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Under the Swaying Palms


 Nazir 47


 In the mishnah on this daf we hear about a second woman who joins Queen Helene in becoming a Nazirite. her name is Miriam and she is from Tadmor (most commentaries correct the text that says Tarmod and make it Tadmor). Unfortunately, nothing is known about this Miriam but her homeland is  well known in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources. Tadmor, otherwise known as Palmyra, has been in the news lately because it is now controlled by ISIS and they have deliberately destroyed some of the fabulous antiquities there. But let’s go back in history to happier times.

Tadmor/Palmyra seems to derive its name from the tamar, the palm tree. It is a desert oasis on one of the main caravan routes through the Syrian Desert:

(Wikipedia)

Because of its strategic location, Tadmor was already settled in prehistoric times and by Biblical times it beame a main stop on the caravan route. It was settled by Arameans and Arabs and later became a Hellenized city, ultimately conquered by Rome.  Its position on the border between the Roman and the Parthian empires meant it was sought after and a strong ruler could dictate his own terms. Or, in one case, her own terms.  Palmyra’ s most famous ruler was a queen named Zenobia who ruled in the 3rd century CE. She became so powerful that she rebelled against Rome and conquered Egypt before she was caught and exiled.

coin depicting Zenobia (Wikipedia)

Tadmor was a wealthy, cosmopolitan city. The residents spoke Greek but also Palmyrean, an Aramac dialect with its own alphabet:


 (Wikipedia)

They built a number of fabulous pagan temples, some of which have been barbarically destroyed by ISIS. This is the Baalshamin palace, discovered almost intact:

(Wikipedia)

Like other large and diverse Middle Eastern cities, Tadmor had a Jewish population. We hear about them not only in rabbinic literature but in archaeology as well. In a 1930’s expedition to Palmyra, Professor Eliezer Sukienik photographed a house that had four verses of the Shema chiseled into a doorframe:

(Times of Israel)

Closer to home, in the amazing necropolis of Bet Shearim in Israel’s north, a number of sarcophagi have inscriptions that tell us their owners were brought here from Palmyra to be buried. One example is the inscription that refers to the sons of Leontios the banker from Palmyra.  

Miriam was fortunate enough to come to Eretz Yisrael not in death but as a living Nazirite woman who visited the Temple.


For more information on the Jewish story of Palmyra see: http://www.timesofisrael.com/hebrew-inscriptions-jewels-of-palmyras-jewish-past-may-be-lost-forever/

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