[German Version]

was a Jewish settlement located on a hill in lower Galilee. Flavius Josephus and Greek inscriptions give its name as Besara. In the Talmud it is generally called Beth-Shearim. At the end of the Second Temple period, it served as an administrative center for the estates in the Jezreel valley belonging to queen Berenice, great granddaughter of Herod and sister of Agrippa. The Patriarchate and leadership of the sages moved to Beth-Shearim in the days of rabbi Judah (about 180–220 ce). It is reasonable to suppose that Yehudah ha-Nasi received the leasehold of the…