Organizers said the ceremony must be performed before the Jewish Temple can be rebuilt in Jerusalem, ushering in a messianic age of peace.

What everyone agrees on is that something unusual happened at Tall el-Hammam, an ancient settlement near the Dead Sea. Whether it is the biblical city of Sodom and what year it was destroyed are subject to debate.

An ancient tablet discovered near the Palestinian city of Nablus with the inscription "Yahweh" may contain the earliest known mention of God’s name in proto-alphabetic Hebrew.