Untitled

part are evidently connected: almost the same
names of the donors and the same Aramaic formula
to be remembered for good appear in lines 9 and
17-18. This last panel inscription is depicted in
a different writing, perhaps executed by another
hand.
The most unusual part of the second section
is lines 10-16, which consist of four offences for
which the town’s community will be held accountable:
causing disagreement, slandering friends to
the Gentiles, stealing, and revealing the ‘town’s
secret’ to the Gentiles. This is followed by a threeline
curse, an ominous warning to those who
ignore the last-named proscription and do reveal
the town’s secret. The text of the secret draws
greatly on biblical expressions (Dothan A. 1971).
The nature of this curse is in great dispute among
scholars and is not yet resolved. Some maintain
it is an oath taken by the townspeople, perhaps
an oath inspired by the Essenes (Urbach 1971).
Mazar (1971) argues that the inscription’s early
7th-century date attests that the town’s secret was
the outcome of the Persian-Byzantine political
controversy of 614, which divided the community.
Dothan, dating the inscription to the 6th
century, claims that the ‘secret’ referred to hiding
of the Torah scrolls. Lieberman (1971) suggests
that the inscription is associated with the secrets
between synagogue and church 235
Figure XI-5. The Rehov synagogue inscription.
of the cultivation and preparation of balsam, the
industry of ‘En Gedi.
The Halakha inscription from Rehov decorates
the central panel of the narthex (Vitto 1981; Sussmann
1974, 1976, 1981; Naveh 1978: no. 49).
The Hebrew inscription (with many Aramaic area
names and nicknames) is a well preserved 29-line
inscription, unique in size and content; it is the
longest inscription found in Israel (fig. XI-5). The
entire text concerns issues of Halakha, citing passages
at length.
The text records the tithes and Seventh-Year
produce in many of the districts in the Holy Land;
it contains a detailed list of fruits and vegetables
permitted or forbidden during the Seventh Year
in specific regions. About 90 cities and ‘towns’,
and about 30 brands of fruit and vegetables, are
listed. The inscription names the cities surrounding
Jewish Galilee from south to east to north to
west, and then again to the east: Beth She"an (lines
1-9), Sussita (Hippos-Sussita), Naveh, and Tyre
(lines 9-13); Paneas (lines 18-22), Caesarea (lines
22-26), and Sebaste (Samaria) (lines 26-29). The
boundaries of Eretz Israel, an important text in
Talmudic literature related to the historical geography
of the country, are listed in lines 13-18 in
the middle of the inscription. The named regions
were pagan therefore presented a problem in the