Kfar Bar'am

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This article is about the village in Upper Galilee known as Kfar Bar'am. For other uses, see Kfar Bar'am (disambiguation).

Ruins of ancient synagogue

Kfar Baram (also Kafr Bir'im or Kafar Berem) is the site of an ancient village in Northern Israel, about 3 kilometers from the Lebanese border. The name is often assumed to mean "Son of the People," incorporating the Aramaic word bar בר, meaning "son" and the Hebrew word am עם meaning "people". However, if like at Shfar'am, both elements are Hebrew, the name could derive from a literary Hebrew word בר indicating cleanliness, purity, pristineness and wholesomeness - "The wholesome people" or "wholesomeness of the people". In modern Hebrew, בר is most commonly used in phrases to indicate "wilderness" or "nature".

Bar'am is notable for the remains of an ancient synagogue.

The site of the synagogue, now a National Park, lies above the kibbutz of Bar'am. The synagogue is preserved up to the second story and has been restored. dating from the second or third century.

The architecture of the synagogue is similar to that of other synagogues in the Galilee built in the Talmudic period. In 1522, Rabbi Moses Basula wrote that the synagogue belonged to Simeon bar Yochai, who survived the Second Jewish War in 132-135 BCE (the Bar-Kochba revolt). But archeologists have concluded that the building was built at least a century later.

The Israeli archaeologist, Lipa Sukenik (1889-1953), who was instrumental in establishing the Department of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, excavated a relief in one of the synagogues in 1928, and dated the Bar’am synagogue to the third century CE.

The synagogue is made of basalt stone, standard for most buildings in the arae..

The six-column portico is unusual. The front entrance of the synagogue has three doorways that face Jerusalem. In front of the entrance are some of the (originally eight) columns with Attic bases which supported a porch. There is an inscription under the right window on the facade, which reads: "Banahu Elazar bar Yodan", which means "Elazar bar Yodan built it". Elazar bar Yodan is a Jewish Aramaic name.

The interior of the synagogue was divided by rows of columns into three aisles and an ambulatory.

There was a second, smaller synagogue, but little of it was found. A lintel from this smaller synagogue is at the Louvre.

After the Arab conquest, the Christian Arab villagers of Bar'am left the two synagogues intact, and they built their own church on its side, which is still standing today. The Maronite church is open only on holidays.

The town was captured October 31, 1948 by the Israel Defense Forces during operation Hiram. The villagers deserted Bar'am, most moved to the neighboring village of Elgish.

According to tradition the prophet Obadiah and Esther, wife of King Xerxes, were buried at Kfar Bar'am. On Purim, the Megillat Esther (Scroll of Esther) was read at her grave.

Kfar Bar'am can be reached by the road running north from Meron to Sassa (9km/6mi).