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Ba'aras

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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A place in the ravine Zerḳ a Ma' in above the city of Macherus on the northeastern shore of the Dead Sea, where are, according to Josephus ("B. J." 7:6, § 3), the so-called Iron Mountains. According to Eusebius ("Onomasticon," s. v. καριαδεὶμ), the place called Baaru was near Baal Meon, nine miles from Heshbon similarly Jerome on Numbers 32:38 . There are many hot springs at the place, some containing sweet and some bitter water, and they are interspersed with cold springs. One spot is especially remarkable, containing a cave overhung by a rock joining two projecting hills, from the one of which issues a very cold spring, from the other a very hot one and the bath composed of these waters as they mingle is used as a remedy against many maladies, and is especially efficacious for strengthening the nerves. In the neighborhood are mines of sulphur and alum.

An interesting legend connected with these springs is related in the Midrash (see Epstein, "Beiträ ge zur Jü dischen Alterthumskunde," pp. 107,108 and compare Buber's Tan., Wayeẓ e, p. 146, note): Jacob was pursued by Esau on his way along the Jordan, but no sooner did he put his staff into the river than the Jordan divided itself and he passed over. Then Jacob came to Ba' arah (), a place like the hot springs of Tiberias, and there took a bath again Esau followed him and besieged the place, so that Jacob would have died there in these hot waters had God not opened a way of escape for him in the cold springs whither he went. To these miracles the prophet refers when saying of Jacob, "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43: is especially significant for a peculiar plant of the same name which grows there, deriving its name, "Ba' aras" (the burning one), from its flame-like color, which flashes at night like lightning. It was used, says Josephus, "by exorcists to drive out the demons from sick persons possessed by spirits of wicked persons that enter living men and kill them unless some help is used against them." (Compare Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 28:23).

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