Speaker 1: Right now, let's say good morning to the head of
Speaker 1: the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Speaker 1: It's doctor Joel Uziel. Good morning, doctor.
Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for calling us. We understand you're
Speaker 1: calling us from Israel this morning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, it's not morning for me. It's late afternoon.
Speaker 1: Perfect. Well, it sounds like you're right next door. So
Speaker 1: the Dead Sea scroll Exhibit is happening now at the
Speaker 1: Reagan Presidential Library. I got to go and check it out.
Speaker 1: Was really interesting. So if you haven't been, now is
Speaker 1: the time to go. If you've already been, you might
Speaker 1: want to go again because the scrolls of the Ten
Speaker 1: Commandments are now on display. Tell us about the Dead
Speaker 1: Sea Scrolls, the Ten Commandments and why we get to
Speaker 1: see them.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. Now is the time to go, even
Speaker 2: if you've been there already, Because the Dead Sea Sculls
Speaker 2: Exhibition is at the Reagan for nine months. Every three
Speaker 2: months we switch out the scrolls with a new set
Speaker 2: of scrolls that we bring over. Because the Dead Sea Scrolls,
Speaker 2: which are a unique set of documents that date back
Speaker 2: two thousand years to the period of Second Temple period,
Speaker 2: Judaism and the period of the rise of early Christianity,
Speaker 2: and they were preserved in the dry desert climate. But
Speaker 2: in order to conserve them, we only display them for
Speaker 2: three months and then they come back to Israel to
Speaker 2: our storerooms and rest for five years. However, this week
Speaker 2: we put a special scroll on display and it's only
Speaker 2: going to be there for two weeks, and that's the
Speaker 2: Ten Commandment scroll. Now, I'll just say the Dead Sea
Speaker 2: scrolls on the whole include the earliest copies of the
Speaker 2: Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, that have been found to date,
Speaker 2: and they date back some two thousand years. Commandments roll
Speaker 2: is the earliest copy of the Ten Commandments that we have,
Speaker 2: which includes all the commandments. And what's interesting is that
Speaker 2: the Hebrew Bible actually presents the Ten Comandments twice, one
Speaker 2: time in the book of that Exodus and one time
Speaker 2: in the Bookcoon's Deuteronomy. And this version of the Ten
Speaker 2: Comandments actually is a sort of combination of the two,
Speaker 2: bringing some aspects from each because they're not exactly the same.
Speaker 2: And I'll just give one example, for example, the commandment
Speaker 2: to keep the Sabbath. Different reasons for keeping the Sabbath
Speaker 2: are given into two different versions in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so one says that the reason for keeping the Sabbath
Speaker 2: is because God created the world in six days and
Speaker 2: on the seventh day he rested. And the other reason
Speaker 2: is for the exodus for the Jews leaving Egypt after
Speaker 2: their slavery there. And this version actually brings both reasons
Speaker 2: for keeping the Sabbath, and so it's a very unique
Speaker 2: document and scholars believe it was probably used to read
Speaker 2: the tech tench Commandments in a public let's say, display
Speaker 2: or reading in front of the community.
Speaker 1: Wow, that I'd never heard that there was, that there
Speaker 1: was two Like that? Tell us because you're speaking, you're
Speaker 1: talking about a two thousand year old document. I mean,
Speaker 1: when we go to Washington, DC, you can see the
Speaker 1: you can see the Constitution. It's only a couple hundred
Speaker 1: years old, and it's very faded and very fragile. So
Speaker 1: I mean, how are these even together?
Speaker 2: Well, the amazing thing is that the very very dry
Speaker 2: climate of the Judean desert actually helped preserve the documents
Speaker 2: that are written on leather, and so they survived two
Speaker 2: thousand years in the desert and in their initial discovery,
Speaker 2: they actually weren't treated correctly because the knowledge for conservation
Speaker 2: wasn't there, and so some damage was caused in the
Speaker 2: early years of their discovery. But over the past thirty
Speaker 2: five years, the Israel Antiquities Authority has been using the
Speaker 2: strictest methods of conservation, which include keeping them at very
Speaker 2: strict temperatures and humidity and also limiting their exposure to light.
Speaker 2: And in this way they're actually quite visible, and so
Speaker 2: you can actually see the actual document and if you
Speaker 2: read Hebrew, you can actually read it, which is amazing
Speaker 2: because it's the same script that is still being used
Speaker 2: to this day in modern Israel. And if you have
Speaker 2: some difficulty seeing it, we actually we actually have the
Speaker 2: display next to the actual scroll has an infrared image
Speaker 2: of it which uses infrared for photographics technology to make
Speaker 2: the text much much clearer.
Speaker 1: That is so cool. And I did go to the
Speaker 1: Reagan Library and like I said, we talked about it
Speaker 1: on our out and about segment, if you'll remember, and
Speaker 1: it was interesting that everything is very very low light.
Speaker 1: And I remember that from when we went to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Too, Like they had the first American flag
Speaker 1: and it's displayed in very low lights because the light
Speaker 1: really denigrates the quality of the document.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's exactly it. In order to make sure we
Speaker 2: don't let the documents fade. The lighting is very very low,
Speaker 2: but it's still enough that everything is very clear and visible,
Speaker 2: and so you can really see that everything firsthand. And again,
Speaker 2: this is a unique opportunity because the school will be
Speaker 2: there just for two weeks and then it's coming back
Speaker 2: home and it won't be back in the US for
Speaker 2: a very long time.
Speaker 1: All right, Doctor Joe Uzield, head of the Dead Sea
Speaker 1: Squirrels Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the information. This is just just fascinating. So
Speaker 1: it's going to be the next two weeks and it's
Speaker 1: at the Reagan Library and you can go to Reaganlibrary
Speaker 1: dot com and get your tickets because I would imagine
Speaker 1: it's going to be crowded. Thank you, doctor Joe.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Take care. Oh that was a little familiar of me
Speaker 1: to call him doctor Joe, and I think that's okay.
Speaker 1: We got to know him amazing. Yeah, that is so cool.
Speaker 1: If you haven't been seriously again, the next two weeks
Speaker 1: and then the swirls are going to be there for
Speaker 1: the next few months, so you have time. But for
Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments, that's probably once in a lifetime