Is That a Burning Bush? Is This Mt. Sinai? Solstice Bolsters a Claim
On the year’s shortest day, hundreds of Israelis ventured deep into the desert to witness a strange natural phenomenon atop an ancient pilgrimage site that some argue is where God spoke to Moses.
The “Burning Bush” phenomenon, occurring on the winter solstice, at Mount Karkom in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.Credit...Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
MOUNT KARKOM, Israel — The mountain kept its secrets for centuries, its air of sacred mystery enhanced by a remote location in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.
But one day last week, hundreds of Israeli adventurers headed deep into the wilderness to reach Mount Karkom, determined to get closer to answering a question as intriguing as it is controversial: Is this the Mount Sinai of the Bible, where God is believed to have communicated with Moses?
Mount Sinai’s location has long been disputed by scholars both religious and academic, and there are a dozen more traditional contenders, most of them in the mountainous expanses of the Sinai Peninsula across the border in Egypt.
But Mount Karkom’s claim has gained some popular support because of an annual natural phenomenon that an intrepid group of archaeology and nature enthusiasts had come to witness for themselves.
In 2003, a local Israeli guide and ecologist happened to be atop Karkom’s vast plateau one day in late December around the time of the winter solstice, when he came upon a marvel.
At midday, with the sun low in the sky on one of the shortest days of the year, he peered across a deep ravine and spotted a strange aura of light, flickering like flames, emanating from a spot on a sheer rock face.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/world/middleeast/israel-mount-sinai-burning-bush.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSlUYAibKWsIjolqDhPTDxLExj2TiaymOUz9Py6EQBJWG5wLWZKxqZp45wi6dRdlOdbUyX_w0zvNaOwYlbTiUlaa-ucZPJTQp-8X0V3kq3pnJUPdo_WC3PzThJKIhz7Pm-k_XbWT1UfSP12kkJl1uo5Vudg6vincY1-ySRL4Or9p13v8jBpp_Ry5RJ3XZ-qm1VGgtfYmOfRre6QEpW-pGWzm1ndKU774IcwQ6GkuRBTokoj56sIUATYtRaKXvLBcge978gaESDwFrKISuA54xT-vEhj-Dk9ckOe55VG3mvE_bzvI&smid=url-share
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I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
... but I do believe there's a scientific explanation for the burning bush story of the Bible. Moses wasn't a magician, he was a man of simple faith, and he told his stories in the only way he could. How we interpret those stories in the 21st century tells more about us than it does about Moses and his contemporaries.
and a climber willing to scale that wall an place it. Easy trick for a bunch of engineering college kids.
Or, maybe the anarchists have aimed that Jewish Space Laser at that spot just for fun.....
"shown" a small bush which was "the burning bush."
As we were flying over the arid, rugged terrain my spouse commented that walking there one could easily start conversing with god..
