Tel Aviv

Tel-Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew תֶּל אָבִיב-יָפוֹ (without niqqud: ?? ????-???); Arabic تَلْ اَبِيبْ-يَافَا Tal-Abīb-Yāfā) is an Israeli city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Tel-Aviv is also part of the largest and most populous metropolitan area in Israel, known as Gush Dan ("Dan Aggregate"). Tel-Aviv is located at 32°5' North, 34°48' East (32.08333, 34.8). http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html

Origin of the name

The name Tel Aviv in Hebrew means "Hill (tel) of Spring (aviv)", the title given by Nahum Sokolov to a Hebrew translation which he made of Theodor Herzl's book Altneuland, whose title means "Old-new-land". The Hebrew word aviv means the season called Spring, not source of water.

Related Topics:
Hebrew - Tel - Spring - Nahum Sokolov - Theodor Herzl

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There is an account that Sokolov designed the book title Tel-Aviv to suggest the destruction of the ancient Jewish state and the hoped-for restoration of a new Jewish state: aviv = "the season of Spring" to symbolize the renewal; and tel to symbolize the destruction of the ancient state, following not the usual Hebrew meaning of the word "tel" but a modern European meaning "mound of accumulated ruins".

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Tel-Aviv (place in Babylonia mentioned in the Bible)

The name "Tel-Aviv" was taken by Nahum Sokolov from the Book of Ezekiel, 3:15 : "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days." The place called Tel-Aviv in the Hebrew Bible is usually spelt Tel-abib or similarly in Bible translations. The Aviv referred to may have been the season of Spring directly, or it may have referred to a god or goddess who (in Mesopotamian belief of the time) caused Spring to come.

Related Topics:
Nahum Sokolov - Book of Ezekiel - Hebrew Bible - Mesopotamia

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