New Historic 'Mikveh' Path in Jerusalem

8 THE JEWISH LEADER, FEBRUARY 10, 2017 New historic ‘mikveh’At the same time festivities andpath events departed into Jerusalem this area from the Temple Mount in the north. Thus the Ophel constituted an area of transition between the secular and the sacred and the sacred and the secular, the pinnacle of a personal, religious and national journey that took place three times a year at Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. buildingsVisitors and to installations,the new ‘miqwe’ and willpath be will accompanied walk over bridgesby archaeological, and stairs thathistorical float inand between halakhic the explana ruins of- characteristics of ritual baths and their role in Jewish tions.society In of this the way Second they Templewill be ableperiod to learnin general, about andthe in this area, of the pilgrims route in particular. The and gathering areas. routeFor is hundreds flanked by of shade years stations,after the observation destruction pointsof the objects. On the way the visitor learns about the re- Second Temple Jews were forbidden from residing in ligious laws concerning the mikveh, its operation Jerusalem, and the city’s non-Jewish inhabitants uti- and the water cisterns. The second part of the path is the ‘ascent’ where the visitors go up alongside sights and explanations, By Edgar Asher, Ashernet lized the abandoned baths for their own purposes as on an experential route, the pinnacle of which is the A new path running between two thousand waterdescends cisterns, south storage alongside spaces, the southern quarries Ottoman etc. wall exciting vista of the monumental Hulda stairs and year old ritual baths that were used by pilgrims outsideThe first the partTemple of the Mount, new pathas if onis the a time ‘descent’ line, to - one ar- the double gate on the southern wall of the Temple visiting the Temple Mount is to be inaugurated at - including an exhibit of stone vessels and an expla- cal Park, in the ‘Walls Around Jerusalem National eas that provide an in-depth illustration of the finds, Mount. A Jew who arrived at this point in antiquity thePark’. Ophel The site‘mikveh’ in the path, Davidson which Center is experiential, Archaeologi cir- would enter the sacred compound and fulfill the cular and modular, was constructed and conserved nation about the purification of vessels, clothes and mitzvah of “aliya laregel” (pilgrimage). The path has been highlighted and in that way it incan recent be better years understood by the Israel within Antiquities the historical Authority. and Newly constructed Eilat Airport set to open archaeological complexity of the Ophel site, which By Edgar Asher, Ashernet Ever since 1949 Eilat Airport has been an impor- the Crusader period. tant link between the resort city of Eilat on the Red wasThe continuously accepted interpretation inhabited from of the the Biblical Iron Age word to - - Seaport and has thenot busykept pacecentral with part the of demands Israel. Despite of modern the ‘ophel’tion of the(derived city where from thea king root resided of the Hebrewor an admin verb- growthtourism. of Eilat as Israel’s premier sea resort, the air ‘lehaʽapil’istrative center meaning was to situated, ascend) which is an waselevated probably por The airport is a small airport, thus large modern aircraft are unable to land there. Larger aircraft have was from the south: pilgrims ascended – both to land at Ovda Airport, sixty kilometers north of bothphysically high andand concealed.spiritually In– fromJerusalem, the Siloam the ascent Pool Eilat. Ovda is a military facility that temporarily al- lows larger civilian aircraft to land there. From Ovda ritual baths, and from there to the Temple Mount. tourists take either public transport or taxis to Eilat. by way of the City of the David to the Ophel and its The present day Eilat Airport is also situated in the center of the city. As the city grew the airport ef- fectively cut the city into two halves. On top of that Part of Eilat Airport looking west from the Eilat La- problem the residents had to endure the noise of air- goon. In the center is an Arkia Airline plane. - light hours. craftNow, landing after someand taking sixty-eight off duringyears the most airport of the is dueday to close later this year when the newly constructed Ramon Airport is due to open some twenty kilometers north of Eilat. The land that the present airport currently occupies will be used to build a new city center consisting of hotels, shops and a residential the two sides of the city. At its heart will also be a new area.rail terminal, This multimillion which will dollar be connected plan will toin aeffect new raillink network that will link Eilat to the commercial center Eilat commercial port to the Mediterranean port of ofAshdod. Israel. Thus The railEilat network will be anwill important also connect link betweenthe busy the Far East and Europe for the transport of goods. © ASHERNET An Arkia Airline plane just touching down at Eilat Airport..

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