The 29th of November is a very important day in the history of the region.

On November 29th, 1947 the UN General Assembly voted on the ‘Partition plan’ suggested by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. The plan included the creation of two independent Arab and Jewish states in the land west of the Jordan River.

The final vote was 33 countries in favor, 13 against, and ten abstentions. This decision represented the first opportunity for Jews to have their own state after 1900 years in Exile.

On the same day, Prof. Eliezer L. Sukenik, an Israeli archaeologist of the Hebrew university, completed the purchase of some of the first Dead sea scrolls. The scrolls were found earlier that year by a bedouin boy in the caves near Qumran, on the northern shore of the Dead sea.

Later on, many more scrolls were found, shedding light and yet more mystery over a fascinating period in Jewish history. The scrolls are the most important archaeological find in the land of Israel. They are extremely valuable to both Jews and Christians because they include the earliest copies of  some of the books of the Bible, and because through them we can attempt to understand the evolution of the two religions and other Jewish sects during the first century C.E.

This movie is shown in the Israel museum shrine of the book, giving the visitors a glimpse of the reality of the time.

You can watch this film at home, but there’s nothing like seeing it first hand by visiting the exhibition in the Israel museum after visiting the desert of Jerusalem!

מגילת ישעיהו
The Dead sea scroll, Book of Isaiah (screenshot from Google and the dead sea scrolls project)

 

 

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