Sunday, April 21, 2013

A 12th century visit to Meron

Here is Benjamin of Tudela's 12th century account of visiting Meron, and you could see he visited the kivrei tzaddikim:

"...and Jewish sepulchres. R. Johanan ben Zakkai and R. Jehudah[1] Halevi are buried here. All these places are situated in Lower Galilee. From here is is two days to Tymin or Timnathah, where Simon the Just and many Israelites are buried, and thence three parasangs to Medon or Meron.[2] In the neighbourhood there is a cave in which are the sepulchres of Hillel and Shammai. Here also are twenty sepulchres of disciples, including the sepulchres of R. Benjamin ben Japheth, and of R. Jehudah ben Bethera."

[1] I used the image from the 1633 edition, because I like it, and as you can see, it says Jonathan. But in Marcus Nathan Adler's critical edition the text has Jehudah on the authority of two good manuscripts, while two others which he used have Jonathan. Adler writes that as R. Yehudah Ha-levi died 30 years before Rabbi Benjamin visited, "the question of the burial-place of our great national poet is thus finally settled," contra the suggestions of earlier scholars (e.g., Shadal) that R. Yehuda Ha-levi didn't really reach Eretz Yisrael, much less die there. And see these two posts by Eliezer Brodt (here and here).

[2] He cites the manuscripts, and the better reading is "Medon, that is Meron."

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