Tsemah Junction (, ''Tzomet Tzemach'') is a road junction at the southern tip of the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

, where Highway 90 continues along the western shore of the lake towards

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

, while Highway 92 splits off to follow the eastern shore. A few kilometres to the east Highway 98 branches off Highway 92 and climbs up to the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

plateau.

Etymology

According to

Strong's Concordance ''The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible'', generally known as Strong's Concordance, is a Bible concordance, an index of every word in the King James Version (KJV), constructed under the direction of American theologian James Strong. Strong fi ...

, the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

word ''tsemach'' signifies 'branch','sprout' or 'shoot', also being used in a

metaphorical A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

way "to denote growth, new beginnings, or a future hope", in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

, a "sprout" from the line of David.6780. tsemach
Strong's Concordance via biblehub.com. Retrieved 15 Jan 2025.

History

Until 1948, the Arab village of Samakh was situated at this location. In 1920, the

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

"Labor Brigade" (Hebrew:

Gdud HaAvoda The Labour Battalion or Gdud HaAvoda () was a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist work group in Mandatory Palestine. History Officially known as the Yosef Trumpeldor Labor and Defense Battalion (), Gdud HaAvoda was established on 8 August 1920 for the ...

) paved the road from Tiberias to Tzemah.Tiberias:Jews Lived in the City during most of its Existence
/ref> Until that date, Samakh's only direct connection to Tiberias had been by boat. Currently, the is developing around the road junction.

References

{{reflist Tiberias Road junctions in Israel

Etymology

History

See also

References