A Treasured Nation

And when G-d your G-d will bring you to the Land to which you come to inherit it, and you shall give the blessing on Mt. Grizim and the curse on Mt. Eval. (From this week's Torah portion, Re'eh, Deuteronomy 11:29)

Professor Adam Zartal finished his archeology studies before the Yom Kippur War and soon began his research of the Biblical inheritance of Menashe. In the days after the Six Day War it was still possible to roam freely in the area, and the kibbutznik from Ein Shemer enlisted volunteers to comb the area - meter by meter - in search of archeological artifacts in Samaria. A previous war had left him paralyzed in both legs, but he continued to dig in the area. And his legs and crutches brought him to an amazing discovery: The altar of Joshua on Mt. Eval (pictured above).

Zartal was not looking for the place where the blessing and curse ceremony had taken place because he did not believe the Biblical story. The Biblical archeologists who had come to Israel from Europe and America at the end of the 19th century had all failed to find the altar. Zartal, who did not believe in its existence, did not even recognize the large, unusual structure he had found.

But it was the altar. All the professional parameters proved it without a doubt. The structure fit the dimensions for the altar recorded in the Mishnah and contained large amounts of bones of pure, one year old animals. Even earrings and signet rings created in ancient Egypt were uncovered at the site.

If Professor Zartal's find had reinforced worldwide academia's views on the Bible, he would have won the Nobel Prize. Instead, he encountered a wall of severe opposition to all the solid proofs that he brought. The reason that he was the subject of academic opposition also appears in this week's Torah portion: Because you are a holy nation to G-d your G-d and it is you whom G-d has chosen to be his treasured nation from among all the nations on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 14:2)

Being the children and treasured nation of the Creator of the world is a serious undertaking. It evokes much external and internal opposition. But there is nothing that can change that reality. It is our Jewish destiny and our future - and with G-d's help, we will proudly make it the reality in Israel.