Temple Glass Discovered?!

[Sanguine]

Not many people realize this but the biggest slab of raw glass from the ancient world was discovered in northern Israel in “Beit She’arim”, in the Galilee, in 1956. The rectangular glass slab is 11×6.5×1.5 feet, weighing 9 tons. Beit She’arim is a cemetery where the editor of the Mishna (the first “layer” of the Talmud), Rabbi Judah the Prince/Yehudah haNasi (135 to 217 CE) is buried. Most people visiting this cemetery are not aware that the chunk of glass is there, looking somewhat opaque on the floor of the cave that serves as the visitors’ center.

Common wisdom has it that the giant slab is part of a failed business venture of the 4th century. According to this theory, someone started a glass factory in the middle of the cemetery and when some plant ash fell into the glass, making it opaque, the business venture was abandoned and so was the glass. Does this make any sense? Who would start a glass factory in the middle of a centuries old cemetery? But what if it’s the other way around? What if the glass was special and the people buried in the cemetery came far and wide to be buried next to it?

Because glass today is so all pervasive, people don’t realize that it had to be invented. Unlike basket weaving, however, it was invented – only once! According to the Roman historian Tacitus, this magical event happened in Israel. No one has ever explained how that might have occurred. After all, glass requires sand, natron (a mineral from dry lake beds) and a pyrotechnology that is very, very sophisticated. You need to have ovens that can sustain 1500°C over long periods of time. Who would ever mix sand and lake salt and throw them for days on end into a blazing fire? It’s a mystery....

https://www.simchajtv.com/temple-glass-discovered/

Really interesting story!