Translated by Yehoshua Siskin
We thought that today's main headline would be concerned with who would not sit in the next government with Lapid, or Bennett, or Sa'ar. But then news arrived from the Antiquities Authority reminding us that our story is bigger than that. The timing could not be better for receiving such an ethically demanding greeting from the past.
In a special operation in the Judean Desert, 2,000-year-old parchment fragments were unearthed in the Cave of Horror, saving them from antiquity cave robbers. The Cave of Horror is carved out of the side of a cliff and received its name from skeletons that were found there. They were what remained of 40 men, women, and children who were butchered by a Roman legion during the Bar Kochba revolt. But side by side with these Jewish remains, words of Biblical verses were found that are still alive today. After the fragments, written in Greek, were put together and deciphered, the words were almost identical to those from the book of Zechariah - words that, in this moment, are like cool water upon our weary souls:
"These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth each one with his neighbor; truth, and judgment of peace you shall judge in your cities. And let no one think evil of his neighbors in your heart, nor shall you love a false oath - for all these are what I hate, says the Lord."
Whenever an ancient treasure like this is discovered, we say this is further proof of our ancient and deep connection to this land, and how much our story is not political and did not begin in 1948. But It seems to me that before we bring this evidence to Palestinians and others who oppose our right to be here, we should be reminded of that connection first among ourselves - what that connection means, and how it should inspire us, especially now.
