Location: Beit Shearim National Park (Lower Galilee)
Subject: Sanhedrin (Jewish legislative and judicial Rabbinate)
Reference: Sefer Devarim Perek 17 Pesukim 8-11
Written by: David Magence
Parashat Shoftim refers to the Sanhedrin, the supreme religious court.0
From the time the Beit HaMikdash was built until its exile forty years before the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash, the Sanhedrin was headquartered on Har Habayit, in accordance with our pesukim.0
Among the places the Sanhedrin convened between its exile from Har HaBayit and its abolishment by the Byzantines was Beit Shearim, in the Lower Galilee.0
Beit Shearim was the town in which Rebbi, Rav Yehudah HaNasi, the editor of the Mishna and head of the Sanhedrin, lived.0
The highlight of the Beit Shearim National Park is thirty catacombs (burial caves) cut out of the natural rock. These burial caves were in use from the first through the fourth centuries C.E., and include the burial cave of Rav Yehudah HaNasi and his family.0
