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Synagogue survey

Synagogues made an appearance in Israel not long before Jesus was born. Jewish communities  met in small groups while in exile, desperately trying to hold on to their spiritual roots. The  experience was so beneficial, the practice continued when those in exile began to return to Judea.  In time, they built buildings for their gatherings, and soon those buildings became the center of  towns all over the region. The development of the synagogue was critically important, for in AD  70, the Temple was destroyed. Only the synagogues remained as places of learning and worship.  Some of the standard features in each synagogue was the Torah closet, where the scrolls were  kept, the Bema, where the scrolls were read, and the seats around the Bema. This video shows  the carved-stone Bema at Magdala, and the stones in the center of the Gamla synagogue where a  table for reading Torah once stood. Teachers (and their audience) stood for the reading of  Scripture, and then sat for any teaching (note this detailed description in Luke 4:16-20).  Sometimes the place where teachers sat to teach was called the “Seat of Moses.” A school was  attached to each synagogue. The synagogue at Capernaum, with its school clearly defined, is the  largest from the time period in all of Israel. A place for ritual washing, called a micvah, is often  nearby each synagogue. In Capernaum, that washing could take place in the Sea of Galilee.