Eva's garden: 2) Kabbalah Tour Israel - Dead Sea, Qumran, Ein Gedi

Qumran

"Qumran, located west of the Kaliah-Sedom road on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea, had a Jewish population as far back as the eight century B.C.E. But it was not this settlement that made the site famous.

Qumran's fame comes from a break-away sect, known as the Essenes, who live and study here for two centuries - from the end of the Hashmonean period through the great revolt of the Jews against the Romans - and leave in the surrounding caves a magnificent legacy, called the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Essenes arrive at Qumran towards the end of the second century B.C.E., during the rule of either John Hyrcanus 1 or Alexander Yannai. In 31 B.C.E., during the reign of Herod, there is a serious earthquake in the area and the sect abandons the site. But a quarter of a century later, during the rule of Archelaus, Herod's son (4 B.C.E. - 6 C.E.), the Essenes return to Qumran and rebuild it.

(They must have been really smelly in the 2nd century because they create all these ritual baths.)

(מקבות)

In 68 C.E., during the great Jewish revolt, the Romans conquer Qumran and disperse the sect. The last known inhabitants of Qumran are members of a Roman garrison stationed there during the Bar Kochba revolt (132-135 C.E..). When the garrison is relocated, the site is abandoned and forgotten.

The search for the centre of Essene activity began in 1947, the year that Bedouins shepherds find seven ancient scrolls in a local cave. Father R. de Vauxhall and a team of French archaeologists excavate the area between 1951 and 1956 and find additional scrolls and early structures, that support the theory that Qumran had indeed been the nucleus of Essene activity.

Sing for your bath!

The caves that dot the difficult-to-reach slopes and crevices of Qumran serve the Essenes in time of need as hiding places for their library.The scrolls, hidden in jars for nearly two thousand years and preserved as a result of the area's arid climate, include books of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha and the sect's own works. Some of these scrolls are on display at "The Shrine of the Book" in the Israel Museum, as we saw yesterday.

The Essenes are ascetics, and as such, pay great attention to ritual bathing and purity. They live a communal life in a settlement that was constructed to make them as self-reliant as possible. They have assembly halls, a central dining room, in which ceremonial meals at eaten, a kitchen, ritual baths, a laundry room, a watch tower, a stable and a pottery workshop.

Of special interest is the Scriptorium - the writing room with its desks and ink-stands, where the Essenes scribes probably write most of the scrolls found in the adjoining caves. Members of the sect live in huts and tents. The central cemetery of the sect is also located at Qumran. After the Six Day War in 1967, Qumran was put in the care of the National Parks Authority, which built an access road and parking lot and installed sanitary facilities, paths for hikers and information signs."

Adapted from www.parks.org.il

The Dead Sea