On its western shore, Tiberias rises above the lake from 210 below sea level to 461 meters above the surface of the lake. Every day of the year, Jewish pilgrims visit Tiberias because of its many saints' tombs, Christian pilgrims come to follow in the footstips of Jesus, and many tourists came in search of sun and rest. Moreover, Tiberias has continued to welcome the dead from the world over who believe the legend that they will be the first to be resuscitated before others and 40 years before the dead of Jerusalem. Some even believe that Tiberias conceals the Messiah's staff, the same staff that served Moses, Aaron and David. The city's inhabitants are said to suffer as much from the climate as this permanent invasion of visitors. The Arab geographer Al-Mukkadassi, who lived in Jerusalem towards 985, describes the city's inhabitants in the following terms:       The People of Tiberias They dance for two months of the year, and Tiberias is like the realm of fleas. For two months, they stuff themselves with pomegranates which grow profusely in the surrounding areas, and therefore cost them nothing. For two months, they fan the air with their fans to shoo the wasps that circle around the meat and fruit. For two months of the year, they walk naked in the torrid heat. For two months, they play the flute. And during the rest of the year, they wallow in the mud of the streets. The situation has improved since then, of course. The rhythm of the city nonetheless continues to be ruled by the lake's caprices, the inhabitants beseeching the skies when the water level drops and scolding them when they threaten to overflow. Between 14-18 A.D., Herodias Antipas, son of Herod the Great, and King of Judea, had Tiberias built on the ruins of an ancient biblical site which may have been Raqqat. The city is named for its protector, Tiberias, who was to have become emperor of Rome: Tiberias' City Having won the good graces of the emperor Tiberias, Herod the Tetrarque built Tiberias which he named for him, on the most fertile lands of the entire Galilee, on the shores of Lake Genesaret, very close to the hot springs of Emmaus. He settled the new city with foreigners and Galileans; some he forced to live here, and others, distinguished people, came willingly. The prince was so eager to settle the city that he even welcomed poor people from everywhere, including some who passed for freed slaves. He granted them significant privileges, heaping wealth upon certain of them, granting land to others and houses to others still to keep them in this unalluring city. This site was indeed a place one might leave since it was full of graves, something which runs very much counter to our laws that consider that one is impure for seven days if one happens to go into such places. Flavius Josephus, History of the Jews, XVIII, 3 The name Tiberias posed a problem for anti-Roman rabbis who, playing on the assonances of the city's name, suggested a number of different commentaries to try to Hebraicize this holy city. Rabbi Irmy, for example, a third-century master, derived its Hebrew name, Tveria from tabur or navel, setting it in the center of the land of Israel if not of the world itself. This same rabbi considered that Tveria was a contraction oftov and ria or lovely view, in order to praise the panorama surrounding the city. Tiberias very quickly became the capital of the Galilee and the site for governmental services, since its hot springs attracted many dignitaries. Pious Jews eschewed Tiberias because of the anathema laying on it; it had been built on cemetaries which consistutes a sacrilege forbidden by rabbinic law. Itts population was comprised first and foremost of Greeks, above all the freed slaves, and of Hellenized Jews. In 39, Caligula exiled Herod Antipas to Gaul, so it was left to his successors Antipas I and Antiaps II to continue to build the city. Antipas II embellished the royal palace which overlooked the city and is said to have been the site of the liaison between his sister Berenice and Titus, son of the emperor Vespasian, responsible for putting down the Great Revolt against the Romans in 60. The inhabitants of Tiberias hesitated for some time before aligning themselves with Yossef ben Mattathias, the commander of the revolt in the Galilee who capitulated to the Romans in 67, and then joined them. Under the name of Flavius Josephus, he became the official historian of Judea. Rabbi Shumon bar Yohai lifted the anathema in the second century and the city then became home to the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish political and religious organization following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70. Tiberias thus became the new capital of the Palestenian community and the home of the Patriarch and was even considered to be one of the four holy cities along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. Tiberias was home to such famous masters as Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Johanan, Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Assi. Their commentaries, sayings and homelitic digressions are collected in the Gemara, which was compiled towards the end of the fifth century and which is the masterpiece of the Jerusalem Talmud. These masters worked together with their Babylonian colleagues to write this ethics of study, one of the distinctive marks of Judaism. It asks that the Israelite constantly study the Torah and considers the wise man's disciple to be the ideal of Jewish society. In the early twentieth century, Jewish colonization in the Galilee enlivened this small town. The first suburb was built outside the old city between 1912-1914 and Tiberias later became home to the Working Brigades or Gdud ha-Avodah, who were responsible for building a road along the western shore of the lake. In 1920, a second suburb was built on the slopes of the mountain and attracted the first tourists who came to the hot springs. In 1922, the Jewish population numbered 4500 of a total population of 7000. The Arab revolts of 1936 that spread throughout the country were responsible for the deaths of 30 Jews. Armed bands of Arabs preceded the Syrian invasion and in April 1948 they attempted to take control of the city. The Jewish clandestine army, the Haganah counter- attacked and the Arab inhabitants fled the city. In the fall of the same year, the buildings of the old city were destroyed. A reception center, ma'bara, was opened soon thereafter to welcome the immigrants from Eastern Europe, Yemen, Iraq and Morocco. Since then, the city has grown continuously and construction creeps ever higher on the mountain, leaving the lake shores to monstrous hotels. Today, there are an estimated 30,000 inhabitants.   Old Tiberias has disappeared beneath modern construction which vainty attempted to preserve historical vestiges here and there, a bit of the ramparts, something resembling a mosque, another bit of ramparts. The main boulevards are lined with cafes and restaurants: there are so many screems and detonations, and so much noise that this area is condemend to a certain truculence. The lakeside promenade is calmer. The principal museum of antiquities, located in the great mosque, is not designed to attract visitors. In the archeological park of Hamei Tveria, the visitor can see the vestiges of a fourth century palace, public baths, a market and a synagogue. A small museum describes the healing powers of the hot springs where the wise men met to pause during their discussions. New digs promise to uncover a more extensive site and may also restore the palace of Berenice, the sister of Agrippa II and Titus's mistress, destroyed by the Galileans during the Great Revolt against the Romans. Many wise men including Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Meir Baal-ha-Ness and Rabbi Akiva are buried in Tiberias. Introducing Tiberias, the seat of the Sanhedrine and of the compilation of the Jerusalem Talmud, also gives us an opportunity to address the theme of study in Judaism.