men.”

Due to this, “We came together, a group of wives and moms, to say something very simple: We will not stand for terror supporters coming into our town. We are a town that wants to be built by lovers of Israel…not by those who want us to fail and to die.”  

According to Fleisher, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, P.A. workers were barred from Judea and Samaria communities for several months. However, the IDF then decided to relax this policy, starting with construction sites, she said.

“We refuse to ignore and forget the lessons of Oct. 7; We are going to stand strong and make sure that we do not accept the idea that we are dependent on a population that seeks our destruction. We demand that solutions be found that do not threaten the lives of our people just to save some money,” she said.

Business owner Stephanie Treger, who has been living in Efrat for nine years and is another of the movement’s founders, told JNS her group “will work tirelessly to prevent terror supporters from entering our streets. We will meet with every Knesset member and influencer to change the pre-Oct. 7 status quo and make sure our children are safe and our grandchildren can live peacefully.”    

She explained that Sunday’s protest succeeded because when the military grants permission for P.A. workers to enter a community, it sets a specific time for them to do so. In the case of Efrat on Sunday, that window was 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

When the Jewish Israeli building contractor arrived and saw the protesters blocking the entrance, he decided to avoid confrontation, she said.

Lactation consultant Rachel Pearson, another B’yadaim Shelanu founder, has lived in Efrat for the past 15 years.

“After Oct. 7 we know P.A. Arabs cannot be trusted,” she told JNS. “We need to keep our children and families safe and we cannot go back to the way things were on Oct 6. We cannot bring them into our town, especially while we are at war with them. Our safety and our lives come before all else,” she added.

Efrat Mayor Dovi Shefler, who was elected this past March, has attended several of B’yadaim’s protests. He took to Facebook over the weekend to emphasize that the decision on whether or not to allow P.A. workers into Efrat was not up to him but “in the hands of the army.” 

He explained that these decisions would greatly impact “new building projects, cleanliness of the community, gardening and other community functions.”

One of the protesters, who asked not to be identified, told JNS that Shefler “is basically looking to the building contractors to come up with solutions, but won’t prevent them from bringing in P.A. Arabs as building is his top priority.”

The mayor claims that the workers will only be allowed into construction sites and not the community at large, “but this is a slippery slope and we must keep our families safe.” 

Israeli Hostage Naama Levy Turns 20 in Hamas Captivity

i24 News and Algemeiner Staff

Naama Levy – Courtesy of the family

Naama’s mother Ayelet Levy Shachar wrote a heart-wrenching letter to her daughter published in the New York Post.

“This is a letter no mother should ever have to write to her daughter. Today is your 20th birthday. You should be celebrating this occasion surrounded by friends and family. Instead, you are enduring your 260th day as a hostage in Gaza surrounded by terrorists,”

“Ever since your abduction, we have been working relentlessly and in every way possible to bring you home. Every day without you is a day without air. The uncertainty and dread I experience is suffocating, and each passing day that you are not with us feels like an eternity. We will not stop fighting for you until you are home.”