Blog post for Parashat Devarim 5786/2026

“Who is a giant? He who carries the gates of Gaza on his shoulders!”

“What is the difference between your expectations and the reality of Israel?” my parents asked a group of Australian teenagers visiting Israel for the first time, seated in my parents’ living room in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. “We thought the streets would be paved with gold,” they said.

Well, before entering the Land, Moses gives the Israelites rather different advance notice — not streets of gold, but… giants!

Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have taken the heart out of us, saying: The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Giants there. (Deuteronomy 1:28)

Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fortified up to heaven. A people great and tall, the sons of the Giants, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say: “Who can stand before the sons of Giants?” (9:1–2)

But is being a giant necessarily a problem? Israel had its own superheroes — giants who could carry an entire city gate on their shoulders!

That, at least, is how Samson is depicted on the mosaic floor of the ancient synagogue at Huqoq. If you want to see this mosaic, it is now on display for the very first time at the Yigal Allon Center in Kibbutz Ginosar.

At the exhibition “Secrets of Huqoq”, you’ll encounter one of the most fascinating archaeological sites discovered in Israel in recent years. Alongside the Samson panel, you’ll see photographs of other mosaics still lying in place at the site — it will be years before Huqoq is ready for public visits. I’ve written about several of these panels before, including the zodiac, the spies with the grapes, and Samson himself.

What is perhaps less well known is that this discovery sheds light on another mosaic — from a different ancient synagogue, at a site called Khirbet Wadi Hamam, also in the Lower Galilee — now displayed at the Israel Museum. Its label reads something like: “Giant Without a Name.”

Imagine you encounter this mosaic for the first time, with no prior knowledge or preconceptions. How would you read the scene?

There are two stories in the panel — and the “giant” in the background may be the same figure appearing again in the foreground, though that isn’t entirely clear. In the foreground, the giant grips three armed figures; beneath his feet, two have fallen. To the right, an armed horseman flees at full gallop. Below the horseman, a fragmentary Aramaic inscription reads: bar d’Shim’ona… avdu hada tavla… minidodon — “the son of Shimon… made this tablet… from his donation.” The Aramaic (and its spelling errors) is a subject for another time. The........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)