?a?er, ?a?erim
?A?ER, ?A?ERIM
?A?ER, ?A?ERIM (Heb. ????? ,????????).
(1) a biblical term for seminomadic settlements on the edge of the Negev that were fenced in but not walled. The ?a?erim occupy an intermediate position between nomadic encampments and settled towns (Josh. 21:12, where it is translated as "villages"), but in the course of time some of them developed into towns (cf. Hazar-Gaddah, Hazar-Shual, Josh. 15:27–28, etc.). A similar meaning is apparently expressed by the term ?agar (from the root meaning "to fence in"). Place names combined with ?agar are frequently mentioned in the Negev in the lists of *Shishak's conquests; in later sources the term refers to the Roman limes. The Avvim, who were absorbed by the invading Caphtorim (Philistines), also lived in ?a?erim in the south as far as Gaza (Deut. 2:23). In the Targum Yerushalmi, ?a?erim is considered a locality and is identified with Rafah.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
(2) ?azerim (Heb. ????????), kibbutz in the northern Negev, Israel, 4½ mi. (7 km.) W. of Beersheba, affiliated with I?ud ha-Kevu?ot ve-ha-Kibbutzim, founded by graduates of Ha-?ofim, among them "Teheran Children" and Israeli-born youth on the night of Oct. 6, 1946, on which 10 other new settlements were simultaneously set up in the South and Negev. In the first 10 years of its existence, ?a?erim sought ways to treat its desert loess soils and overcame isolation and siege in the *War of Independence (1948). The kibbutz economy was based on field crops (mostly irrigated), fruit orchards, cattle, and an industrial enterprise, Netafim, for drip irrigation equipment, which became its economic mainstay with sales in over 100 countries, 24 subsidiaries and plants (including facilities in Cuba and China), and sales of $230 million in 2002. The population of the kibbutz in 2002 was 791.
[Efraim Orni /
Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
bibliography:
(1) Maisler, in: Sefer…, J.N. Epstein (1950), 317ff.; J. Braslavsky, Le-?eker Ar?enu (1954), 255ff.