  Selections from classical Torah sources which express the special relationship between the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael BEIT SHEAN "If the Garden of Eden is in Eretz Yisrael then its gate is at Beit Shean." This is the Talmudic tribute to the special sweetness of the fruits of this area which lies about 120 meters below sea level. It was to the walls of Beit Shean that the Philistines fastened the corpses of King Saul and his sons after vanquishing the Israelite army. Saul once saved the honor of the men of Yavesh Gilead, when the Ammonites had surrounded the city and demanded the right to blind the right eye of every one of its citizens as the price of peace. When the men of Yavesh Gilead heard of this, they marched all night in order to remove the bodies and bury them.
Modern Beit Shean was founded soon after the establishment
of the State of Israel near a small Arab town called Bissan, a
corruption of the city's Biblical name, and rapidly expanded to
become a major development town which absorbed many olim
from North Africa.
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Written by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions
General Editor: Rabbi Moshe Newman
HTML Production: Eli Ballon
HTML Design: Michael Treblow
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