place · L0324
Korazim Synagogue בית הכנסת בכורזים
Basalt-built basilical synagogue at the center of the Galilean town of Korazim (Chorazin), on the dark basalt plateau above the Kinneret — carved entirely in the local black stone, with friezes of vintage scenes, animals, and a Medusa head. Its famous find is the carved basalt armchair known as the "Seat of Moses," the clearest physical example of an object type otherwise known from rabbinic and New Testament texts; the original is in the Israel Museum, with a replica at the site.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- בית הכנסת בכורזים
- Also known as
- Chorazin, Chorazin synagogue, Korazin, Karzayim
III. Where
- Modern location
- Korazim National Park, basalt plateau north of the Kinneret, Israel
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The synagogue was surveyed by Kohl and Watzinger in 1905 and excavated principally by Ze'ev Yeivin, who reconstructed a basilical hall of the Galilean type built wholly of local basalt, in use in the late Roman and Byzantine periods (conventionally 4th–5th century CE, with debate over an earlier 3rd-century phase and destruction-and-rebuild history). | archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| The carved basalt armchair found in the synagogue in 1926 — a seat with an Aramaic dedication to Yudan bar Yishmael on its back — is the clearest surviving example of the honorific seat the sages call the kathedra d'Moshe, on which an elder or reader sat facing the congregation; the original chair is in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and a replica stands in the hall.
The Kohl/Watzinger 1905 visit was a survey only; the seat came to light in the 1926 excavation. Rabbi Acha's comparison of Shlomo's throne to "the kathedra of Moshe" (Pesikta deRav Kahana 1:7) and Matthew 23:2 are the textual witnesses to the object type.
|
archaeology rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Talmud remembers the town's produce: Rabbi Yosei teaches that the wheat of Karzayim and Kfar Achim would have been brought for the omer offering had they been closer to Yerushalayim — Karzayim being commonly identified with Korazim.
The identification of the Talmud's Karzayim with Chorazin is the standard one (so already the talmudic dictionaries), but it rests on the name alone.
|
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| The synagogue's carved decoration mixes Jewish and Greco-Roman motifs freely — grape-harvest (vintage) scenes, lions, an eagle, and a Medusa head — evidence of how comfortably a Galilean Jewish community of the talmudic era used the surrounding visual culture in its house of prayer. | archaeology | ★★★★☆ |