Dobrath
DOBRATH
DOBRATH (Dovrat ; Heb. דָּבְרַת).
(1) Levitical town of Issachar (Josh. 21:28; i Chron. 6:57). Dobrath/Daberath is located between Chisloth-Tabor and Japhia in the description of the border of Zebulun (Josh. 19:12). Some scholars see a connection between the names Dobrath and Deborah since the battle with the Canaanites took place in its vicinity. A Galilean village called Dabaritta is mentioned several times by Josephus (Life, 318); some of its inhabitants attacked and robbed a Herodian official (Life, 126; Wars, 2:595). In the Mishnaic period it was an administrative center as appears from a circular letter of the patriarch Gamaliel i; a Rabbi Matya of Dobrath is mentioned in the Talmud (tj, Or. 1:1, 60d). In the fourth century Dabeira/Dabira was a Jewish village (Eusebius, Onom. 78:5; Jerome adds that it was small in size) in the territory of Diocaesarea (Sepphoris). Abel suggested identifying Dabbūriyya with Byzantine Helenopolis, but Bagatti believes it was at Kafr Kama instead. The Arab geographer Yakut mentions Dabbūriyya as a town in the province of Urdun. In the Middle Ages the place may have been known by the names Buria/Boria. It is the present-day Arab village of Dabbūriyya on the northern slopes of Mt. Tabor. It has been visited by many travelers and explorers since the 19th century. Christian tradition places the location of Jesus' cure of the epileptic boy "having a dumb spirit" at Dabbūriyya (Luke 9:37–43; cf. Mark 9:28). The site is still largely unexcavated, although the remains of a ruined medieval chapel have been found – first reported on in the 19th century by Robinson and Guérin and eventually dug by Fathers Corbo and Loffreda in 1978. Others have noted the discovery at the site of a mosaic floor, tombs (including a decorated Roman stone door) and cisterns. Some travelers have associated the name Daburah with ruins situated in the northern part of the village, close to a path ascending to Mt. Tabor.
[Michael Avi-Yonah /
Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)]
(2) Kibbutz in Israel in the N.E. Jezreel Valley, W. of Mt. Tabor, affiliated with Ihud ha-Kibbutzim. It was founded in 1946 by a group of immigrant youth who had previously settled temporarily near the En-Harod spring. Dovrat's economy is based on intensive farming (field crops, fruit orchards, poultry, and dairy cattle). The kibbutz also operates a small shopping center at the nearby gas station, a plant for organic fertilizers, and a computer laboratory. In 1968 its population was 290, in 2002 it was 278.
[Efraim Orni]
bibliography:
Aharoni, Land, s.v.Daberath; G.A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (18944), 394; G. Dalman, Sacred Sites and Ways (1935), index; Neubauer, Géogr, 265; Avi-Yonah, Geog, 137; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 301. add. bibliography: E. Hoade, Guide to the Holy Land (1973), 861–62; E. Hareouveni, The Settlements of Israel and Their Archaeological Sites (1974), 103–4; Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, and J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea – Palaestina. Maps and Gazetteer. (1994): 106; B. Bagatti, Ancient Christian Villages of Galilee (2001), 226–27; G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, R.L. Chapman and J.E. Taylor, Palestine in the Fourth Century: The Onomasticon by Eusebius of Caesarea (2003), 47, 125; Y. Elitzur, Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land: Preservation and History (2004): 222–31. website: www.davrat.50g.com.