Zanoah

The village was established in 1950 by immigrants from Yemen, and was initially named Dayraban Gimel after the nearby depopulated Palestinian village of Dayr Aban.Yalqut Teiman, Yosef Tobi and Shalom Seri (editors), Tel-Aviv 2000, p. 82, s.v. זנוח (Hebrew) {{ISBN|965-7121-03-5}} Subsequently, the moshav was renamed Zanoah after the ancient biblical settlement in the Judean Lowlands, mentioned in the Book of Joshua (15:33-34). It is possible that this settlement appears in the Amarna letters under the name "Zano". The ancient settlement is identified with Khurbet Zanuʻ, 1km south of the moshav.Hareuveni, Imanuel (2010). [https://kotar.cet.ac.il/KotarApp/Viewer.aspx?nBookID=93576566#280.7283.6.default Eretz Israel Lexicon] (in Hebrew). Matach. p. 279. In the following years the founders left and were replaced by immigrants from Morocco.

The Beit Shemesh Yeshiva is located in Zanoah. Most of the students are from Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef. Aside from Talmud study, the curriculum includes English language and mathematics, and unlike many such institutions in Israel today, students study for the Bagrut matriculation exams.{{cite news |last=Ettinger |first=Yair |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5111323 |title=Black and White in Color |newspaper=Haaretz |date=September 8, 2019 |access-date=May 19, 2019}} From 2004 to 2015, when it closed, Zanoah was also the home of Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah, which offered a gap year program for international English-speaking students.

The old site lies on a hill, adjacent to the watercourse Nahal Zanoah, a stream that runs north and drains into Nahal Sorek.{{cite news |last=Rosenfelder |first=Reuven |date=December 22, 2005 |title=Follow the Red Rock Road |url=https://www.jpost.com/Local-Israel/In-Jerusalem/Follow-the-red-rock-road |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=May 19, 2019}} Although listed in Joshua 15:34 as being a city in the plain, it is actually partly in the hill country, partly in the plain.

The ruins of Khurbet Zanuʻ which lie on a high hill south of the moshav are thought to be the ancient village of Zanoah,{{cite book |author1=Tsafrir, Y.|authorlink1=Yoram Tsafrir|author2=Leah Di Segni |author3=Judith Green |title=(TIR): Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea, Palestina: Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic , Roman and Byzantine Periods; Maps and Gazetteer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8XJtAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities |location=Jerusalem |year=1994 |isbn=965-208-107-8|page=261}}{{cite book |last=Aharoni|first=Y. |author-link=Yohanan Aharoni |title=The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography|edition=2 |publisher=Westminster Press |location=Philadelphia|year=1979|page=443 |language=en|isbn=0664242669 |oclc=6250553}} (original Hebrew edition: 'Land of Israel in Biblical Times - Historical Geography', Bialik Institute, Jerusalem (1962)) mentioned in Egyptian letters, later part of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:34), and in the "Second Temple period ... reinhabited,"{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Robinson (scholar) |title=Biblical Researches in Palestine |volume=II |location=Boston |year=1856 |publisher=Crocker and Brewster |page=[https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearc02smitgoog#page/n34/mode/2up 16 (note 4)] |url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearc02smitgoog/page/n5/mode/1up?view=theater}}Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.481, {{ISBN|965-220-186-3}} as recorded in the Bible (Nehemiah 3:13).{{refn|group=Note|There were two towns bearing the same name; one in the Shefelah of Judah, called זנוח (Zanoah),Joshua [https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0615.htm#34 15:34] and the other in the mountainous district of Judah, also called זנוח (Zanoah)Joshua [https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0615.htm#56 15:56]. Cf. {{cite book |author-last=Amit |author-first=David |editor=Ben-Yosef, Sefi|contribution=Khirbet Zanuta|title=Israel Guide - Judaea (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country)|volume=9 |publisher=Keter Publishing House, in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence |location=Jerusalem|year=n.d.|page=229 |language=he|oclc=745203905 }}}} During the 1st-century CE, the village was known by the name Zenoha''.

An overhead power line now runs through the ancient site. The site reeks with antiquity, with the signs of an old settlement everywhere. The area of the old settlement is extensive, with razed structures that once stood as walls and houses. Shards of broken pottery are strewn extensively throughout the grounds, with several open-mouthed cisterns and antres.

Zanoah is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah as one of the towns resettled by the Jewish exiles returning from the Babylonian captivity and who helped to construct the walls of Jerusalem during the reign of the Persian king, Artaxerxes I (Xerxes).{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|3:13|HE}}{{cite book |last=Josephus |author-link=Josephus |title=Josephus Complete Works |publisher=Kregel Publications |translator=William Whiston |translator-link=William Whiston |date=1981|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |page=236 (Antiquities 11.5.7.) |language=en|isbn=0-8254-2951-X }} Nehemiah further records that those returnees were the very descendants of the people who had formerly resided in the town before their banishment from the country, who had all returned to live in their former places of residence.{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|7:6|HE}} Whether the reference there refers to the Zanoah in the Shefelah (Joshua 15:34) or to the Zanoah in the Judaean mountains (now known as Khirbet Zanuta{{cite book |last=Ben-Yosef |first=Sefi|author-link=:he:ספי בן-יוסף |editor=Sefi Ben-Yosef|contribution=Khirbet Zanuta |title=Israel Guide - Judaea (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country)|volume=9 |publisher=Keter Publishing House, in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence |location=Jerusalem|year=n.d.|page=229 |language=he|oclc=745203905 }}; cf. Joshua 15:56) is now unclear, as there were two places by the same name. Based on the archaeological evidence, Zanoah in the Shefelah was a settled village during the Persian period.{{cite journal |last=Finkelstein|first=I. |author-link=Israel Finkelstein |title=The Historical Reality behind the Genealogical Lists in 1 Chronicles |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=131 |issue=1 |publisher=The Society of Biblical Literature |year=2012 |page=68 |doi=10.2307/23488212 |jstor=23488212 }}

According to the Mishnah, compiled in the 2nd-century CE (Munich MS., Menahot 83b),Danby, H. ed., (1933), Mishnah Menahot 8:1 ([https://archive.org/details/DanbyMishnah/page/n531/mode/1up p. 502]); {{Citation |title=Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature |editor-last1=Jastrow|editor-first1=M. |editor-link1=Marcus Jastrow |publisher=Hendrickson Publishers |place=Peabody, Mass.|page=406 |year=2006|oclc=614562238 }}, s.v. זנוחא. Both editors have used זנוחה, as found in the Munich MS., as the principalis lectionis, and acknowledging that a scribal error befell the copyist of the Tosefta [Zuckermandel edition] (Menahot 9:2), where he wrote זו לחה, instead of וזנוחה. the finest of the wheat used to grow in the valley adjacent to Zanoah, from whence it was taken for the Omer offering in the Temple.

Eusebius (3rd–4th century CE) mentions Zanoah in his Onomasticon as a village "within the borders of Eleutheropolis (Beit Gubrin) on the way to Ailia (Jerusalem)," and which was still inhabited in his day.{{cite book |translator=G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville |editor-last1=Chapmann III |editor-first1=R.L. |editor-last2=Taylor |editor-first2=J.E. |editor-link2=Joan E. Taylor |title=Palestine in the Fourth Century A.D.: The Onomasticon by Eusebius of Caesarea |publisher=Carta |date=2003 |location=Jerusalem|page=92 |language=en|isbn=965-220-500-1 |oclc=937002750}}, s.v. Zanaoua

C.R. Conder and H.H. Kitchener described the ruins of Khurbet Zanûa, visited by them in 1881.{{cite book |last1=Conder |first1=C.R. |last2=Kitchener |first2=H.H. |title=Survey of Western Palestine – Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology |volume=III: Judea |pages=128–129 |location=London |publisher=The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund |year=1883 |url=https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/128}}

An archaeological survey of the site was conducted in 2008 by Pablo Betzer on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).Israel Antiquities Authority, [http://www.antiquities.org.il/m_digs_eng.aspx?shana=2008 Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2008], Survey Permit # S-44 The site has never been excavated.

File:Old house in the Old Zanoah Ruin.jpg|Zanoah ruin, old house of recycled stones

File:Remains of arched doorway of house - Zanoah.jpg|Arched doorway, Kh. Zanua (Old Zanoah)

File:Zanoah ruins - voussoir stone.jpg|Voussoir stone in Zanoah

File:Gaping hole of cistern.jpg|Gaping hole in cistern at the Zanoah Ruin

File:General ruins of Kh. Zanoah.jpg|General view of ruins at the Zanoah ruin (Khurbet Zanua)

File:Khirbet Zanoah(cistern).jpg|Open cistern at the Zanoah ruin

File:Khirbet Zanoah, near Beit Shemesh.jpg|Open pit in the Old Zanoah

File:Mouth of pit.jpg|Stone covering of cistern

File:Razed stones at Zanoah Ruin.jpg|Razed blocks of hewn stones at Zanoah

File:Stone relics - Kh. Zanoah.jpg|Stone relics at ruin of Zanoah

File:Rock-carved foundation of house at Zanoah ruin.jpg|Rock-carved foundation of house in the Zanoah ruin

File:View of Khirbet Zanoah.jpg|General view of ruins at Khurbet Zanua (Zanoah)

File:Stone relic of Zanoah Ruin.jpg|Stone relic of Zanoah

File:House foundation at Kh. Zanoah.jpg|House foundation at Kh. Zanoah

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{{Commons category|Zanoah}}

• [http://www.antiquities.org.il/survey/new/default_en.aspx?pid=13087 Zanoah in Antiquity] Archaeological Survey of Israel

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Category:Moshavim

Category:Populated places established in 1950

Category:Populated places in Jerusalem District

Category:Hebrew Bible places

Category:Canaanite cities

Category:1950 establishments in Israel

Category:Biblical cities

Category:Talmud places

Category:Yemeni-Jewish culture in Israel