Palmyra has been in the news recently because of its capture by ISIS. Located in central Syria, about 130 miles
northeast of Damascus, the historical treasures of the millenia-old city and UNESCO World Heritage Site seem safe for the moment. But the world is anxiously watching what the terrorist group is doing.
The seizure of the ancient city of Palmyra demonstrates a shift by ISIS from its focus on Iraq to west and central Syria
and its intent to provide access to the main roads to Homs and Damascus, and nearby gas fields.
On Shabbos two weeks ago, ISIS destroyed the local symbol of control of Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, by razing
the infamous Tadmor prison complex in Palmyra. Syrian government forces are believed to have removed the inmates
before the detonation took place.
Hundreds of Palmyra’s citizens have been beheaded in the last three weeks, and more than twenty people have been
shot in front of the city’s magnificent 2,000-year-old amphitheater.
Ironically enough, most of the world media has focused not on the human toll the ISIS takeover has exacted in Palmyra,
but on the tremendous concern over the possible destruction of 2,000-year-old archeological ruins.
ISIS has a track record of mass destruction of historical artifacts. It has targeted sites in Mosul and Tel Nimrud, among
others, smashing thousands of statues to pieces and dynamiting ancient buildings, including the reputed tomb of the navi Yonah.
A Christian family in Nineveh is reportedly guarding the tomb of the navi Nachum. Asir Salaam Shajaa, an Assyrian
Christian, told reporters, “When the last Jewish people in Al Qosh [Nineveh] left, they asked my grandfather to watch over the tomb, to keep it safe.”
ISIS forces are said to be within 10 miles of Nineveh.
Called a jewel in the Syrian desert, Palmyra was once considered the greatest Roman city of the Middle East. It was situated on an important trade route linking Persia, India and China with the Roman Empire. Gems, perfumes, spices and textiles from India and the Far East, along with wine, metals and glass from Rome, passed through there, bypassing the longer Red Sea trade route.
Until now this site has been considered one of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the world, with thousands of Western
tourists visiting it yearly.
The archeological ruins of the city include a grand colonnaded street of almost three-quarters of a mile, which,
along with secondary colonnaded cross streets, links major public monuments including the Temple of Ba’al, Diocletian’s
Camp, the Agora, the Roman Theatre, other temples and urban quarters. The statues and busts reflect both Persian and
Greco-Roman art. Outside the city’s walls one can view the remains of a Roman aqueduct and elaborate tomb monuments.
Palmyra has a special resonance for Jews because it was Shlomo Hamelech who actually built the city. He gave it the
Hebrew name by which it is still called, Tadmor (Divrei Hayamim II 8:4), because of its palm trees. At one time there were no less than twenty varieties of date palm trees growing there.
Shlomo Hamelech’s construction of Tadmor is described by the Roman Jewish historian Josephus Flavius in his Antiquities of the Jews (Book 8, Chapter 6): “Solomon went as far as the desert above Syria and possessed himself of it, and built there a very great city, which was distant two days’ journey from Upper Syria, and one day’s journey from Euphrates, and six long days’ journey from Babylon the Great.
“Now, the reason why this city lay so remote from the parts of Syria that are inhabited is this—that below there is no
water to be had, and that it is in that place only that there are springs and pits of water. When he had therefore built this city and encompassed it with very strong walls, he gave it the name Tadmor, and that is the name it is still called by at this day among the Syrians, but the Greeks name it Palmyra.”
It is interesting to note that Melachim Alef (9:18) mentions that Shlomo built Tamor (without the d) but the instructions in parentheses in the pasuk tell us, “Kri Tadmor (read it as Tadmor).” In Divrei Hayamim, Rashi explains the reason the city is called Tamor in Melachim; the people of Tadmor did not show gratitude to Shlomo Hamelech for building the city and sided with the enemy against the Israelites, so the pasuk does not want to spell out the complete name in order to avoid dishonoring Shlomo Hamelech.
Tadmor is also mentioned in the Assyrian records of King Tiglath-Pileser. During the invasions in the eleventh century BCE, Tadmor was the key point of connection for many cities and lands, and as a result it was one of the chief sites of clashes between King Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria and the nomadic Aḥlamû-Arameans:
“On the territory which extends from the feet of the Lebanon mountain to the city of Tadmar of the land of Amurru, [to] the [city of] Anat [on the Euphrates] of the land of Suḥi, and to the city of Rapiqu [on the Euphrates] of the land of Karduniaš [Babylon] I [Tiglat-Pileser] defeated them decisively.”
Tadmor, or Palmyra, came under Roman control during the reign of the emperor Tiberius (14–37 CE). When Hadrian visited the city (c. 129), he called it a civitas libera (“free city”), and the city was nicknamed Hadrian’s Palmyra.
The Talmud Yerushalmi (Taanit 25b) states: “Said Rabbi Yochanan: Happy are those who see the fall of Tadmor, for she
was a partner in the destruction of the First Temple and the destruction of the Second Temple; in the first destruction
she sent 80,000 archers [to help destroy the Temple] and in the second destruction, 8,000 archers…”
During the period that Rabbi Yochanan was working on the Talmud Yerushalmi in
Teveria, Palmyra/Tadmor ruled over Eretz Yisrael and Egypt. It had become independent after its leader, Odenathus, aided the Romans in their defeat of the Persians and was granted in return the title “Governor of the Roman East” by Rome.
Odenathus was assassinated by his nephew. His wife and successor, Queen Zenobia, ruled from 267 to 272 and
expanded the empire. She is described as being much more favorably disposed toward Jews than her husband was.
According to Christian sources two centuries later, Zenobia converted to Judaism.
Epigraphic evidence indicates that from the Second Temple era to the third century CE, Jews formed part of Palmyra’s
population of about 175,000, which was made up of Arameans, Arabs and Persians.
In addition, two third-century CE Jewish tombs in Beit Shearim, outside Haifa, identify two of the interred men as sons
of Palmyrenes. A passage in the Mishnah also refers to Miriam of Tadmor as having lived in the city during the first century CE. The Gemara mentions a number of Palmyrenes who converted to Judaism.
Two terra cotta lamps found adjacent to a pagan temple bear images of menorahs on either side of a conch shell.
In Volume 3 of Inscriptiones Judaicae Orientis: Syria and Cyprus by David Noy, Walter Ameling and Hanswulf Bloedhorn, published in 2004, there is mention of a stone doorway in Palmyra into which the beginning verses of Shema were carved.
When it was first discovered by S. Landauer in 1884, it was believed to be part of a synagogue, but then it was proven to
be a private home. These pesukim from Shema are considered to be the longest extant Biblical inscription from antiquity.
The archeologist Elazar Sukenik last photographed the verses when he visited the site in 1933. Sukenik was the father of archeologist Yigal Yadin, who served as advisor to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol during the Six Day War and authored fascinating volumes on Masada and Bar Kochba.
No one knows whether the building with the Hebrew inscription is still standing. If it has been destroyed, the world of
antiquity will have lost a true treasure.
The looting of antiquities in war-ravaged and unstable countries is a lucrative business. According to Mohamed Ali Alhakim, Iraq’s ambassador to the UN, ISIS may have made as much as $100 million on antiquities that were looted from
Iraq.
Last week Alway, a Syrian radio station, released a recording by an ISIS commander named Abu Laith al-Saoudi indicating that the group did not intend to destroy the archeological treasures.
Nevertheless, ISIS did destroy a celebrated 1,900-year-old monument of a lion, the Al-Lat statue, reportedly one
of its first targets. The monument was attributed to a pre-Islamic Arab idol. Some ISIS sources have admitted that while the group does not plan to destroy buildings, statues may be destroyed.
Nevertheless we should keep in mind the Gemorrah in Talmud Bavli Yevamos 17 which states Rabbi Yehudah ben Shmuel says, the day that Tadmor is destroyed will be celebrated by the Jews as a festival.
2 3 S I VA N 5 7 7 5 // JUNE 10, 2015 // AMI MAGAZINE 33
BY PEARL HERZOG