JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Bibliography: H. Laufbahn, Levi Eshkol (Heb., 1965); T.
Prittie, Eshkol the Man and the Nation (1969); H.M. Christman (ed.),
The State Papers of Levi Eshkol (1969); Y. Shapiro, Levi Eshkol: Be-
Ma’a lot ha-Sheliḥut (1969); S. Perla, Levi Eshkol: Unifier of a Nation
(1970); D. Giladi, Levi Eshkol – Kevarnit ha-Hityashvut ha-Hamonit
1948–1952 (1993); A.Gluska, Ha-Imut bein ha-Mateh ha-Kelali uvein
Memshelet Eshkol bi-Tekufat ha-Hamtanah (2001); A. Lamfrum
and H. Zoref, Levi Eshkol: Rosh ha-Memshalah ha-Shelishi: Mivḥar
Te’udot mi-Pirkei Ḥayyav 1895–1969 (2002); Y. Goldstein, Eshkol: Biografiyah
(2003).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
ESHTAOL (Heb. לֹ ואתְׁ ָּ שֶ א), biblical town in the Judean
Shephelah, in the territory of the tribe of Dan, usually mentioned
together with nearby Zorah (Josh. 15:33; 19:41). The
Danites set out on their march to Laish from these towns
(Judg. 18:2) and somewhere between were the tombs of Samson
and his father Manoah (Judg. 13:25; 16:31). The aggadah describes
the two towns as mountains facing each other (Sot. 9b).
In the fourth century C.E. Eusebius mentions a village called
Eshtaol in the Eleutheropolis (Bet Guvrin) district, 10 mi.
(16 km.) north of the city; its location is not clear (Onom.
88:12–14). Estori ha-Parḥi (14th century) was the first to identify
Eshtaol with Ishwaʿ, north of Zorah and 16½ mi. (27 km.)
west of Jerusalem (Kaftor va-Feraḥ, 302). The ancient city was
perhaps located at Tell Abu-al-Qābūs, on the hill above the village
of Ishwaʿ, where remains of the Iron Age have been found.
In the War of Independence (1948), the village (pop. 600) was
taken during the building of the “Burma road” to Jerusalem;
it had been abandoned by its inhabitants.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
The name Eshtaol was renewed when a moshav, affiliated
with Tenu’at ha-Moshavim, was founded by newcomers from
Yemen, at the site of Ishwaʿ in the Judean Foothills north of
Beth-Shemesh. Initially this was a work village whose settlers
were employed at reclaiming the terrain for farming. Gradually,
the main branches – deciduous fruit orchards, vineyards,
garden crops, etc. – were developed. Near the village a forest
tree nursery of the Jewish National Fund offered further employment
to the settlers who also worked in nearby forests,
e.g. the President’s Forest commemorating Chaim *Weizmann,
which served as a recreation ground. The crossroads
near Eshtaol bears the name Ẓomet Shimshon (“Samson Junction”).
In 1968, Eshtaol numbered 320 inhabitants, rising to
480 in the mid-1990s and 702 in 2002 as the moshav underwent
expansion.
[Efraim Orni]
Bibliography: J. Garstang, Joshua, Judges (1931), 375; Montgomery,
in: JBL, 54 (1935), 61; Malky, in: JPOS, 20 (1946), 43ff.; Aharoni,
Land, index; Avi-Yonah, Geog, 111.
ESHTEMOA (Heb. עֹמ ַ תְׁ ְּ שֶ א , ַהֹמ תְׁ ּ שֶ ְא
, עֹ ַ ומתְׁ ְּ שֶ א), levitical city
in the territory of Judah, south of Hebron (Josh. 15:50; 21:14;
I Sam. 30:28; I Chron. 6:42) that belonged to the family of Caleb
(I Chron. 4:17, 19). According to Eusebius, in the fourth
eskeles
century C.E. it was still a large Jewish village in the district of
Bet Guvrin (Eleutheropolis; Onom. 26:11; 82:20). The site is
occupied by the Arab village of al-Samūʿ where many fragments
of synagogue ornamentation, such as reliefs of candelabra,
have been found. Remains of an ancient synagogue were
uncovered by excavations conducted by L.A. Mayer and A.
Reifenberg in 1935–36.
On November 13, 1966, the Israeli army attacked the
Arab village – then in Jordan with a population of about
2,500 Muslims – which was serving as the base of terrorist
raiders who had committed a number of outrages in Israeli
territory. The village fell into Israeli hands as a result of
the *Six-Day War in 1967. Excavations by Z. Yeivin in 1969–70
led to the discovery of a mosaic pavement with an Aramaic
inscription at the synagogue site. The synagogue differs in
plan and details from the type common in Galilee in the third
and fourth centuries C.E. It measures 40 ft. (12 m.) by 65 ft.
(20 m.). Iron Age jewelry and ingots were found beneath the
floor.
Bibliography: Mayer and Reifenberg, in: BJPES, 9 (1941–42),
41–44; 10 (1942–43), 10–11; idem, in: JPOS, 19 (1939), 314–26. Add.
Bibliography: A. Negev and S. Gibson, Archaelological Encyclopedia
of the Holy Land (20012), S.V.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
ESKELES, family in Vienna. The name is derived from Elkesh,
i.e., Olkusz, town in Krakow province. The first noted
member, Gabriel ben Judah Loew Eskeles (d. 1718), was
born in Cracow. A pupil of Samuel *Koidanover, he became
rabbi of Olkusz in 1684. The rabbinate of Prague was offered
to him in 1683 but it is not clear if he accepted it. He became
rabbi of Metz in 1695, and in 1708/9 Landesrabbiner (“chief
rabbi”) of Moravia and head of the yeshivah in Nikolsburg
(Mikulov), sharing his office with David *Oppenheim. In 1712
he banned the kabbalist and Shabbatean Nehemiah *Ḥayon.
Gabriel left unpublished novellae on the Talmud tractates
Shabbat and Megillah, a commentary on Avot, and a collection
of responsa (now lost), known mainly from quotations
in Meir *Eisenstadt’s Panim Me’irot.
His son Issachar Berush (Bernard Gabriel, 1692–1753)
married a daughter of Samson *Wertheimer, and, as written
on his tombstone, “wrapped in a gold-trimmed cloak” became
rabbi of Kremsier (Kromeriz) at the age of 18. As he absented
himself frequently on business, he appointed a substitute
rabbi. In 1717 he is mentioned as rabbi of Mainz. Around
1719 he settled in Vienna as court purveyor (see *Court Jews),
supplying arms and other commodities. He succeeded his father
as chief rabbi of Moravia and in 1725 followed Samson
Wertheimer as chief rabbi of Hungary, administering both
offices from Vienna. When consulted by the Moravian authorities
in 1727, he suggested that they enforce the precept
forbidding Jews from shaving with a razor, and advocated
distinctive dress for Jews except for traveling. He translated
into German the Moravian takkanot (published in 1880 by
Gerson Wolf) for the Austrian government. His novellae on
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