Decoding the Ages: What We Learned from Mysterious Inscriptions in Sinai's Mines

The Torah tells us about the sin of the Golden Calf, which took place at the foot of Mount Sinai. The Israelites sinned against Hashem and were severely punished.

What did the Israelites feel at that time? How did they spend their daily lives? Is there any way for us to know?

For thousands of years, we had no way to ponder such ideas. Beyond the traditions passed down by the sages in various Midrashim, how could we learn more about the lives of the Israelites? Did they leave behind any travel journals?

Sir Flinders Petrie, a well-known British Egyptologist, spent decades excavating famous sites in Egypt. He uncovered findings that reshaped historical knowledge, authored over a hundred books, died at the age of 89 during World War II in Jerusalem, and was buried on Mount Zion.

In 1904, after years of excavation in Egypt, Petrie decided to conduct excavations in Sinai. His colleagues shook their heads. "There's nothing to find there," they argued. Petrie knew that Egypt's extensive construction projects required mining resources from outside Egypt, and he chose a location known as "Serabit el-Khadim" by the Bedouins, famed for its Egyptian relics.

Petrie arrived at the site in the middle of winter. While it doesn't rain in the desert, the cold is bone-chilling. He instructed his workers to dismantle the upper structure, built in Egyptian style, uncovering, to their astonishment, stairways and enormous tunnels leading to subterranean depths. Petrie had discovered the turquoise mine of ancient Egypt. Turquoise was used in ancient Egyptian jewelry (though ancient Egyptians knew turquoise for thousands of years, it only became recognized in Europe during the Middle Ages as a stone coming from Turkish ports, hence its European name: "turquoise").

In addition to various discoveries at the site, Petrie found dozens of inscriptions etched within the mine. Later, similar inscriptions were found throughout the area, but Petrie couldn't decipher the script. It resembled Egyptian script but wasn't Egyptian. Petrie wrote that it likely belonged to Semitic slaves employed by the Egyptians in turquoise mining. Before moving to his next excavation, Petrie called for draftsmen to copy all the inscriptions.

The inscriptions' copies circulated among scholars until 1915, during World War I, when the famous researcher Sir Alan Gardiner took the time to study them. To his surprise, he discovered that they were written in Hebrew script, consisting of 22 letters built on the same principle as the ancient Hebrew script known (by the sages) as "Ktav Da'atz." What fooled Petrie and earlier researchers was the resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The users of this Hebrew script used it as a secondary script. They were accustomed to Egyptian script and therefore depicted the letters similarly to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

But what do these inscriptions say? The answer remains unclear to this day. It's very challenging to understand and decipher these "Proto-Sinaitic" inscriptions. Later, many more of such inscriptions were discovered at other sites in Sinai, yet Egyptian authorities in Sinai did not permit free research.

British researchers attempted to decode them. Researcher Hubert Gréen, in his book "Ancient Inscriptions from Sinai" (Althebräische Inschriften vom Sinai), identified the inscriptions as those of the Israelites, who wrote in Hebrew but were of Egyptian origin. In one inscription, he read: "You have shown great kindness – from the Nile you pulled me," recognizing mentions of Moses, the bush, and the Tetragrammaton. Others disputed Gréen's readings. Archaeologist Albright read in one inscription "El save us," interpreting it as the cry of a Hebrew slave seeking salvation from Egyptian bondage. This interpretation is widely accepted among scholars today.

After the Six-Day War, Israeli researcher Raphael Givon took over the project, and along with other Israeli researchers, large parts of the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions were mapped and copied. Although their reading remains unclear, different researchers propose various (and sometimes quirky) interpretations.

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Rabbi Michael Shlomo Bar Ron was born in California. He specialized in anthropology at the University of San Diego while also delving into Jewish thought, publishing several important books on the topic. Later, he decided to reconnect with his roots, moved to Israel, studied at the Or Sameach Yeshiva, and received rabbinical ordination. A descendant of a Yemenite Jewish family, he embraced his roots, delving deeply into Yemenite tradition and the Rambam's teachings, regarded as the leading authority for Yemenite Jewry. Today, he teaches Torah in Beit Shemesh.

In recent years, Bar Ron has been working on deciphering Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions. A few months ago, he published a full interpretation of five such inscriptions (his paper is titled: The Exodus Inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim). To understand the language of the inscriptions, Bar Ron utilizes Torah and Prophets' languages, assuming these are the keys to our ancestors' tongue. Within these inscriptions, he finds the Israelites' responses to the Golden Calf sin, expressing shock at disobeying Hashem's word, their anger at the sinners, and details of their punishment.

One inscription describes: "Praising around the gold... dancing at night... the procession in a place of intoxication." Another states: "This is the shame, remove yourself from Baalet, then you will be greatly ashamed of her name," (Baal – the Egyptian term for the calf), the third inscription: "Answer our brethren – 'Shame!' committed abomination, committed sin." The fourth: "Rejoice with Baalet – their judgment is death."

Of course, unlike what is written in the Torah and the sages' Midrashim, the meaning of these inscriptions isn't entirely clear, but they might nevertheless inspire us to strengthen our spiritual connections amidst the abundant entertainment and revelry cultures in the city's streets. More than 3000 years have passed, yet we can still feel our ancestors' pain and shock at some people falling into "dancing at night" and "processions of intoxication." Against a culture of revelry, we are urged to adhere to Torah as best we can, to avoid being influenced by such indulgence that leads to sin. To escape the "modern golden calf," every person should dedicate time to Torah study, maintaining an open channel to spirituality and Hashem's word.