Bet Shearim (Getting Israel Together)
Bet She'arim (Getting Israel Together)
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During the Second Temple period, Bet She'arim was one of many small Jewish settlements in Lower Galilee. After the Bar-Kochva Revolt (132-135 C.E.), the center of Jewish life passed from Judea to Galilee. The Sanhedrin - the highest judical and ecclesiastical council of the Jews in the Land of Israel - wandered from Yavneh to Shfaram, from Shfaram to Usha and about a century after the destruction of the Temple from Usha to Bet She'arim.
The sages of the Sanhedrin recognized that after the destruction of the Temple Jewish life needed a new center of gravity to withstand the rigors of a life without a national center. For the nation was now scattered, with the vast majority of Jews living in lands of
Exile.
The sages of the Sanhedrin wanted to formulate a code of behavior
which would tell a Jew living inside or outside of Israel how to live his
life at every moment. While there had previously been guidelines for
living a life According to the word of God as expressed in the Torah,
traditions had varied among different groups in different places. This
was largely due to the fact that the legal tradition had been handed
down from generation to generation by word of mouth, and had been
subject to human forgetfulness and change. The leaders of the new
Sanhedrin felt that there was now a need to develop a unitary code
that would indicate to every community how to live a distinctively
Jewish life.
And so the Sages sat and discussed everything they could think of
that had a bearing on how to live a Jewish life. Their discussions
continued for generations. And during the course of these endless
conversations which involved countless ideas and opinions, the
central ideas of Judaism developed and changed, and a new concept
of peoplehood began to emerge.
At the end of the second century, the Nasi, the acknowledged head of
the Sanhedrin, was Rabbi Judah. He recorded the intricate
discussions swirling around him, categorized and ordered the
comments, decided who won each argument, and thus compiled the
Mishnah.
The Mishnah is a huge work comprised of six books which cover
hundreds of subjects, ranging from how to sow your field to how to
kosher your chicken, how to educate your child to how to treat your
wife! Drawing on thousands of examples, the Mishnah tried to set a
standard for Jewish life which could be led by every Jew without the
Temple. At first, the Mishnah was passed down orally, but later it was
written down in order to guarantee that the law remain uniform.
Despite this commitment to writing, the Mishnah, and the Talmud
which expanded it, are still called the "Oral Law," a reference to how
they originally developed.
The Mishnah, the record of the decisions that were finally taken by the
Sages, formed the basis of the strictly defined Code of Law the
acceptance of which became the hallmark of Jewish life for the next
period of Jewish survival.
Because illness Rabbi Judah was forced to relocate in Sepphoris and the Sanhedrin went with him. When he died in (220 CE), his body was returned to Bet She'arim for burial.
After his dead, the city acquired reputation throughout th Jewish world, and many preferred to be buried in the neighborhood of the great and famous Rabbi Juda.
The tombs at Beit She'arim have many inscriptions in various
languages, principally Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. These
inscriptions tell us something about the lives of the people buried
here; for instance, they were teachers, priests, bankers, goldsmiths,
government officials, perfumers, and, of course, rabbis.
Belt She'arim was a burying place for Jews from all over Israel, as well
as from such far-flung Diaspora communities as Tadmor (Palmyra) and Antioch in Syria;
Sidon, Tyre and Beirut in Lebanon; and cities in Northern
Mesopotamia and Southern Arabia.
| One inscription reads:
Here they lie Atio the daughter of Rabbi Gamliel son of Nehemia who died a virgin at the age of twenty two years and Ation the daughter of Rabbi Juda son of Rabbi Gamliel that died at the age of nine years and six month, may their position be [with the righteous] |
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Rabbi Juda son of Rabbi Gamliel may identify as the Rabbi of the third generation of the Amoraïm, (The Sages of the Talmud) who was the Patriarch 
in who's time the Roman Emperor Diocletian (248-306 CE) visited the Land of Israel.
Re-edited and pictures by: Pinhas Baraq
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