Our Excavations in Israel

The year we began our excavations at the Cave of the Column was 1977. One of the reasons we waited until 1977 to begin the search for the holy items mentioned in the Copper Scroll is that it was also the 19th year of that 19 year cycle.

The writers of the Copper Scroll were Shimur HaLevi, Hizkiyah, Zekiyah, Haggai the Prophet and Zacharia the Son of Ido the Prophet. They wrote the Copper Scroll in the Jewish Year 3331 or 2,425 years ago. These men, under the command of Jeremiah (II Maccabees 2: 1-6), had removed these treasures of the Tabernacle and hidden them in the Year 3331. Ezekiel had his vision of "The departure of the Presence of Shechinah, the Glory, of the L-RD from Israel" in the Year 3332. [See Eliezer Shulman's "Sequence of Events in the Old Testament" page 135].

The Shechinah, the Glory of HaShem, has never returned to Israel. It was one of the 10 things in the First Temple that was absent in the Second Temple. According to the "records" mentioned in II Maccabees 2:1-8, the Glory of HaShem will return after the Tabernacle is recovered and raised-up. "It is also found in the records that the prophet Jeremiah ordered those who were carried away to take some of the fire, as has been described, and that after giving them the Law, the prophet charged those who were carried away not to forget the L-rd's commands, and not to be led astray in their minds when they saw gold and silver idols and their ornamentation. And with other similar exhortations, he told them that the Law should not pass from their hearts. It was also in the writing that the prophet, in obedience to a revelation, gave orders that the tent and the ark should accompany him, and that he went away to the mountain where Moses went up and beheld G-d's inheritance. And Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he took the tent and the ark and the incense altar into it, and he blocked up the door. And some of those who followed him came up to mark the road, and they could not find it. But when Jeremiah found it out, he blamed them and said, "The place shall be unknown until G-d gathers the congregation of his people together and shows his mercy. Then the L-rd will show where they are, and the glory of the L-ord will appear, as they were shown in the days of Moses, and when Solomon asked that the place might be made very sacred." (II Maccabees 2:1-8)

These Prophets who hid the Tabernacle followed the Torah Jubilee Solar Calendar. Half a millennium later, the Essenes, the people who lived at Qumran, also used the Jubilee Calendar. In fact, there were 18 copies of the Book of Jubilees found at Qumran. Until the Qumran discovery of these scrolls of the Book of Jubilees in Hebrew, we only had them written in the Coptic Ethiopian language. The MMS document found at Qumran deals explicitly with the issue of the Solar Jubilee Calendar and the Lunar Calendar. These are some of the reasons that I use the Solar Calendar in calculating the expectations of coming events.

There was a time when I only used the Christian Calendar, because it was the only calendar I knew at that time. Later, I switched to the Jewish Lunar Calendar. I, at least got the years correct. Finally, Dr. Ze'ev Ben-Shakhar explained the Jubilee Calendar to me. That, with the indispensable aid of Eliezer Shulman's book, "The Sequence Of Events In The Old Testament", I had to revise much of my dating. Especially, I had to change the meticulous calculations of events within each particular year. One cannot use both a yard-stick and a meter-rod to measure the same job!

People have remarked about how much patience I have had to tenaciously work on the Copper Scroll for over 30 years. Persistently I carried on 12 excavations over the past 19 years. But, that is really not true. I do not have patience. It is a matter of knowing when we should start and when to expect to complete the excavation successfully. In the performance of our work, we must be synchronized and attuned to the cadence and rhythm for the symphony of events of the philharmonic concert of the Torah. I do not think an air traffic controller would be greatly apprehensive at 12:30 about a flight not scheduled to arrive until 2:30.

Why was 1977 important to begin our excavations?

First, the Jewish year 5737 or CE 1977-78 was the last year that the Jewish Lunar Calendar matched the Torah Jubilee Solar Calendar in the 19 year cycle. Not only that, but 1977 also meshed with Israel's 30th year from 5708 or 1948 when the Nation of Israel was reborn. Therefore, 1977 was the beginning of the "era of the Priesthood" from the rebirth of Israel and the re-gathering from the nations. In the end, we will also see that all the pivotal years of Israel will mesh and match with the Torah agenda in its entire drama.

To understand why 1977 was such a momentous time to begin our excavation at the Cave of the Column, we must step back and take a broader and more comprehensive look at the entire Prophetic Panorama . . .