Synagogue at Umm al-Umdan and Shur Hill

The Second-Temple synagogue at Umm al-Umdan and a short hike on nearby Sher Hill

This partially circular hike on the outskirts of Modi'in passes the ruins of Umm el-Umdan, where one of the earliest synagogues in Israel has been found. It then ascends the adjacent Sher Hill. Mattityahu ben Yohanan and his sons of the Chanukah story lived in the village of Modi’in. The exact location of ancient Modi'in is unknown. Umm el-Umdan has been suggested as a possible location, although other sites are more plausible. Umm el-Umdan means “mother of pillars” in Arabic and this no doubt refers to its ancient synagogue.

Time: About 1 hour

Distance: 2 km

Type of walk: Partially circular

Difficulty: This is a relatively easy hike with a mild incline up Sher Hill. There is easy climbing on some rocks on the ascent, and walking on bare rock towards the end of the hike, but this is only minimally difficult. There are no restrooms in the immediate vicinity.

Directions and parking: The Waze direction for Umm el-Umdan does not get you to the parking lot, but onto the main road Sderot HaHashmonayim. Instead, enter "Reuven Street 22" into Waze (which is close to the parking lot) and click on “Reuven Street 22, Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut." There is a barrier in the middle of the road and depending on which direction you are coming, you may need to do a U-turn to reach the parking lot which is about 100 meters past this house, on the same side of the street, and closer to Shivtei Israel St. The Waze coordinate for the parking lot is 31.883547,34.998472.

Public transport: There is a bus stop for bus #12 from Modi’in central bus station close to the corner of Reuven St. and Yehuda St. From here it is about a 9-10-minute walk to the parking lot for Um el-Umdan.

Ancient synagogue from Second Temple times.

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From the parking lot, go down the steps to the walkway. This walkway passes through the grounds of an ancient village known as Umm el-Umdan. This name means “mother of pillars” in Arabic, and the synagogue’s pillars were then possibly visible even before the site was excavated

This Jewish village was founded during the Hasmonean period in the 2nd century BCE and was occupied continuously until the Bar Kochba Revolt in the 2nd century CE, when it was probably destroyed. It has been suggested that this was the ancient village of Modi’in. However, there are a number of other candidates for ancient Modi’in, particularly the Arab village of al-Midya, which is not far from here and close to Mevo Modi’in.

In the Byzantine period, the location of the former Jewish village was used for agricultural purposes by the residents of a Christian village built to the north of the ruins. There are remains of a winepress in the orchard area on your left. There are also partially shaded picnic benches.

The ancient synagogue is located at the far end of the village.

You cannot miss the synagogue as it is surrounded by a white frame and has a protective roof. It was constructed in the Hasmonean period and improvements were made in the Herodian period. Adjacent to the synagogue is a mikveh that was formerly enclosed in a building.

After completing your tour of Um el-Umdan, leave the site by walking to the right-hand side of the far fence. Cross over Sderot HaHashmonayim carefully for a circular hike around Sher Hill.

Turn left after crossing Sderot HaHashmonayim and very shortly you will see a dirt path on the right through a large gap in the hedge with a green sign on a pole indicating "גבעת שר." There is also a green marking on a nearby lamp post. Turn onto this path and follow the green and yellow markings until you come to a green-marked trail.

Follow the green markings through a gate and then up the hill. Close to the top of the hill you will notice two rusted metal grids on a circular rock. The grid is covering a deep cistern used for water collection.

This site has been excavated a number of times. At the top of the hill are the ruins of a settlement 2 to 3 acres in size, with stone heaps, terrace walls, and water cisterns. The site was first settled in the Hasmonean period. There was a second period of settlement in the Byzantine period. A stone lintel was found with crosses that presumably belonged to a Christian community, and this must have been the lintel for their church. A third period of settlement was in the medieval period and there was a small farmstead here. There was no spring or other water source in the vicinity of the village, and surface runoff water was collected in cisterns during the rainy season and used throughout the year. There is also evidence here of ancient agriculture.

As you proceed you will notice a guard tower ahead of you, constructed of stones. It is possible to climb to its top.

Guard towers of this type (known in Hebrew as "shomerot") were common in agricultural areas and allowed the farmer to guard his crop (and his livelihood) when it was ready for being harvested. It also providing him a place to sleep and store his produce. What is unusual about this site is the large number of watch towers and the absence of any storage within them. It is unclear what their function was.

From the top of the hill is a nice view of modern Modi’in. There is also a nearby abandoned orchard.

Continue to the intersection of the green, black and red trails. Turn left along the black-marked trail to descend to the bottom of the hill. (The red trail continues westward). The black markings are on the rock.

When you come to almost the bottom of the hill, you will join the green-marked trail again. Go through the gate and head left towards Sderot HaHashmonayim via the path you came on.

To return to your car, you will cross Sderot HaHashmonayim and walk through Umm el-Umdan again.

Reconstruction of the ancient synagogue

THE MACCABEAN REVOLT AND THE STORY OF CHANUKAH

The Hellenistic period of Jewish history followed Alexander the Great’s bloodless conquest of Judea in 322 BCE. Alexander died at a young age and his vast empire was split up between his generals. The Ptolemaic kingdom was centered in Egypt and the Seleucid kingdom in Syria and Babylon. Judea was in the middle and the two kingdoms struggled for its control over the next 150 years. Judea was originally under the control of the Ptolemaic Empire, but then passed to the Seleucid Empire. Following his death, Seleucius was succeeded by his brother Antiochus IV, the villain of the Chanukah story.

The story surrounding the Jewish festival of Chanukah is about the struggle of Judea against two enemies – an external enemy, the Seleucid Empire, and an internal enemy, Hellenized Jews, many of whom wished to bring Greek ways into Judea.

The Greek way of life was the antithesis of Judaism, but was attractive to many Jews. Its focus was on the centrality of man and the human body, and included physical sports, nudity, lack of sexual restraint, warfare, and also literature, drama, poetry and architecture. The Greeks believed in a pantheon of squabbling gods, and although this belief was waning among the intelligentsia, the worship of these gods was culturally important.

Antiochus appointed high priests to the Temple and they brought in pagan practices. The Temple riches were raided and Antiochus began a campaign to stamp out Jewish practices and supplant them with pagan worship. Why did he do this? It could be that he considered Judaism a threat to the homogeneity of his empire. An interesting suggestion is that belief in Greek paganism was waning and Judaism was becoming attractive to many people in his empire. Mass conversions would have been a threat to the Greek Empire.

When Greek soldiers approached the village of Modi’in in 166 BCE, Mattisyahu ben Yochanan killed the Jew who was about to worship at the pagan altar set up in the town square and the soldiers sent to the town. With his words “Whoever is for God – let him come to me!” the revolt against the Syrian Greeks and their Hellenist supporters had begun.

An army of 6,000 volunteers gathered in the Judean Desert. Mattisyahu was an old man and he died a year after initiating the rebellion, but his sons continued the struggle. Leadership of the Jewish army passed to Judah Maccabee (Judeus Maccabeus). He was singularly successful in defeating a number of armies sent by the Seleucids despite being outnumbered in these battles. Eventually, he was able to liberate Jerusalem and purify the Temple. However, this was not the end of this struggle and 5 years after liberating the Temple he was killed in battle and Jewish forces were forced to abandon Jerusalem. Leadership of the revolt now passed in turn to his brothers Yochanan, Yonathan and Shimon. It was not until 137 BCE that Shimon was able to assert complete control over Judea. The Maccabean dynasty lasted until Herod the Great came to power in 37 BCE as an agent of Rome as a result of a civil wall between the Hasmonean brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II.

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, commemorates the miracle of the purified oil which lasted for 8 days following the purification of the Temple, even though there was sufficient for one day only. Chanukah is also the festival of Jewish independence, and commemorates the tenacity of the Jewish people in their fight to gain autonomy and preserve the Jewish faith. The nationalistic aspects of this holiday have understandably been somewhat downplayed during the long Jewish exile when the Jewish people were living among different nations. There are good reasons, though, that this should again be emphasized. It needs to be remembered that military victories, just as flasks of oil, are miraculous happenings.

When was the synagogue invented?

From its inception, the Israelite religion was focused on cultic worship in the Sanctuary or Temple. Following the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians and the exile to Babylon, the Men of the Great Assembly, the religious leaders of the times, put together the basic outlines of prayer. This was primarily the shmona esrei, or prayer of the 18 blessings. In a later period, the rabbis also fixed the timing and form of three prayer services — in the morning, afternoon and evening — corresponding to the fixed times of the sacrificial sacrifices in the destroyed Temple and the times in which the forefathers were considered to have prayed. Prior to the formalization of the liturgy, prayer had been spontaneous.

Synagogues did not become a common feature in Israel until after the Bar Kochba Revolt and the dispersal of the Jewish people to the Galilee. However, even before this, public buildings were used for religious activities. The earliest archaeological evidence of a synagogue comes from Egypt where dedication inscriptions on a stone synagogue dating from the 3rd century BCE show that synagogues already existed by that date. The synagogue at Umm el-Umdan is the second oldest synagogue in Israel, and joins a number of other early Second-Temple synagogues discovered in Jericho, Gamla, Magdala, Herodium and Masada.

An inscription, called the Theodotos inscription, was found in the early 20th century in the City of David in Jerusalem during excavations and describes the function of these buildings. It is inscribed in Greek and carved into limestone and commemorates a priest and synagogue leader called Theodotos. Incidentally, it lists the usual functions of a synagogue in Jerusalem during Second Temple times: "Theodotos, son of Vettenos, a priest and synagogue leader (archisynagogos), son of a synagogue leader, grandson of a synagogue leader, built the synagogue for the reading of the Law and for the teaching of the commandments, as well as the guesthouse, the rooms, and the water installations, as an inn for those coming from abroad, which his fathers, the elders, and Simonides founded."

The word synagogue means assembly or gathering in Greek. The Hebrew term Beit Knesset similarly means house of assembly. Early synagogues were likely used for Torah study sessions, communal activities and perhaps for hosting visitors. At this early stage, regular prayer at fixed times of the day was not one of their functions.

Functionally and architecturally, synagogues and town halls may have been one and the same. This synagogue/public building in Umm el-Umdan is originally from the 2nd century BCE Hasmonean period in the 2nd century BCE and improvements were made in the Herodian period, including construction of a roof.

Its design is typical of ancient synagogues throughout Israel, both at this time and later, and has benches around the sides of the building and rows of columns supporting the roof. Hence, people were facing each other, and some people’s views would have been obstructed by the columns. This was basically a set-up for listening rather than seeing. It remained functional until the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132 CE, when the community and its synagogue were destroyed. There was later settlement in the Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic periods.

Adjacent to the synagogue is a mikvah or ritual bath that was contained within its own building. Ritual baths are not found in First Temple times but were used in the Second Temple period, and numerous ritual baths have been found throughout Israel.