{"id":38955,"date":"2018-08-29T14:30:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T11:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=38955"},"modified":"2022-03-23T17:53:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T15:53:21","slug":"luz-city-of-immortality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/luz-city-of-immortality\/","title":{"rendered":"Luz \u2013 City of Immortality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Most of us would like to live forever. There was one biblical city in which this was possible \u2013 Luz.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Genesis, Chapter 35 (verses 6-7), our patriarch Jacob builds an altar there: “<\/span>Thus, Jacob came to Luz\u2014that is, Bethel\u2014in the land of Canaan\u2026There he built an altar and named the site El-bethel, for it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In Hebrew, the place name <\/span>Bethel <\/span><\/i>means literally \u201cHouse of God\u201d. Earlier, on his way to Haran, Jacob had consecrated to God a stone altar there (Genesis 28:18-19).<\/span><\/p>\n

The rabbis of the Talmudic period turned this once Canaanite city into a legendary City of Immortality [compare <\/span>Shangri-La<\/span><\/i>]:\u00a0<\/span>\u201c\u2026the Angel of Death has no permission to pass through it. But the elderly [in the city of Luz], when their mind is done with them [and they want to die], go beyond the wall [of the city] to perish\u201d (Babylonian Talmud, Sota 46b).<\/span><\/p>\n

This tradition seems to be related to the etymology of the word <\/span>Luz, <\/span><\/i>which<\/span> was used to refer to the nut-shaped bone at the base of the spine that was thought to be the indestructible \u201cbone of resurrection\u201d, the one human bone from which physical resurrection will begin (Leviticus Rabbah 18:1 and parallels). The Biblical city of Luz is also referred to as <\/span>Qushta<\/span><\/i> (the Aramaic word for \u201ctruth\u201d) because its inhabitants who never lied, never died before their time (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97a).<\/span><\/p>\n

Significant connections between Luz and life\/death are also found in our chapter. \u00a0Immediately after Jacob builds his altar in Luz-Bethel, his mother\u2019s nurse, Deborah — who had apparently served as Jacob\u2019s beloved nursemaid — died and was buried \u201cunder the oak below Bethel; so, it was named <\/span>Allon-Bakhut<\/span><\/i> (\u2018Oak of Weeping\u2019)\u201d (Genesis 35:8). \u00a0In the same chapter, yet another important death befalls Jacob and his extended family (Genesis 35:16-19):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey set out from Bethel; but when they were still some distance short of Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, \u201cHave no fear, for it is another boy for you.\u201d But as she breathed her last\u2014for she was dying\u2014she named him <\/span>Ben-Oni <\/span><\/i>(\u201cson of my suffering\u201d); but his father called him Benjamin. Thus, Rachel died.<\/span><\/p>\n

It may be recalled that Jacob, at the instigation of his mother, Rebecca, lied to his father Isaac to steal the blessing of the firstborn son from his older brother Esau (Genesis, Chapter 27). It was Esau\u2019s rage at this deception that caused Jacob \u2013 again at the instigation of his mother \u2013 to flee to his uncle Laban in far-distant Haran.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is Jacob\u2019s return to Luz-Bethel that provides the biblical basis for the midrashic tradition that Luz is the City of Immortality for those who never lied.<\/span><\/p>\n

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