[Mesorah] LeChol Ba'ei Sha'ar Iro

[Toby Katz]

 In a message dated 11/25/2019 12:03:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, mesorah at lists.aishdas.org writes:


I suggest to those who are unclear on the meaning of "shaar ha-ir" or "petach shaar ha_ir" to visit some archeological sites in Eretz HaKodesh.I was recently at a newly designated National Park of Lachish, with artifacts from the time, but not only, of Hizkiyahu and Sancheriv.
We saw quite clearly that the Shaar HaIr was a very solid, fortified structure, perhaps with a second floor and room for a number of defenders.The shaar was not an iron gate or something like that, but a building....
The Lachish city gate (24.50 × 24.50 m), which is now completely exposed and preserved to a height of 4 m, consists of six chambers, three on either side, and the city’s main street that passed between them. ...
Dov Bloom






>>>
A building with a main road going through it, with rooms on both sides of the road, sounds like just the kind of city gate that would house a court, customs inspectors and so on.  It makes sense that it would be at the entrance to the city -- a walled city with no other way in and out.  All through Tanach you find important things going on at the gate of a city.  It's reassuring to hear that they weren't holding judicial proceedings and financial transactions under the open sky, in wind and rain and snow.  I always wondered about that. 

Here is a building in NYC that has a road and cars going right through it on the ground floor._https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmsley_Building_


--Toby Katzt613k at aol.com
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