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Animals of the Ancients |
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Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a
great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. Psalms 36:6
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The caves of the Holy Land figure prominently throughout the Bible,
serving as the burial tombs of all of the patriarchs, matriarchs, Lazarus, and
Jesus himself, as well as the hiding places of Lot, Elijah, the Saints in the
Book of Hebrews, the five cowardly kings in the Book of Joshua, and
Obadiah's prophets. David met with Saul in the recesses of a cave, the
famous Maccabees launched their revolt against Greek secularism from the
safe haven of Judea's caverns, and the great Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai hid
for years from Roman persecution in a cave in the Galilee, where he passed
the time composing the Zohar, the mystical forerunner of the Kabbalah.
The terrain of the Promised Land is naturally perforated with all sorts of
sand, salt, and limestone caves, such as the famous stalactite-stalagmite
Sorek Cave, the paleolithic Tabun Cave on Mt. Carmel (where one of the
oldest neanderthal skeletons in Israel was uncovered), and of course those
at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls lay hidden for thousands of years.
But throughout its history, Israel has been hostess to over 40 invading
cultures, most of whom discovered that her soil lends itself especially well
to man-made underground structures as well. King Solomon's Quarries still
lie beneath the Old City near the Temple Mount, St. Teoctistus created a
whole underground church and monastery complex in Judea, and the
Greeks dug out the soft limestone of Tel Maresha to house water cisterns,
olive presses, cool summer workshops, and columbaria (pigeon coops).
The Bell Caves in nearby Beit Guvrin and the Columbarium Cave of
Maresha (named for its huge cross-shaped columbarium) are perhaps the
most famous and oft visited caves in the Holy Land. Their networks are so
extensive that the rabbis of the Mishna called the biblical city of Maresha
"the city of the cave dwellers". In the end, however, most of the invading
peoples that settled comfortably into their new caves wound up, much like
our biblical figures, hiding out in them once new conquerors arrived. Our
T-Shirt features a common theme discovered on the walls of caves in the
Holy Land, where an abundance of just such graceful beasts has earned her
the nickname "Land of the Gazelle".
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sizes:
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Price:
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$14.95 |
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code
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800106 |
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