National Geographic: New Dead Sea Scroll Find May Help Detect Forgeries
PHOTOGRAPH BY CASEY L. OLSON AND OREN GUTFELD
Looters plundered the cave decades ago. But archaeologists are thrilled by what they left behind. Here’s why.
The discovery of a twelfth cave associated with the famous Dead Sea Scrolls may arm scholars with new clues to deter looters and detect modern forgeries of the ancient documents.
Earlier this week archaeologists announced the discovery of the cave—the first scroll site found since 1956—and revealed the results of recent excavations. The Israeli team found numerous storage jars that had been hidden in niches cut into the cave walls, but all were broken and their contents removed.
Read the rest of this article at National Geographic.
Jerusalem after the Maccabees
The effects of the revolt on the city
The period following the Maccabean Revolt ushered in tremendous expansion in the city of Jerusalem and even on the Har Habayit (Temple Mount). Jerusalem expanded westward to include the area known as the Upper City and a combination of enlargement and refurbishing of the enclosure of the Har Habayit resulted as well. As a result, Jerusalem in this period once again became a prosperous and beautiful city. But to understand these important developments, it is necessary first to know what happened in the aftermath of the re-conquest of the city and Beit Hamikdash (Holy Temple) under Yehudah (Judah) the Maccabee in the revolt of 168-164 BCE.
Read the rest of this article from The Jewish World.
The Passing of Ben Zion Shenker
The Modzitz hassidic dynasty has lost a great composer
The recent passing of Ben Zion Shenker z”l, the acknowledged master composer and singer of hassidic music, has left the Jewish community with a great void. He passed away in Brooklyn on November 20. Ben Zion Schenker was born to hassidic immigrant parents in 1925. They raised him with a deep appreciation for Jewish music, played cantorial music for him, and gave him piano lessons. He was soon singing in choirs, made his first record at 13, and had his own 15-minute weekly radio program. He studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, then in Williamsburg, where he received semichah (Rabbinic ordination) and Brooklyn College. When he was a 15-year-old, the Modzitzer Rebbe, Rebbe Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub (1886-1947), of blessed memory, who had recently arrived in America as a refugee, realized that Shenker was sight singing the Rebbe’s own composition from a musical score and asked him to be his musical secretary. By 1956 he had put out the first hassidic record ever. (Two years later Shlomo Carlebach released his first record.) From then until his passing just a few weeks ago, Shenker notated and recorded innumerable melodies of the Modzitzer Rebbes… Continue reading
