Tiberias

Places

Located along the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias (Tiveria) has long been one of northern Israel’s most important cities. Founded by the Romans and known for its hot springs, Tiberias became a spiritual center with a large Jewish community and a thriving fishing industry.

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Purification in the Hot Springs of Tiberias

TALMUD

The hot springs of Tiberias have unique conditions for their use in ritual purification. The Talmudic tractate Chullin discusses the specific rules for using these hot springs, including the distinction between washing hands and full-body immersion, and the required volume of water for effective ritual washing.

Likewise, with regard to the hot springs of Tiberias, Ḥizkiyya says that one may not wash his hands with water from them before eating, but if there are forty se’a, the requisite size of a ritual bath, then one may immerse the hands directly in them, and this is effective for the ritual of washing the hands before a meal. And Rabbi Yoḥanan says that an impure person may immerse his entire body in such water to become pure, but one may still not use it for the immersion of part of his body, such as his face, hands…

Chullin 106a:7

Shabbat and Holiday Observance in Tiberias

COMMENTARY

The Mishnah records a practical legal question that arose in the community in Tiberias. Rabbi Ovadiah Bartenura's commentary on the Mishnah explains the details of the incident.

סלון – a pipe that conducts the water in it and this pipe/duct was sunk in the hot springs of Tiberias and warmed from the power of those warm waters, and when the cold waters were drawn into it, they are warmed by that pipe/duct that was warmed by the hot springs of Tiberias, and the Sages said that the waters that were drawn into it that pipe on Shabbat, there law is like the law of waters that were warmed on Shabbat – that it is forbidden to bathe in them even a small limb and it is forbidden even for drinking, but the waters that pass through them on a Jewish holy day/Yom Tov…

Bartenura on Mishnah Shabbat 3:4:1

The Walled City Debate

COMMENTARY

The status of Tiberias as a walled city affects the timing of the Megillah reading on Purim. Rabbi Joshua Kulp’s commentary explains the debate in the Talmud over whether Tiberias, partially protected by the sea, qualifies as a walled city from the time of Joshua.

Introduction
Today’s section returns to the issue of when the Megillah is read in Tiberias, on the fourteenth or fifteenth. In other words, was Tiberias walled at the time of Joshua? How could Hezekiah have been doubtful as to whether Tiberias was a walled city at the time of Joshua? There is a tradition that the city of Rakat mentioned in Joshua 19 is Tiberias. It was certainly walled at the time of Joshua.
The answer is that it was walled on only three sides. The fourth side was the Sea of Galilee…

Daf Shevui to Megillah 5b:11-14

Struggles and Divine Intervention in Tiberias

CHASIDUT

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov briefly visited the land of Israel. His student recorded the story Rabbi Nachman would later tell of the danger he experienced in Tiberias, and the spiritual lesson he learned from it.

The same thing happened later when he was in Tiberias. Attempting to escape the plague, he found himself on a narrow wall, hanging by his fingertips above the Sea of Galilee (see “His Pilgrimage to the Holy Land” #19). When he felt that he would surely fall, he cried out in his heart to God. The Rebbe constantly repeated these stories. They were a lesson that he wanted to impress on our hearts and minds. Imagine that you are in the middle of the sea, with a storm raging to the very heart of the heavens. You are hanging on by a hairsbreadth, not knowing what to do…

Sichot HaRan 117:4-5

The Founding of Tiberias

SECOND TEMPLE

Herod's construction of Tiberias involved relocating people and providing homes and land to encourage settlement. Josephus, a Jewish-Roman historian, provides an account of the process of the founding of the city.

3. And now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favor with Tiberius, built a city of the same name with him, and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of Gennesareth. There are warm baths at a little distance from it, in a village named Emmaus. Strangers came and inhabited this city; a great number of the inhabitants were Galileans also; and many were necessitated by Herod to come thither out of the country belonging to him, and were by force compelled to be its inhabitants; some of them were persons of condition…

The Antiquities of the Jews 18:2:3

Purifying Tiberias

MIDRASH

The midrash Bereshit Rabbah recounts how Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai made it possible for priests to enter Tiberias, by miraculously identifying the locations of graves in the area.

“And he encamped [vayiḥan] before the city” – he graced [ḥanan] the leadership of the city, he began sending them gifts.
Another matter, “and he encamped [vayiḥan] before the city” – he began establishing markets and selling at low prices. That is what they say, that a person must show gratitude to a place from which he benefits.
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai and Rabbi Elazar his son were hiding in a cave for thirteen years during the days of persecution. They would eat withered carobs until they broke out in sores…

Bereshit Rabbah 79:6

Bathing on Shabbat in Tiberias - TEST

TALMUD

The rabbis were concerned about the possibility of wringing water from towels after bathing on Shabbat. The Talmudic tractate Shabbat discusses the regulations and practical solutions for using towels after bathing on Shabbat.

MISHNA: One who bathes on Shabbat in a ritual bath formed by cave water or in the water of Tiberias and dried himself even with ten towels may not carry them in his hand, lest he forget that it is Shabbat and wring the water from them. However, ten people may use one towel to dry their faces, hands, and feet, and may carry them in their hands. Even though in this case the towel would be quite wet, it is permitted to handle the towel because there are several people present…

Shabbat 147a:11

Tiberias, Friedel Stern. Stamps of Israel 1960

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