
The excavations at the ancient Jewish village Huquk, continuing since 2011, bring to light the fascinating truth of the flourishing Jewish life in the Galilee, over 500 after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed.
We usually tend to believe that, starting from the year 70 CE, the Jewish life in the Promised Land was abruptly brought to the end, and the Jews were dispersed all over the world. This is what we usually call "the Diaspora of the 2,000 years".
But this is far from being true! Until the end of the 7th Century CE the Jewish life continued flourishing in the Galilee, with over a million Jews living there. Moreover, at the same period the total population of the Palestine was about 5 million people, with over 1.5 million Jews among them (close to half of million were spread all over the country, in addition to the million in the Galilee).
For the next time, the population of Israel will reach 5 million in 1970, only!
And those Galilean Jews, although faithful and keen in their religion, were not afraid of the beauties of the world. They even decorated their synagogue in Huquk with the pictures of Samson and Alexander the Great!
Attached is the full story, with the fascinating pictures: http://www.realmofhistory.com/2018/07/11/ancient-huqoq-synagogue-mosaics/
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