All language subtitles for Museum.Secrets.S03E02.Inside.the.Israel.Museum.Jerusalem.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES

- [Narrator] Jerusalem,

a city of devotion and division,

and at its heart, a museum
with secrets dark and strange.

Underground freedom fighters,

an elixir from a magical oasis,

and a rusted nail that
whispers of a crucifixion,

secrets hidden in plain sight
inside the Israel Museum.

(dramatic music)

The Israel Museum stands in
a city of vital importance

to three of the world's great religions,

Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

For believers, Jerusalem
is where God spoke

to Abraham, Jesus and Muhammad.

Beneath many holy sites, there
are sacred ruins underground,

in layer upon layer back
to the dawn of time.

Religious relics found beneath Jerusalem

and in the holy lands beyond

fill the galleries of the Israel Museum.

Many, like the Dead Sea Scrolls,

are charged with spiritual meaning,

and some contain museum secrets.

- This bone box found in Jerusalem

has a Hebrew inscription
on it with just a name.

The name is Yehohanan Ben Hagakol.

This is the name of the deceased.

- [Narrator] When Yehohanan
died in the first century AD,

his body was laid in a cave to decompose.

And then his bones were
placed into a stone box.

They remained undisturbed for 20 centuries

until the cave was discovered
by archeologists in 1968.

- When the box was opened
and the bones were examined,

the ankle bone of the deceased
was found to be pierced

by a huge iron nail that
remained in the bone.

This is evidence for the fact

that Yehohanan found his
death by crucifixion.

This is the only find ever found

of a man that was crucified.

- [Narrator] And yet,
Yehohanan's last remains

may have the power to completely change

the traditional image
of Christ on the cross.

What was crucifixion really like?

That is our museum secret.

In old Jerusalem, traditional
images of crucifixion abound.

To probe the reality behind them,

archeologist Shimon Gibson
will follow a procession

by devout Christians as they retrace

Jesus's 12 stations of the cross.

- This is the Via Dolorosa,

the beginning of the Via Dolorosa.

The procession begins here
at the Antonia Fortress.

The procession then leads down

through the streets of Jerusalem,
passes under this arch.

(group sings in foreign language)

We're gonna follow them now.

- [Narrator] In Jesus's time,

Jerusalem was ruled by the Roman empire,

a situation that some did not accept.

- An extremely strained
relationship existed

between the Roman
occupiers and the Judeans,

particularly in Jerusalem
because this is where

the Jewish temple was located

and where their main Jewish
festivities would take place.

- [Narrator] Some Jews
resorted to violence

against Roman oppression.

For those who were captured,

the standard punishment was crucifixion.

- The Romans would say,

"Look, if you defy us,
this will be your fate.

"You will be crucified,

"and your dignity will
be taken away from you."

(group sings in foreign language)

- [Narrator] The procession ends

at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Many Christians believe that this chapel

is at the precise location

where Jesus was nailed to the cross.

To the faithful, his death and
resurrection are a certainty.

And in well-known depictions,

his suffering is recorded in great detail.

A nail pierces each of Jesus's palms.

A single nail pins his feet
to a tall wooden cross.

But is this what crucifixion
really looked like?

- First of all, you can see
that Jesus is not naked.

He was supposed to be naked.

The second thing is that just
look at the size of the cross.

The cross is very tall.

In Israel, we don't have those huge trees.

We have no evidence
whatsoever that the cross

or the act of crucifixion
looked like this scene.

- [Narrator] Dr. Israel Hershkovitz

is an acclaimed anatomist who
specializes in biohistory.

He intends to follow the
evidence, wherever it leads.

- Sometimes it's very difficult

because you already have
some kind of a concept

how crucifixion looks like.

So you have actually to forget

everything you know about crucifixion.

[Narrator] Dr. Hershkovitz
has been entrusted

with Yehohanan's ankle bone.

A CAT scan of the ancient object

makes Hershkovitz question
the traditional assumption

that both of Jesus's feet

were pierced by one nail on the cross.

So he measures the nail
through Yehohanan's ankle

and then inserts a nail of the same length

through the feet of a cadaver.

- We need then to find out whether a nail

of 12 centimeters in length
can hold two feet together.

And you can see that the
nail is running through

both heel bones, but it
hardly comes out over here.

- [Narrator] As an anatomist,
Hershkovitz also questions

the traditional image of
Jesus's lacerated palms.

- Imagine to yourself, if
crucified this way, okay,

you can fall easily forward.

- [Narrator] So he believes the victim

must have been attached from behind.

- The nail didn't pass through

what we call through the ventral part

but actually passed through
what we call the dorsal part.

Each foot was nailed
separately to the wood.

- [Narrator] As for the cross itself,

because of the region's short
trees, Hershkovitz thinks

the pieces could not have been
more than two meters long.

- You easily elevate it and
you can do it very quickly.

- [Narrator] This is the crucifixion

that fits the physical
evidence and the history.

In 70 AD. Roman soldiers set fire

to the Jewish temple at
the center of Jerusalem.

The Jewish rebels who rushed
to save it were captured

and crucified outside
the walls of the city.

- If you use this type of method,

you can really suspend
hundreds of people a day.

This is the way I believe
people were executed

during the Roman period.

- [Narrator] But if so
many died on the cross,

why is there so little physical evidence?

- The reason was quite simple.

That is that when somebody
was taken down from the cross,

the nails were removed and reused.

The one instance we have
is a result of a mistake.

The nail had gone through the heel bone

and had struck a knot in the
cross or the actual tree.

And as a result, when they were
trying to take the nail out,

they couldn't because
the end had bent over.

- [Narrator] And so the nail and the bone

survived all this time together

to change the iconic image
of the crucifixion forever.

Next on Museum Secrets,

the original underground freedom fighters.

This story begins in
the most secure location

in the Israel Museum.

Here, a steel volt safeguards
a fortune in rare coins

from throughout the ancient world.

Curator Haim Gitler wants
to show us two coins

that were in circulation
in Judea in 132 AD.

The first displays the
face of a Roman emperor.

This makes sense

because Judea was a province
of the Roman empire.

But the second coin displays
a cluster of grapes,

the Jewish symbol for freedom,

along with markings that
are definitely not Jewish.

- [Haim] You can see the silhouette

of the face of the Roman emperor.

You see the nose, the chin.

And here are part of a legend, Augustus,

which is going around the edge.

- [Narrator] This strange
coin is linked to a moment

when history nearly took a
completely different path.

The reason why is a museum secret.

Our story begins at the
height of Rome's power

not long after its army had destroyed

the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

This disaster had so demoralized the Jews

that most accepted Roman
rule as inevitable.

But in the Judean hills, a
new freedom fighter arose.

There are no statues or images of the man.

Historians even disagree on his name,

but most call him Bar Kokhba.

He needed fighters

who believed that mighty
Rome could be defeated.

And so he recruited believers,

students from Jewish religious schools.

The Romans had weapons
and armor that Bar Kokhba

could not match, so he gave
his men something else,

(Yehoshua grunts)

a lethal ancient Hebrew fighting technique

called Abir.

- Abir is a combination
of every fighting system

and category of the system
used by all of our people

in every generation from
the beginning until now.

- [Narrator] For observant
Jews, the word is everything,

and this extends to Abir.

Every move is a letter
of the Hebrew alphabet.

- I'll give you a letter, for
example, alef, beit, beit,

gimel, gimel, don, don,

reish, shin,

hei, vav, teit, teit.

Okay, and this is alef, which
incorporates the entire body.

- [Narrator] Bar Kokhba did not engage

in skirmishes or terrorist attacks

but patiently built his army

till it numbered in the thousands.

In populated areas, Roman
soldiers were always

on the lookout for enemies of the empire,

so Bar Kokhba ordered
his men into the hills.

- Okay, so we are now
in the Judean foothills

which are 30 kilometers to
the west from Jerusalem.

- [Narrator] Dr. Eitan
Klein is an antiquities

theft inspector who often
patrols this remote area.

- [Eitan] So we are
going to an ancient site

called (mumbles) cave.

- [Narrator] Recently, he found

one of Bar Kokhba's hidden bases.

- [Eitan] We know that
it was inhabited by Jews,

and we found an opening of the cave

of an underground hiding complex
from the Bar Kokhba period.

- [Narrator] This is the first time

these caves have been captured on film.

- So this is a refuge room,

part of a hiding complex
during the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

So these are storage jars.

People that were inside this cave,

they were using it
probably for oil for wheat.

- [Narrator] Historians
believe it took Bar Kokhba

several years to build up his forces

and the underground complex.

Storage rooms and cisterns were designed

to provide food and water for a long stay.

In case of Roman attack,

the maze provides
multiple avenues of escape

and many ways to become completely lost.

One could easily die down here

unless, like an ancient freedom fighter,

you know every twist and turn.

In this cavern, Klein has found something

that archeologists rarely see.

- This carved stone was used
as a door lock to this opening.

So if an enemy is coming,

the people here could lock
the door, and that's it.

- [Narrator] But the caves
were not simply defensive.

With entrances that
blend into the landscape,

the caves were designed
for surprise attack.

When Roman brigades trudged
down nearby desert roads,

they were set upon by Bar
Kokhba's hostile forces

who appeared out of nowhere.

Caught off guard,

the soldiers were forced
to fight hand to hand.

- My ancestors realized
that the Roman soldier

was not a very great fighter
on the individual level,

that their strength was in the brigade

and working as a unit.

They could not use their chariots,

they could not come in
in the brigade style

because they would have to
keep going around trees.

That would separate them
and keep them in a situation

where they would have
to fight us as fighters

on a one-to-one level.

(Yehoshua grunts)

- [Narrator] Bar Kokhba's forces

defeated brigade after brigade,
one of the rare occasions

in history when the Roman
army was forced to retreat.

But rebellions cannot be won
on the battlefield alone,

and that brings us back to this.

To create a viable nation,

Bar Kokhba needed currency
as soon as possible.

To get it, he collected Roman coins

and put his metal smiths to work.

- They are taking the Roman coins,

and they are striking the image,

the Jewish image over the Roman coins.

And then you have two-folded meaning

because it says we are not only free,

but we're putting our
freedom over your empire.

- [Narrator] And if the story ended here,

Bar Kokhba's legacy and
the history of the world

might have been very different.

But Rome could not let
the Jewish victory stand.

The emperor assembled 60,000
soldiers for a massive surge.

The Romans retook
liberated towns one by one

then burnt them to the ground.

Bar Kokhba was killed in
a final desperate battle

as Rome unleashed collective punishment

on rebellious and peaceable Jews alike.

Survivors who fled from the holy land

blamed this disaster on Bar Kokhba,

and among modern Jews,

his name still evokes strong emotions.

- If you want one word,
I would say messianic.

If you want a few words,

I'd say charismatic, brutal,

and irresponsible.

- [Narrator] Whatever
one thinks of Bar Kokhba,

his dream is shared by many today.

That dream is inscribed
on the reverse side

of many Bar Kokhba coins,

(speaks in foreign language),
for the freedom of Israel.

Up next, the secret of Herod's tomb.

Inside the Israel Museum,
curator Dudi Mevorah

oversees completion of a new exhibition.

It has personal significance for Dudi

because it will showcase a
discovery made by his colleague

and former teacher, the late Ehud Netzer.

Professor Netzer is celebrated

as one of Israel's greatest archeologists.

During his lifetime,

he made discoveries
throughout the holy land,

from the Fortress of Masada
to the City of Jericho.

But his lifelong obsession

involved a colossal ruin called Herodium.

Even before archeologists
began to excavate,

the ruins of a palace were
visible to any passerby,

and the Jewish king who
built it is also known.

His name is Herod.

- Take your men.

Go to this Bethlehem and kill
all the newborns, all of them.

- [Narrator] Though the real
Herod didn't kill babies,

he did order his Jewish
subjects to bow down to Rome.

- Hail, Octavian.

- [Narrator] He also decreed

that he should be buried at Herodium.

Unfortunately, he didn't say where,

and Herodium is a big place.

Archeologists agreed that Herod's tomb

must be here somewhere,
but no one could find it.

In 1972, Ehud Netzer decided
he was going to crack

the secret of where Herod was buried.

And today, Dudi Mevorah will retrace

his journey of discovery.

- Most scholars actually
gambled on the idea

that Herod is buried up
on top of the mountain.

Most of them believed

that he is buried in the eastern tower,

which is a massive tower
that we see behind.

Professor Netzer believed
from the beginning

that it's not reasonable to assume that

because the moment you
use a place for burial,

it becomes virtually impure in Judaism.

- [Narrator] So Netzer began
to hunt for Herod's tomb

at the foot of the mountain.

- Professor Ehud Netzer
excavating down here

finds this building already in the 1970s.

At first stroke of the hammer,

he thinks this might be the tomb.

It's a monumental room

with the pilasters decorating the walls.

You can see them protruding here.

It's a large space with very high ceiling,

probably either domed or
with a pyramid on the top,

but it's open to the east.

- [Narrator] The opening told Netzer

that the structure was
a formal dining room.

- [Dudi] It was not a closed room.

It couldn't be a tomb.

And then he thinks that
the tomb may be next door.

A ritual bath found next
to it gives another hint

to the possibility that this
is where the tomb might be

unfortunately, the tomb was not found.

- [Narrator] As he continued to search,

Netzer came to believe that Herod himself

had designed Herodium
according to a geometric plan.

- [Dudi] He became so involved with Herod

that he could almost plan
the way Herod planned

and think the way Herod thought.

- [Narrator] He continued to search

for Herod's tomb for 30 years.

- [Dudi] He realized
that it's not down here.

He realized that there
is no monumental building

or cave that could be it.

- [Narrator] In 2004, shortly
after his 71st birthday,

Professor Netzer decides
he needs a new perspective.

- So from where we are standing,

we can see the pool down there

with the bathhouse right at the corner.

And the place where we are, the palace,

is right on top of the mountain here.

- [Narrator] Netzer notices
that structures on the plain

form a straight line that
connects to the east tower.

Sensing Herod's geometric plan,

he believes the tomb
should be on the line.

- Professor Netzer takes a diagonal

from the center of the
pool to the eastern tower,

and he decides to cross
section that slope.

- [Narrator] On the slope,

the ruins of a tomb are not visible,

but Netzer knows there might
be a good reason for that.

Historians believe that
after Herod's death,

Jewish insurgents hid from the Roman army

in caves on the mountainside.

Hating Herod as a Roman collaborator,

the rebels might have
reduced his tomb to rubble.

Halfway up the slope,

Netzer's team discovers
shards of pink stone,

puzzle pieces that fit
together beautifully.

- We're looking at a sarcophagus

made out of pinkish chalk stone,

decorated with a very fine rosette.

- [Narrator] At the spot
where the shards were found,

Professor Netzer uncovers this.

- This is actually the tomb garden

with the podium of the
tomb at the center of it.

This is the exterior wall.

This is the base of the building,

then it goes to 25 meters high up,

three stories of 25 meters,

which would be eight stories of today.

- [Narrator] By entering
the mind of King Herod,

Ehud Netzer had found his tomb.

- It was clear this must be Herod.

What we found here,
architectural fragments

that enabled us to restore a monument

which fits Herod's taste and status.

- This is big time archeology

because finding direct contact

to known historical figures,

notorious historical figures,
is not an everyday thing.

- [Narrator] Before Ehud
Netzer died at the age of 76,

he helped plan the museum exhibition

that will reveal Herod's
tomb to the world.

And sadly, the reason for
Professor Netzer's death

is part of our story.

- Right here at the top of the theater

and outside the royal box of
King Herod, we were at the end

of a very active morning
with Professor Netzer.

We had a very enthusiastic morning,

all looking forward to
what we were going to do.

And we sat here for a
moment to rest in the shade.

And Ehud sat where he sat
dozens of times before.

And one of the beams gave up
and he collapsed backwards

into the theater and fell
all the way down to the stage

and was wounded very
severely and eventually died.

- [Narrator] Ehud
Netzer's death was tragic,

but he died where he accomplished
his life's greatest work.

Herodium is King Herod's monument,

but it's also a monument to Ehud Netzer.

Up next, a secret about the Virgin Mary.

In the Israel Museum, as in every museum,

some artifacts are incomplete.

And sometimes, what is missing
is the most important part.

- This is the lower part of wall painting

that was discovered in 1997.

And we see here pairs of feet.

We assume that this is Jesus
is sitting on the center,

in throne, and on the right
side is Maria approaching Jesus.

- [Narrator] The fresco that once showed

Jesus and the Virgin Mary was discovered

not far from what many
believe is Mary's tomb.

Here, 47 steps beneath the ground,

archeologist Jon Seligman will
help reveal a museum secret.

- The tomb of the Virgin Mary

doesn't look like an ancient tomb

because the tomb is being cut away

from the bedrock around it,

and all you see is just the shelf

where the body of Mary
was traditionally laid.

- [Narrator] Her tomb is empty,
but that is not the secret.

By Christian tradition,

Mary left her tomb when
she ascended to heaven.

The secret involves an arched
niche cut into the wall.

It has the same basic shape as this,

or this,

or this.

Today, 1.5 billion people on
Earth know exactly what it is,

but in case you don't know--

- Right behind me is the mihrab,

which is a niche in the mosque,

and basically, it signifies
the direction of prayer.

And this is usually in the
direction of the Kaaba,

which is the holy structure
in Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

And whenever we pray,
we pray in congregation,

in unison towards this one direction.

- [Narrator] Why is there a Muslim mihrab

in the tomb of the Virgin Mary.

That is our museum secret.

Our story begins in Jerusalem
in the 11th century.

Muslims fought to retake the
city that had been conquered

by Christian crusaders
several decades before.

And when the Muslims reached this place,

they began to tear down
walls and churches.

- You've got to remember,

Western Christianity was
seen very unfavorably.

A place like this which had
been involved very deeply

with the Crusader order in
Jerusalem was dismantled.

- [Narrator] But instead
of dismantling Mary's tomb,

the Muslims carved a mihrab in the wall.

To understand why the mihrab is here,

we must visit the plateau
in the center of Jerusalem.

This is a holy place for
Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Beneath this shining dome

is the rock where God spoke to Abraham,

and where Jesus preached to his disciples.

And for Muslims, the plateau
is sacred for another reason.

- This place is regarded

as the third holiest site for Muslims.

The prophet of Islam, Muhammad,
is believed to have traveled

from Mecca to Jerusalem,
and then from there,

taken by the angel to the
heavens to meet God himself.

And as he traveled to
Jerusalem, it is believed

through our traditions that
he met every prophet of God,

every messenger of God,
including the great prophets

Abraham, Moses, and also Jesus.

- [Narrator] So although Muslims

do not consider Jesus their
savior, they revere him.

- It's very clear in the holy Quran,

whenever Jesus is mentioned,
in majority of the verses,

God mentions (speaks in foreign language),

Jesus, the son of Mary.

So Mary is revered and respected.

- [Narrator] And that's
why Muslims carved a mihrab

within the Virgin Mary's tomb.

- The church belonged
to a Christian order,

and for that reason, has to be removed,

has to be taken away.

But the tomb of the Virgin Mary survives.

Because this is also a shrine
which is holy to Islam,

there is no reason to destroy the tomb.

- [Narrator] In the streets of Jerusalem,

religious differences and
political conflicts are obvious.

But as with the fresco in the museum,

we might not be seeing the whole picture.

The most important part is sometimes

the part we don't see, the part we share.

This idea is alive in Mary's tomb,

a holy place that has been shared

by Christians and Muslims
for almost a thousand years.

Up next, the secret of the oasis.

The Israel Museum manages the collection

of an older museum in East Jerusalem.

It is known as the Rockefeller
because it was endowed

by the American philanthropist,
John D. Rockefeller.

Here, a strange inscription
is written in mosaic tiles

from a Jewish town called Ein Gedi.

- And in the synagogues,
there is a mosaic pavement.

And the pavement holds a long inscription

in several sections.

One section is particularly intriguing,

and the reason is that it has a curse.

Whoever shall reveal the secret
of the town to the Gentiles,

a terrible curse will come upon him.

- [Narrator] What did
the Jewish townspeople

not want outsiders to know?

That is our museum secret.

The road to Ein Gedi
passes by the Dead Sea

whose waters and mud are
reputed to be therapeutic

and are the basis for a lucrative

health and beauty
industry known worldwide.

The land around the sea is bone dry

except for this oasis

where the ancient town
of Ein Gedi once stood.

Recent archeology has revealed
that the town was small

but its synagogue was big.

- A synagogue is the most
important building in the village.

It is built also with
luxury if you compare

the living rooms over there
and the mosaic floor here.

- [Narrator] One mysterious
inscription reveals

what will happen to anyone
who reveals the town's secret.

The literal translation is complex,

filled with allusions to anger,

punishment and an all-seeing eye.

But the intention is clear.

Anyone who reveals the secret

is as good as dead.

But in a small oasis town,

what secret could be so important?

- From biblical sources,

we know of various plants that
were growing in this land.

We know of one plant, the balsam plant.

It was highly regarded.

Apparently, the fragrance was so special

that they wanted it
from all over the world.

It was really something unique.

- [Narrator] The balsam
plant was the basis

for a perfume called balsama,

which was made exclusively
in the town of Ein Gedi.

Marc Antony was so taken with the perfume

that he gave balsama to
his lover, Cleopatra.

It would have cost him more
than its weight in gold.

Ein Gedi's prosperity came from balsama,

so there was a lot riding
on keeping its monopoly.

- Maybe the clue is the enigma
of the perfume production.

For something to special, it
was a special group of experts,

a professional guild, that
was preparing and doing this.

They didn't want the secret
of doing it to leak out.

- [Narrator] We would leak the
secret of how to make balsama

but we can't

because on an unknown date,

Ein Gedi was attacked
and burned to the ground.

- There was a layer of ash
about half a meter thick.

All the village was ruined.

Who did it?

I have no idea.

- [Narrator] After Ein Gedi was destroyed,

no more balsama was ever produced.

And over the centuries,

the specific variety of balsam
plant used to make balsama

disappeared from the
region around the Dead Sea.

So the secret of making
balsama was lost forever,

or maybe not.

Today, in the Ein Gedi oasis,

a kibbutz maintains a botanical garden.

Botanist Annot Hast has
cultivated balsam seedlings

of an ancient variety
discovered in Africa.

(Anna speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] But are these balsam plants

the right balsam plants?

Do they contain the essence
of a balsama perfume?

(Annot speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Annot has yet to learn

how her ancestors made balsama

but she hopes to exploit
the old plants in a new way.

- One of our dreams is to make
the perfume from this plant

because we are looking for stores

that connect to the environment

and to our history and to our heritage.

- [Narrator] But will modern Ein Gedians

heed the ancient warning

to keep their production
methods to themselves?

Or will they brave the curse
and reveal it to the world.

- It's very, very difficult
to hold a secret nowadays.

It's not like ancient times.

So I think if it's very
difficult to hold it,

why not to share it with everyone.

- [Narrator] And then perhaps
modern women can share

in the glamor of Cleopatra.

Next on Museum Secrets,
the amulet and the alien.

Our final museum secret may
be the strangest one ever.

It's the answer to this question.

What does a tiny archeological
treasure have in common

with a science fiction
character known as Mr. Spock?

The story begins just one
kilometer from the museum,

in an ancient tomb below this church.

A young archeologist discovered
a tiny corroded object

about the size of a cigarette butt.

The year was 1979.

Fans may recall that the
first Star Trek movie

premiered in 1979.

But that's not the connection

between the artifact and Mr. Spock.

- It really looked like nothing,
but it was very curious.

It was pretty clear that this was metal.

So it turned to be a metal
sheet tightly wound up.

And of course, there was
the challenge to unroll it.

- [Narrator] Curators became
excited because, well,

finding scrolls in the holy
land often makes history.

- [Announcer] Scholars at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem

undertake the painstaking
work of piecing together

bits of ancient biblical scrolls

found at a mountain
cave near the Dead Sea.

- [Narrator] Showcased
in their own building

within the museum grounds

are the world's most famous scrolls.

Discovered in the mid-1900s, these scrolls

were the most significant
and earliest biblical texts

in existence, dating back 2,200 years.

The tomb where the metal scroll was found

predates the Dead Sea
Scrolls by 400 years,

so curators were anxious to find out

what might be inside the tiny amulet.

- It was sent to several
centers in Europe.

They didn't dare touch it.

- [Narrator] Acrimony had ensued
when some Dead Sea Scrolls

had fallen apart as they were unrolled,

so it's not surprising
that European conservators

were nervous about damaging
this fragile scroll.

- It came to the labs of the Israel Museum

where we had decided we'll take the risk

because it was by far too curious

to let this go and not know what it is.

- [Narrator] Head of
Conservation David (mumbles)

would boldly go where no
conservator had gone before.

(David speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Using a
similar roll of metal,

David reenacts the process.

(David speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] David unfurled
the metal bit by bit

until it was completely flat.

The surface was blank
except for a few scratches.

(David speaks in foreign language)

- [Narrator] He could make out
the letters of just one word,

(speaks in foreign language).

Yahweh is the Hebrew word for God.

After further examination,
other words were deciphered.

- The lower part holds the
earliest biblical phrases

ever to be found, so it's
of great significance.

And these phrases, known also
as the priestly benediction,

are still recited at
synagogue to this day.

- [Narrator] And this is
where the ancient artifact

begins to connect with Mr. Spock.

- When I was about maybe
eight or nine years old,

High Holiday services with my family,

there comes a point in the
service where the kohanim,

who are the members of the priestly tribe

of the Hebrew people, get up
to bless the congregation.

(man sings in foreign language)

My father said to me, "Don't look."

But I was, you know, I'm eight years old

and there's something really
strange going on, so I peeked.

And I saw them doing that with their hands

as they were blessing the congregation,

as they were shouting this prayer.

It was kind of chilling.

I had no idea.

It seemed magical.

- [Narrator] Years later, Leonard Nimoy

would recall his experience
on the set of Star Trek.

- And I said to the director,

I said we should have something special

that Vulcans do when
they greet each other.

He said, "Well, what do you want?

"What should Vulcans do?"

and I said, "How about that?"

- [Narrator] When Spock makes this sign,

he says a benediction.

- Live long and prosper.

- [Narrator] This is an
echo of the benediction

on the ancient metal scroll,

the Lord bestow his favor
upon you and grant you peace.

And that's what an ancient
archeological treasure

has in common with Mr. Spock.

Mr. Spock may be an alien,

but he is also quintessentially Jewish.

In a museum where
religion and history meet,

for every mystery we reveal,
far more must remain unspoken.

The secrets of monarchs and messiahs

hidden in plain sight

inside the Israel Museum.

(dramatic music)