Bene Berak
בְּנֵי־בְרַק · “Benei Berak” on the map
Where was biblical Bene Berak? At Ibn Ibraq (al-Khayriyya), 3 km south of modern Bnei Brak, about 7 km southeast of Tel Aviv. I mark it very likely.
Rabbi Akiva taught here. Every Passover, Jews read how the sages sat up all night in Benei Berak telling the story of the Exodus, until their students came to call them for the morning Shema.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Ibn Ibraq (al-Khayriyya), 3 km south of modern Bnei Brak
- How sure
- Very likely Strong evidence, with no serious rival.
- Other names
- Bene-berak, Bnei Brak, Banai-barqa, Ibn Ibraq
- Location
- 32.0367° N, 34.8277° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The Tanach names the town only once. It appears among the towns of Dan, beside Jehud and Gat Rimmon, in the plain east of Jaffa. That is the whole biblical clue. It is enough to put us in the country just behind the port.
Sennacherib confirms it. His annals from 701 BCE list Banai-barqa beside Beth Dagon, Joppa and Azor, towns of the king of Ashkelon that the Assyrian army captured. So in the days of Hezekiah there was a Benei Berak among the villages behind Jaffa.
Then the name. It survived almost unchanged in the Arab village of Ibn Ibraq. The Crusaders heard it as Bombrac. In the Mandate period a new Jewish town to the north took the ancient name for itself. To avoid confusion, the villagers renamed their village al-Khayriyya. So the modern city wears the old name, and the old site wears a new one.
The Talmud remembers the town for its teacher. "Follow Rabbi Akiva to Benei Berak," it says, as the place to go to learn from him.
How sure are we? Nobody has excavated the site in detail. The general area is very likely right. The exact mound is less certain.
Visiting today
Nothing ancient is visible. The old village lay in what is now Ariel Sharon Park, near the Hiriya hill, south of the modern city of Bnei Brak.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Benei Berak on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Beth Dagon 4 km south
- Gath Rimmon 6 km north
- Joppa (Jaffa) 7 km west
- Aphek 12 km northeast
- Gezer 21 km southeast
- Shaalbim 24 km southeast