JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

e’er orah
president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and vice
president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis.
[Bezalel Gordon (2nd ed.)]
BE’ER ORAH (Heb. הרֹ ָוא
רֵ אְ ּב), training camp of *Gadna (the
Israel pre-military youth corps) founded in 1950 in the southern
Negev, 14 mi. (20 km.) north of Eilat. Youth were brought
here in groups for periods of a fortnight or longer to combine
the study of nature and farming with excursions, sports, and
small-arms training. In May 2001 a ceremony was held establishing
a civilian settlement near the training camp, with
the same name. However, in 2006 it was still not inhabited.
Be’er Orah, meaning “Well of Light,” is a reversal of the former
Arabic Bīr (Beʾr) Ḥindīs, “Pitchblack Well,” so called by
the Bedouin because the strong magnesia content of the local
well’s water was likely to cause illness.
[Efraim Orni]
BEEROTH (Heb. תֹ ורֵ אְ ּב; “wells”), one of the Gibeonite cities
mentioned as part of a confederacy together with Gibeon,
Chephirah, and Kiriath-Jearim (Josh. 9:17). Beeroth is listed
with the cities of Benjamin (Josh. 18:25); part of its population
had previously fled to Gittaim (II Sam. 4:3). One of David’s
heroes came from Beeroth (II Sam. 23:37; I Chron. 11:39), as
did the assassins of Ish-Bosheth (II Sam. 4:2). The town was
resettled after the return from Babylon (Ezra 2:25; Neh. 7:29).
Birea, where Bacchides encamped in 161 B.C.E. before the
battle with Judah Maccabee (I Macc. 9:4), has been identified
with the biblical locality. Beeroth is commonly identified with
the Arab town al-Bīra near Ramallah, 9 mi. (14 km.) north of
Jerusalem; Bronze Age remains have been found nearby, at
Ra’s al-Taḥūn. Several attempts to identify Beeroth with Tell
al-Naṣb (Mizpeh?) or al-Jib (Gibeon) have been disproved
by recent excavations. It has been proposed to locate Beeroth
at Nebi Samwil, 1 mi. (1½ km.) south of el-Jib. Although
this identification has not yet been confirmed by archaeological
findings, it is strengthened by the statement of Eusebius
(Onom. 48:9) that a village with this name was situated 7 mi.
from Jerusalem on the road to Nikopolis (Emmaus; but according
to Jerome, on the road to Neapoli, i.e., Shechem), and
its possible appearance on the *Madaba Map.
Bibliography: D.A. Alt, in: ZDPV, 69 (1953), 1–29; K. Elliger,
ibid., 73 (1957), 125–32; idem, in: Mélanges… A. Robert (1957), 82–94;
EM, 2 (1965), 8–9; Albright, in: AASOR, 4 (1924), 102–11; Z. Kallai, in:
Eretz Israel, 3 (1954), 111–5.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
BE’EROT YIẒḤAK (Heb. קָחְצִי תֹ ורֵ אְ ּב), kibbutz in central
Israel on the Coastal Plain, east of Lydda. Affiliated with Ha-
Kibbutz ha-Dati, it was originally founded on Aug. 9, 1943,
southeast of Gaza by a group of religious pioneers from Germany
and was the first settlement in the Negev. During the
War of Independence in May 1948, it was all but razed by
shelling from the Egyptian army. The settlers put up strong
resistance and drove the attackers back from buildings they
had already occupied. Although never abandoned during the
fighting, it was so utterly destroyed that it was decided not to
rebuild the place and in August 1948 the settlers reestablished
their kibbutz on its present site, the former German Templar
village of Wilhelma (whose inhabitants were interned there
during World War II and later deported from the country).
The economy of the kibbutz was based on highly intensive
farming and a factory for coated steel pipes and fittings (Avrot
Industries). In subsequent years it also operated a successful
Subway-style sandwich service, supplying El Al, army bases,
and schools. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately
480, while at the end of 2002 it was 417.
The name, meaning “Isaac’s Wells,” both refers to the
wells sunk by the Patriarch (Gen. 26:18ff.) in the part of the
Negev where the group first settled, and also commemorates
Yiẓḥak *Nissenbaum.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
BEERSHEBA (biblical: Beer-Sheba; Heb. עַ בֶׁ ש רֵ אְ ּב), city in
the *Negev on the southern border of Judah; its name has
been preserved in the Arabic form Bīr (Beʾr) al-Saʿb. Beersheba
was first settled in the Chalcolithic period. Excavations
conducted in its surroundings by J. Perrot uncovered remains
of cave dwellings dug in the earth from this age. The inhabitants
of the caves engaged in raising cattle and the manufacture
of metal tools. Their pottery and stone vessels and figurines
carved out of ivory and bone display a highly developed
craftsmanship. Evidence of the beginnings of a religious cult
was also found.
According to the Bible, Abraham and Isaac dug wells at
Beer-Sheba and also formed alliances there with *Abimelech
“king of the Philistines.” The allies bound themselves under
oath to observe the treaties, and in one source Abraham set
aside seven ewes as a sign of the oath, which the Pentateuch
explains was the origin of the name of the city (Be’er, “well”;
Sheva, “oath” or “seven”; see Gen. 21:31; 26:33). The sanctuary
of “the Lord, the Everlasting God,” which was apparently located
there in very early times, was invested with great importance
in the tales set in the patriarchal period (Gen. 21:33;
26:23–24, 32–33; 46:1). After the rise of Israel, Beer-Sheba became
a city of the tribe of Simeon and was later incorporated
into the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:28; 19:2). It appears to have
been a center of the Israelite settlement in the Negev in the
time of Samuel since his sons were sent there as judges (I Sam.
8:1–3). The sanctuary at Beer-Sheba was regarded as the extreme
southern point of the country in contradistinction to
the sanctuary at Dan which was held to be the northern point
(Amos 5:5; 8:14). Thus the phrase “from Dan to Beer-Sheba”
(Judg. 20:1, etc.) was the customary designation, at least until
the days of David and Solomon, for the entire area of the
country. After the division of the monarchy, Beer-Sheba con-
256 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3