10 most difficult Israel riddles

Joash (or Jehoash) was crowned king of Judah (c. 836-796 BC), being the only surviving son of Ahaziah after the massacre of the royal family ordered by his grandmother, Athaliah. He was 7 years old when his reign began and he reigned for 40 years.

Yiddish developed around the 10th century in southern Germany on the basis of a local German dialect. The Romance borrowings in it show that Jews who came to Germany used the Old French or Italian varieties.

The Mediterranean Sea makes up the majority of Israel's coastline. But Israel also has a small coastline on the Red Sea in the south, with the port of Eilat. This 11 km (7 miles) wide strip of land separates Egypt from Jordan, so tourists visiting Egypt typically need to approach Jordan by the sea if they want to visit Petra.

About 42% of all Jews reside in Israel and about 42% reside in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living mostly in Europe.

In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. In Islamic tradition in 610 CE it became the first Qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer (later moved by Muhammad to Mecca), and Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran.

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subject of Russia in the Russian Far East, bordering China. Soviet authorities established it in 1934 as the result of Stalin's nationality policy. The Jewish population peaked in 1948 at around 30,000, about one-quarter of the region's population. Today only about 4,000 Jews remain in the region - but it is still officially named as Jewish.

The State of Israel has an unwritten constitution. Instead of a formal written constitution, and in accordance with the Harari Decision (החלטת הררי) of 13 June 1950 adopted during the Israeli Constituent Assembly, the State of Israel has enacted several Basic Laws of Israel dealing with the government arrangements and with human rights. The Israeli Supreme Court President Aharon Barak ruled that the Basic Laws should be considered the state's constitution, and that became the common approach throughout his tenure (1995-2006).

The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. 207,551), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. The desert is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, whose faculties include the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.

David Ben-Gurion born David Grün (16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel.

The symbolic menorah has 7 lamps, but the commonly used Hanukkah menorah (pictured) has nine lamps, and no seven-lamps menorahs are made. This is because the menorah is described in the Bible as the seven-lamp lampstand made of gold, used in the portable sanctuary set up by Moses in the wilderness and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Talmud states that it is prohibited to use a seven-lamp menorah outside of the Temple.