Lost and Found

 Bava Metzia 28

Today’s post is not about the current daf but it is topical nonetheless. In Jerusalem last week the City of David held its annual archaeological conference. This is a fabulous event for Bible scholars, tour guides, archaeologists and anyone interested in the intersection of history and archaeology. The speakers at the conference present the latest discoveries made in the City of David and there are tours of the newest sites, most not yet open to the public.

This year’s “it” discovery was something called the podium. This is a pyramid-shaped, stepped structure found on the side of the monumental first century CE street that led from the Siloam (Shiloach) pool up to the area below the Temple Mount. The archaeologists who exposed it are Joe Uziel and Nachson Szanton.

 (https://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com/)

The road was the main street that pilgrims would use when they came to Jerusalem. First they would go to the pool and get water and hear the latest news, then they would make their way up the road to the shops and mikvaot that stood at the foot of the Western Wall. After that, they would ascend to the Temple Mount itself, either by way of Robinson’s Arch or through the Hulda Gates.

The street was carefully constructed, with broad steps to make the ascent easier. Based on the coins found there, it dates to the first decades of the first century and therefore was only used for a short time before the Temple was destroyed. But in that half-century, it was the most important street in the city, perhaps in the country. During pilgrimage season thousands would visit it daily.

 (Wikipedia)

The podium stands at a point between steps where it can be easily seen from further up the street or further downhill. It seems not to be the entrance to a building as no doorway was found nearby.  Uziel and Szanton suggest several possibilities for the podium’s use. Perhaps it was a place for speeches, a Hyde Park for Jerusalem; or for government sponsored announcements. Perhaps auctions, maybe even of slaves, were held there. To daf yomi learners, their most intriguing suggestion may be that it was an אבן הטוען, a stone for declaring lost objects.

The commandment of returning a lost object, השבת אבידה , took on special significance in Second Temple Jerusalem. The Gemara in Bava Metzia 28 explains that when the Temple was standing, a lost object needed to be announced in Jerusalem over the course of three holiday until it was considered ownerless. Where was that announcement made? At a stone called the stone of claims:

 אבן טוען היתה בירושלים, כל מי שאבדה לו אבידה נפנה לשם, וכל מי שמוצא אבידה נפנה לשם. זה עומד ומכריז, וזה עומד ונותן סימנין ונוטלה. וזו היא ששנינו: צאו וראו אם נמחת אבן הטוען

Our Rabbis taught: There was a Stone of Claims  in Jerusalem: whoever lost an article repaired thither, and whoever found an article did likewise. The latter stood and proclaimed, and the former submitted his identification marks and received it back. And in reference to this we learnt: Go forth and see whether the Stone of Claims is covered.

The last line in the Gemara refers to an incident recorded in the mishnah of Masechet Taanit.  There was a drought in Jerusalem and Honi HaMaagel was asked to pray for rain. His prayer was too successful and the city was almost covered in a flood. In order to check how high the waters had risen, the people go went to see if the Stone of Claims was covered, probably because it was a well-known landmark and also because it was relatively high up.

What makes this podium a possible candidate to be the אבן הטוען ? It is on the main street, high up so that everyone would see the speaker, and in a position where many can see and hear him all up and down the street. Could it be that Uziel and Szanton have found something that had been lost:  a small and fascinating detail about aliya laregel, pilgrimage to the Temple?