# The Cult of the Mitnabot ## Introduction Unlike the areas in which we are reconstructing the practices of the Mitnabot - the prophetic practice, the mystical symbolism and the politics - the cult of the Mitnabot is at this stage a hypothetical reconstruction: I have not received a tradition about how to do this, and have not yet fashioned one for myself. However, I find studying what might have been the cult of the Mitnabot in light of scholarly research into the period and culture fascinating. First of all, because it part of a dramatic and grand mystical - religious narrative. Secondly, because the practices and ideas involved in the ancient Canaanite-Israelite culture seem to me to be profoundly powerful, and to resonate with the Kabbalah of the Zohar. While none of the cultic objects of the shrine survived, the inscriptions clearly document what objects existed and how they were used. Everything involving the *mitnabot*'s cult was characteristic of cultic practices across Israelite and other Northwest Semitic cultures. At the same time, their practice was also very local and idiosyncratic, as religious customs tended to vary by region and family. The shrines of the Mitnabot contained *matsevot* (מצבות, standing stones), *asherot* (אשרות, sacred trees) and *mizbechot* (מזבחות, altars). ## The *Bamah* or High Place The *bamah* was a shrine in a high place, overlooking the valley, where these Israelites worshipped Y-H-V-H, just as many of their contemporaries did, and their ancestors before them. ![[view from bamah.png]] *The view from the location of the bamah in the Judean hills near Even Sapir as it appears today* ## Standing Stones: *Matsevot*, מצבות. We can get a sense of the Israelite standing stone from a story about Yaakov Avinu, Jacob our father: ![[Jacob and the Standing Stone]] On these passages, Benjamin Sommer writes in *The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel*: ![[Sommer on Gods Presence in Stone]] On the *Beytl*, Sommer writes: ![[Sommer on Betyl]] ![[Hazor image of masseboth in place.png]] Above: *Various standing stones found at Tel Hazor*. See https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/394221-0 ![[alonim 13 Stones at Alonim.jpg]] Above: *Stones lying in a row at the site of one of the Mitnabot's shrines in the Judean Hills* ## *Asherot*: אשרות, Sacred Trees/Wood In the shrine was a *matsevah* (massebah), or standing stone, alongside a living [[Elah Trees|Elah tree]], the *asherah*. The tree would have looked something like this. ![[pistacia-atlantica-photo5.jpg]] *A photo of a Pistacia Atlantica Tree, a likely candidate for the ancient Hebrew-Canaanite [[Elah Trees|אלה (elah) tree]], whose name derives from the Hebrew-Canaanite word for God*. More coming soon... ## *Mizbechot*: מזבחות, Altars (Sacrifice and Incense) Coming soon...