Pools of Bethesda

"Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath."
(John, Chapter 5,verses 2-9).

Jerusalem residents utilized a number of rain-water reservoirs during the Second Temple period, including the double pool called Bethesda.

People with a variety of disabilities would linger by the Bethesda pool, for its waters were believed to have magical powers of restoration.
Indeed, it is said that an angel flew over the pools once every 24 hours; whoever happened to be inside the water at that time would be miraculously healed!