CHAPTER FOUR CREATION AS INTERPRETED IN JEWISH ART Visual Models of Creation in Ancient Synagogues The mosaic floors of ancient synagogues found in Israel have been writ- ten about extensively, and much new material has been added since 1993, when Zeev Weiss discovered and began excavating the synagogue in Sep- phoris. Weiss described and discussed the mosaics in depth, offering a comprehensive study of the various motifs and comparing them to those found in the other synagogues that feature the same design as well as to similar models in Roman and Christian art.1 All six of the ancient synagogues, of which the fourth-century structure in Hammat Tiberias is the earliest,2 have mosaic floors made up of two or more panels. One of the panels is devoted to the Tabernacle and its implements (figs. 41, 48). It includes the Ark flanked by menorahs, shofars (rams’ horns), incense shovels, and the four species (palm branch, lulav; the citron, etrog; the myrtle, hadass; and the willow branches, aravah) (Lev. 23:40). The second panel, which is in the shape of a square, shows the zodiac wheel generally with Helios (the sun-god) at its center and the four seasons, one in each corner (figs. 42, 45, 49). Several of the six synagogues have a third panel that depicts a biblical scene such as the Binding of Isaac (fig. 50). The Hammat Tiberias synagogue was named for two adjacent cities, both of which are mentioned in first- and second-century sources.3 Ham- mat was the home of one of the priestly divisions, mishmarot.4 Tiberias 1 Weiss 2005, 55–169, 225–245. 2 The synagogue was uncovered by M. Dotan between 1961 and 1963. 3 BT Meg 2b “Said R. Yirmiah, and others say R. Hiya b. Abba, “Like the distance from Hammat to Tiberias is a mil, So say ‘mil,’ which comes to teach us that the length of a mil is [the distance from] Hammat to Tiberias.” T Erub 5:2: “Originally the people of Tiberias would go to Hammat, but the people from Hammat would only go to the site of the [now ruined] kippa (arch-dome). Now, the people of Tiberias and the people of Hammat have become one city.” 4 Mishmarot, derived from the Hebrew word “to guard,” and ma’amadot, (see Chapter 1) derived from the Hebrew word “posts,” where the priestly and levitical groups organized to serve in the Temple in rotation. 74 chapter four was the more important city,5 but it had a cemetery and the rules of priestly purity forbade priests from coming into contact with the dead, so this group lived in Hammat.6 The synagogue of Hammat Tiberias was built in four stages. Work began in the third century, but the mosaic floor, which is Greco-Roman in style, dates to the fourth century. The uppermost of the three panels on the floor of the Hammat Tiberias synagogue shows the Temple and its vessels (fig. 41). Dothan describes the Temple/Ark image as “an oikos type of shrine consisting of two slender columns surmounted by a triangular pediment or gabled roof.”7 The struc- ture has three schematically drawn steps that lead up to a pair of closed doors. A white curtain, which hangs over the doors with its edges rolled inward and tied in a knot, transforms the image of the Temple into the Ark that houses the Torah scrolls, thus revealing its centrality to Jewish worship in the House of God, even after the Temple’s destruction. The other implements—the menorahs, the lulav, and the etrog—flanking the Temple/Ark image convey the same idea. The two seven-branched meno- rahs are positioned on either side of the Ark, with the flame from each of their candles turned inward toward the central branch. The middle panel depicts the zodiac wheel made up of circles and squares. In the center we see Helios, dressed as Caesar, driving his four-horse chariot (fig. 42). A halo of sunrays encircles his head; one hand is raised in blessing and the other holds a globe. Around him, in the inner circle, we see a wheel divided into twelve parts with the twelve signs of the zodiac running counterclockwise. In each of the four corners of the panel is a bust of a woman with the sign of a season, carrying fruits and tools in her hands. This iconography is also seen in the fifth-century Sepphoris synagogue. Sepphoris was one of the most important cities in the Land of Israel dur- ing the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud. It was known particularly for the prominent personalities who lived and worked there, of whom the most famous was Rabbi Judah the Prince, who codified the Mishnah. It remained a principal city in the Galilee until the end of the Byzan- tine period. When Christianity came to Sepphoris in the fourth century, the pagan temples were destroyed or converted into churches and the 5 The Sanhedrin, the assembly of seventy-one ordained scholars who made up both the supreme court and the legislature, moved to Tiberias at the end of the third or the begin- ning of the fourth century, turning the city into an important spiritual center for Jews in both the Land of Israel and the Diaspora. 6 Dothan 1993, 573–577. 7 Idem, 1983, 34. .