Bet Sheʿarim

Bet Sheʿarim, agricultural cooperative settlement (moshav) and archaeological site in northern Israel, near the western end of the Plain of Esdraelon. Ancient Bet Sheʿarim (Hebrew: House [of the] Gates), about 3 mi (5 km) east-northeast of the modern settlement (founded in 1936), is frequently mentioned in rabbinic sources. These recount that Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (c. ad 135–220) presided over the Sanhedrin, or supreme Jewish rabbinical tribunal there, and that upon his death his remains were transferred to Bet Sheʿarim for burial. In the following two centuries the town became the central necropolis of Jewry. The bodies of prominent Jews who died abroad were brought to Bet Sheʿarim for burial. Destroyed in the 4th century, the site lay forgotten for centuries, until rediscovered in 1875. Excavations, begun in 1936 under the auspices of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, revealed the ruins of one of the largest synagogues of ancient Palestine (now partially restored), destroyed in 352.

Burial at Bet Sheʿarim was in elaborate catacombs, of which more than 20 have been discovered. The sarcophagi there and the catacomb walls have funerary inscriptions in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and are a valuable primary source for Jewish history of the Talmudic period. The presence of many decorative motifs on the sarcophagi, contrary to the Mosaic Law, shows strong Hellenistic influence among the Jews of the period. Bet Sheʿarim is frequently called Sheikh Abreiq in archaeological literature.