“I’ve looked for a period of time when we know that something called Judaism exists, when we have clear evidence that ancient Judeans knew about the Torah and were keeping the laws of the Torah.”
By ROSSELLA TERCATIN JUNE 10, 2021

Dr. Yonatan Adler, senior lecturer at Ariel University, speaks to The Jerusalem Post
When did ancient Jews start keeping mitzvot? What kind of evidence do we have of observance of dietary and purity laws, or practices like wrapping tefillin? The Origins of Judaism Archaeological Project, a new project directed by Dr. Yonatan Adler, a senior lecturer at Ariel University, aims to shed light on some of these questions.

“I’ve looked for a period of time when we know that something called Judaism exists, when we have clear evidence that ancient Judeans knew about the Torah and were keeping the laws of the Torah,” he said.
“The 1st century CE is a period of time when we have a lot of evidence for that, both textual and archaeological,” he added. “What I do in the project is going backwards from there.”
Adler’s research explores different topics, including the presence of ritual baths in Israel and the approach to figurative art.
The findings of the project are going to be published in a book by Yale University Press next year.