Joshua´s Altar Leads to Deepening National Consciousness

Israel National News ^ | Dec 27, '06 / 6 Tevet 5767 | Hillel Fendel

[APRPEH]

A reminder of the historic significance of the Jewish People's first day in the Holy Land was provided by a trip for Russian-speaking Israelis to Joshua's Altar on Mt. Ebal outside Shechem.

The story began just before this past Chanukah, when two busloads of Russian-speaking Israelis - new immigrants, veteran immigrants, and some tourists - made their first visit to the site known as Joshua's Altar near Shechem (Nablus).

Security concerns notwithstanding, the visitors - many of whom had never been to the area - came away greatly inspired, and some were even moved to tears. Secular Jews found themselves reciting special blessings and prayers appropriate to the novelty of the experience.

What was so special? "To see the actual altar that Joshua built, by Divine command, on the day the Jewish People entered the Land of Israel, is simply overwhelming," one participant tried to explain.

The trip was organized by the Maof organization - helping Russian-speakers get to know the Land of Israel - and ex-MK Uzi Landau's Machatz (Zionist Camp), whose Eretz Nehderet (Beautiful Land) program does the same for people all over the country. The two buses were targeted by a small bomb hurled by Palestinian terrorists in the region, but no damage was caused.

Prof. Adam Zertal, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, was the man who discovered and excavated the area and determined that it is the remnants of Joshua's Altar. He appeared recently on IsraelNationalRadio, speaking with hosts Yishai and Malkah Fleisher.

"How do you know that this was in fact Joshua's altar?" Yishai asked. "Perhaps it was built by other peoples over the years, for instance."

[APRPEH]

Prof. Zertal, author of " A Nation is Born: The Mt. Eval Altar and the Beginnings of the Nation of Israel," appeared not to know where to start, given the amount of evidence he can provide. He began with the discovery itself:

"We discovered this place, all covered with stones, in April 1980. At that time I never dreamt that we were dealing with the altar, because I was taught in Tel Aviv University - the center of anti-Biblical tendencies, where I learned that Biblical theories are untrue, and that Biblical accounts were written later, and the like. I didn't even know of the story of the Joshua's altar. But we surveyed every meter of the site, and in the course of nine years of excavation, we discovered a very old structure with no parallels to anything we had seen before. It was 9 by 7 meters, and 4 meters high, with two stone ramps, and a kind of veranda, known as the sovev, around."

whether it is or isn't, it's neat to find these things.

[Quix]

The whole article is worth reading at the above link.

There's a LOT of credible evidence that it is Joshua's altar. And, a diversity of evidence, too.

--1,000 plus bones of precisely the types and quantities of animals sacrificed.
--altar design
--location
--covered up the same day built . . .

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution. Dunno who added the keyword.

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