The ancient synagogue atop the Judean desert fortress of Masada is not large, but it expanded on the eighth night of Chanukah to accommodate a crowd that joyously installed a new occupant – the first Torah scroll written on the mountain in two thousand years.

Chabad of the Dead Sea area joined with Masada National Park and its director, Eitan Campbell, to sponsor a public menorah lighting at the Western Palace atop the Judean Desert fortress. Singer David Broza, who performed a brief concert at the event, was honored with lighting a candle. So was Rabbi Yosef Albo, the Chief Rabbi of the nearby city of Arad, Eli Amitai, director of Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, and Dov Litavinoff, head of the Tamar Regional Council.

The event was a double celebration, with Chanukah lighting preceded by the completion of the writing of a Torah scroll that Rabbi shai Abramovich, a Torah scribe, had begun writing atop Masada on Chanukah one year ago. With the completion of one, came the immediate beginning of another: Abramovich will be busy in his special glass-enclosed chamber in the ancient synagogue for at least another year.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Translates Judaism’s Sacred Text 2010

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s message resonates clearly to the far corners of the Jewish world. The 73-year-old rabbinical scholar has completed a monumental 45-year project hailed in Jewish scholarly circles as a breakthrough of biblical proportions, the most comprehensive translation and commentary of the Talmud, with its 63 basic sections and nearly 6,000 pages.

The Talmud is the central text of mainstream Judaism, detailing rabbinical discussions over the centuries pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history. But because of its complexity, obscurity and the fact that much of it is written in the ancient Aramaic language, the rarified text has for centuries remained beyond the scope of comprehension of all but a select group of scholarly Jews. “Talmud is a book that has no real parallel, it is a constant search for truth, for absolute truth.”

Steinsaltz has for four and a half decades, for as long as 16 hours a day, laboured over the ancient texts, translating them from the Aramaic into modern Hebrew and parts into English, Spanish, French, and Russian as well. More importantly, he added his own explanations of phrases, terms and concepts, as well as listing the rulings of Jewish law derived from the text. There have been other, partial translations into English and other languages, but none are as comprehensive or have as extensive a commentary.

“I have opened the gate, you please enter. I cannot do it for you, and I am not trying to do it for you,” he explained. Steinsaltz coins his quest to educate Jews “Let my people know,” a play on Moses’ passage from Genesis: “Let my people go.” Now, thanks to his 45-volume series, anyone with a command of Hebrew can study the sacred text. “I do believe that this knowledge, it is not just knowledge of history, it is knowledge of ourselves, it is our own picture.”

Shalom Rosenberg, a professor emeritus of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stated Steinsaltz was upholding the legacy of Shlomo Yitzhaki, the famed medieval French rabbi known by his acronym Rashi, who authored the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud more than 900 years ago. “Rashi did the first revolution, turning it into a book you could read. Now Steinsaltz has opened it up even to people who didn’t go to Yeshiva (religious seminaries).” Still, Steinsaltz’s Talmud is like giving someone a map to the jungle, “but there is still a way to go before understanding the jungle,” he stated.

The project has not been without its detractors. Over the years, some ultra-Orthodox scholars criticized Steinsaltz even boycotted him, saying Talmud study should be reserved for rabbinical experts. Jewish historian Menachem Friedman stated Steinsaltz’s work takes away the rabbis’ monopoly over knowledge of the Talmud. “They perceive the popularization of the Talmud as too bold a move, with too much chutzpah,” he stated.

Steinsaltz, whose three children have adopted the Hebraized surname Even-Israel, was born in Israel to secular parents but became observant in his teens, when he entered seminary schools and learned Aramaic. After studying physics and chemistry at Hebrew University, he became a math teacher and at the age of 24, according to his website, the youngest school principal in Israel’s history. Three years later, in 1965, he began working on what he called his “hobby” the translation of the Talmud. The effort earned him the 1988 Israel Prize, the nations’ highest civilian honour.

Over the years, he has established a network of schools in Israel and the former Soviet Union, and he has written more than 60 books on subjects ranging from zoology to theology. But the Talmud has remained his greatest passion. He explained that he took to it like a musician takes to an instrument and he compared comprehension of it to that of math and music. “It is a different language and you have to think in that language. It is a language of thought and not a language of words,” he stated. Studying the Talmud, with its paradoxes and oxymorons, is itself a form of worship, he says. “The Lord is talking to us and He just waits for someone on the other end of the universe to say ‘hello.’” “That is the essence of prayer, to say ‘hello.’”

Earlier this month, his achievements were celebrated with the Global Day of Jewish Learning described as the first worldwide, trans-denominational and non-denominational event devoted to Jewish study. Since last week, he has been on a U.S. tour marking the publication of the final chapter of his 45-volume Talmud series.

The Talmud is made up of two main parts: the Mishna, oral law written down in the third century A.D.; and the Gemara, a much lengthier work amplifying the Mishna and compiled in the centuries that followed. The debates in the Gemara over the Mishna’s rulings range from whimsical to angry to humorous. Often a conclusion is reached about what the Mishna means, resulting in a declaration of Jewish law, but sometimes a “tie” is declared.

“In every field of knowledge there are some questions that cannot be answered,” stated Steinsalz. “They can be answered when you go to a higher level, and at that higher level you also find questions that can’t be answered.” “So the main thing is what they used to say in the Middle Ages: The end of knowledge is that we do not know,” he said. “The more you climb the more you know that you don’t know.”

After writing millions of words, he said his drive to learn more has not diminished. He described an “oceanic feeling”, a blissful sense of seeing a touch of infinity in his quest for illumination. “I am preparing for the next 170 years because I have a lot of work to do. Now if the boss decides that he wants me elsewhere so I will have to move, but as long as I am here I have lots of things to do,” he stated.

The ancient city of Gamla is located in the lower Golan, on a steep ridge that rises to a height of 330 meters above the surrounding terrain. The city of Gamla is mentioned in Talmudic sources as a walled city dating back to the time of Joshua Bin-Nun. These passages refer to a fortified settlement from the Early Bronze Age, whose remains were found there. Gamla was destroyed in ancient times and rebuilt during the Hellenistic period when Jews returning from exile in Babylon re-populated this area.

Alexander Yannai seized Gamla, from Hellenistic rulers who occupied it in its day. Later king Herod settled Jews in Gamla as part of his efforts to populate the frontier regions of his kingdom. Josephus has documented the city of Gamla, its siege and fall. He describes Gamla as the city situated atop a hill resembling a camel, surrounded by high cliffs. On its steep slopes houses were built very close to one another and the city seemed to be hung in the air at a sharp summit, ready to fall down on itself. It is sometimes called “the Masada of the north”, though it is most remembered for the catastrophic defeat during the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans. In 66 CE the residents of Gamla joined the Jewish Revolt against the Romans. Under the direction of Josephus, they expeditiously constructed a wall. In the eastern side of the city, the wall descended from a circular watchtower on top of the hill, and continued downwards until it approached Nahal Daliot. It encircled the city’s eastern buildings, including Gamla’s magnificent synagogue.

In 68 CE, when Josephus was already a Roman prisoner, King Agrippa II’s army came to Gamla and besieged the city for seven months, with no success. The Romans, however, did not give up. Vespasian arrived at Gamla at the head of three Roman legions, and again laid siege to the city. A month later, the Romans breached the wall and entered Gamla. However, the defenders succeeded in turning this battle into an overwhelming victory over the Romans, in which many of the attackers were killed. A few days later Roman soldiers managed to creep unnoticed to the bottom of the watchtower. They rolled five stones from its base, and the whole construction fell down with terrible noise, causing panic among the defenders. In a few more days Romans succeeded to seize the city. They killed four thousand of its defenders, and five thousand people threw themselves into the precipices in despair.
Archaeologists started to search for the legendary Gamla and it took them almost a century to find the place. In 1968, Itzhak Gal, a participant in a Sites and Landscapes Survey in the Golan first suggested that an isolated cliff near Nahal Dalyot is the site of Gamla. In 1976, the archaeologist Shemaryahu Gutmann, together with Gal, began to excavate there. His excavations not only verified that this was Gamla but they also uncovered many amazing finds. A small area in the eastern and western parts of Gamla have been excavated and restored. The excavations also uncovered the ruins of an ancient settlement dating back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 5000 years ago).

During the Second Temple Period, an olive press with an adjoining mikvah was built on top of the Bronze Age ruins. Gamla’s most magnificent buildings were discovered at the westernmost part of the city, which appears to be where the wealthy inhabitants lived. The most interesting and impressive building is the western olive press. Its ceiling is supported by two large stone arches, which were restored. The remains of the wall built during the Jewish Revolt was discovered. A breach in the wall that was found is apparently at a place where Romans succeeded to break into the city during their first unsuccessful attack. The watchtower undermined by Romans has been restored.

Gutmann discovered the remains of the wall from the time of the Great Revolt; the place where the Romans breached the wall; the city’s exquisite synagogue; several houses from one of Gamla’s residential neighborhoods; and evidence of the fierce battle that took place there finding hundreds of ballista stones and thousands of arrow heads and nails. The synagogue was apparently built during Herod’s lifetime. This is the only synagogue uncovered in Israel that was built within city limits while the Temple in Jerusalem was still in existence. Ballista stones and arrowheads were discovered in the synagogue. This shows that the battle against the Romans was fought even here. A mikve which served the worshipers was discovered next to the synagogue.

The ruins of a synagogue were unearthed near the city entrance where remains of the lower parts of walls and columns from the original building lay. Four rows of ornamented pillars supported the synagogue’s roof and partitioned the structure into a central hall and staves. An additional row of pillars divided the hall in two. The corner pillars have a heart-shaped cross-section. An alcove, which resembles a built-in closet, was discovered near the northwestern corner of the hall, where Torah scrolls probably were kept.

Another point of interest is Deir Quruh – the ruins of a village. An ancient olive press was also discovered here. The base of a screw-press used in the extraction of olive oil, and the press’s basin and crushing stone are all fairly well-preserved. There are about 200 dolmens in the area – structures built of massive rocks, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. Natural basalt stones were arranged one atop the other to form rectangles or trapezoids, with one or two short sides open. Dolmens served usually as graves.

The Gamla area is part of the Yehudiya Reserve on the Golan Plateau and is bounded by Nahal Gamla in the north, Nahal Dalyot in the South, Gamla ruins in the west and the Mapalim Road in the east. The bounding rivers of the reserve form spectacular waterfalls. In the south, Nahal Gamla drops into a deep canyon and forms the highest perennial waterfall in Israel known as the 51 m. high Gamla Waterfall. The northern waterfall formed by Nahal Dalyot is about 15 m. high, and is dry in the summer.

The Golan is a flat basaltic plateau with a series of volcanic mountains rising from it. The plateau was created by volcanic eruptions which covered the continental and oceanic sedimentary rocks with lava. The running streams eroded the hard basalt rocks, thus creating picturesque deep canyons. The vegetation changes with the seasons and in the winter and spring the place looks especially green and beautiful. Many wild animals live in the reserve, including gazelles, porcupines, boars, jackals, foxes and wild cats. The place is mostly famous for a large population of birds of prey: Griffon vultures, Egyptian vultures, eagles and more. The Vultures observation point is along the path leading to the ancient Gamla.