A fateful cave excavation

After the birth of their son, MbY and family returned to Israel where ben Yoseif was re-hired at the Jerusalem Post under an independent contract from the same publisher who had earlier cut the editorial staff. Now a senior member of the editorial staff and part of the Post management, his focus was on articles that would increase the appeal of the Post to non-Jewish subscribers.  These stories and columns were primarily of a religious and spiritual nature and included depth features and stories about the ongoing excavation for a "Kalal," (Heb. vessel) at a cave complex north of Qumran directed by Vendyl Jones of the Institute of Judaic-Christian Research in Arlington, Texas.  Jones believed this Kalal contained the ashes of the Red Heifer needed to reinstitute the Temple religious economy.

On the last day of the excavation in 1988, after Jones' crew had found nothing despite months of digging in the hostile heat, ben Yoseif accidentally discovered another opening into the cave complex on its northern side.

"The description of the cave in the Copper Scroll stated that "on the way from Jericho to Secaca (believed to be an ancient name for Qumram), at the Cave of the Column which has two entrances facing east, dig at the north entrance. There is the kalal."  Vendyl's earlier excavations had been inside, over and under the two entrances facing east, especially the one northernmost. But his wife, Zahava, said the scroll indicated there should be another entrance on the north. 

The discovery of the northern entrance

"The only opening into this cave from the north was a hole about the size of your head on the southern side of what appeared at the time to be an eagle's nest on the side of a cliff. I was walking along a ledge of this cliff trying to get back to my car to head back into Jerusalem before dark on the last day of the dig in 1988. The path petered out and in attempting to jump over to another ledge, a rock that had supported me gave way. Somehow, I slid on my belly feet first down the cliffside, which was shaped like a funnel. It rolled me over and my size 14s landed atop a rock pile -- the eagle's nest-like opening -- breaking my fall.  Not knowing how I was going to get down from that cliff, I just started yelling for help.

When help did not come right away, ben Yoseif said he threw a rock into the head-sized hole on the southern side of the eagle's nest. The rock sailed for some time before it hit bottom. "I stuck an arm into the opening and noted that the temperature was at least 40 degrees cooler inside than outside and knew this was a northern entrance into a cave of some kind."

After continuing to yell, Larry Borntragger of Goshen, IN., stuck his head over the top of the cliff and said, "How did you get down there," to which ben Yoseif said he replied, "Get Vendyl, a lantern and a rope. There is a cave entrance here."

Vendyl arrived with the rope and lantern and lowered himself down. He helped me dig a hole big enough and I slid on my belly into the opening which did conceal a sizeable cave with a ceiling that had collapsed several times.

40 tons of fill, one bucket at a time

"Jan Karnis, with whom I had worked at METV, and I got permission to excavate the fill at the entrance of the cave down to about 13 feet until we reached the first compaction level. We stopped digging and notified Vendyl when we found a turkish sardine tin. But the some 40 tons of fill we removed one bucket at a time provided a platform outside of the cave for Vendyl to bring up conveyors and further excavate when he returned in 1992 with another crew. Dr. Larry Banks, the former chief archaeologist of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, led the 1992 excavation which gained international notoriety for its find.

The cave yielded about 600 pounds of a substance identified by Rabbi Moshe Antelman, a chemical advisor with the Dept. of Nuclear Physics at the Weismann Institute and scientists at Bar-Ilan University, as containing the atomic footprints of 11 of the 14 ingredients contained in the pituum ha-ketoret (the holy incense used in the Jerusalem Temple). 

Significance of find re: Halachah

"This is probably the most important archaeological discovery ever made to validate the Halachah and oral tradition of Judaism. The written Torah only lists four ingredients, but the oral tradition 14 and the only three not located in the analyses, occur in minute quantities or may have been added just prior to use of the incense. Since the cave contained no evidence of occupation and the incense was found in pits cut into the bedrock at a level 37 feet below the original fill line, it appears to have been a place where the incense was mixed and/or stored. And the fact that the cave predated the compilation of the Talmud by at least 500 years validates the oral tradition later recorded in the Talmud. It is immensely important for that reason."

Jones' claims cave contains the Ark of the Covenant and Tabernacle

The floor and walls of the same cave are believed by Jones to hide many other articles used in the First Temple. Jones recently secured the blessing of a Kabbalist to bring out the Ark of the Covenant by T'sha b'Av (August 14) of 2005.

"I wish Jones every success but 2 Maccabbees 2:4-8 states that the cave containing the Ark hidden by the prophet Jeremiah upon the direction of King Josiah is in Jordan in proximity of Mount Nebo and "the place shall remain unknown until God gathers His People together again and shows His ruhumah (mercy)."  This is a direct reference to the Return of the House of Joseph who God earlier judged "Not My People" and "Without Mercy." Unless the Return is embraced by the authority of the Sanhedrin by T'sha b'Av this year, I believe the Ark will remain hidden in a cave on the mountain from which Moses looked into the land of Israel."