Masada

                                     by Chanah Haigh,     11^th grade,         New York

    The stars turned to a blue sky and still we climbed. Up and up and up, even when the path thinned to single file and the cliff edge reached out for us. Through the fatigue of waking up at four am and the physical strain of dragging our bodies up a mountain, we marched on. We had started in the dark at the bottom of  the mountain we could barely see yet as we reached higher the world was illuminated. Soft rays of the rising sun hit the sea below as we struggled through the never ending pass. People were doubled over or pouring water over themselves, all of us determinedly battling on despite the pain. The monotonous red stone couldn't tell us our progress as we stared at our feet, willing them to go on. And every time we glanced above, sure we were nearing the end, another turn in the path met our eyes. But then it was only five switchbacks left and then a hundred feet and a flight of stairs and suddenly we burst through the opening to the very top of the mountain. Beyond exhausted and swelling with the pride of our accomplishment, we didn't sit down until we had reached the wall looking over the Dead Sea and the sun and taken it the true magnitude of the height we had reached.

After a quick service under some shade we split into our class and took off in different directions. Traveling through ancient buildings, complete with waterways, David told us about the rich history of the mountain top. It was picked as a fortress for its defensive advantage, it was a very hard mountain to scale, as we could attest, and an entire army could surely never have gotten up there in one piece. Its history could be divided into three main stories, each more fascinating and violent than the last.

King's Rule

King Herod, the great. Well, I suppose great is a relative term. He built up much of Jerusalem and the temple mount in his reign from37 to 4 BCE. But he was constantly clinging to the power the Romans had granted him as their puppet king, and was always terrified of losing it.  In his paranoia he built up a fortress on Masada, one of many he could retreat to in times of danger. He built it lavishly, a palace befitting the grand king, built it in the image of the Romans. It was strategically placed and well stocked. Trenches guided the water from the desert hill tops to caves and water passage ways halfway up the mountain, after that slaves and animals would bring it up the rest of the way.

Sally With Her Dried Fruit

Herod's Water Ways

We had smuggled in dried fruit and sat in what used to be a bedroom, with a magnificent view. We ate our replica of ancient fruit and imagined what it would be like to wake up to the grandeur and natural beauty of King Herod's palace. And then to our dismay considered how easily a sleepy person in the morning might topple over the edge. We put ourselves in the mindset of a paranoid king with too many enemies, too much money, too much allegiance to the Romans, and not enough subjects who actually liked him.

Life

The zealots who refused to live under Roman rule went up the mountain in year 66. Under the leadership of Elazar Ben Yair, they conquered Masada after the destruction of the Second Temple. They had captured the fortress from the Romans in a sneak attack in the dead of night. Much of King Herod's old technologies they used to sustain life, such as his water tunnels and bath house. With their families they built a working Jewish community. The 900 Jews had a synagogue, houses, mikvaot, plenty of water and enough food to last them for years. In their little pocket of the world they created what might have been, for all they knew, the last Judaism in the world.

David Imitating The Zealot's Sneak Attack

The beit knesset of the Jews resided in an old amphitheater of King Herod's. In the corner was a geniza where they stored old holy texts that had been broken beyond repair. We sat in their old seats and wondered what it must have been like to pray there, in the Roman-like stage. We theorized whether the area held men and women, or just men and how that represented all the changes Judaism had made over time. WE have the same religion as these ancients, but maybe different traditions and beliefs despite that.

Defeat

Romans had been setting up camp around the mountain for a while. More and more campfires could be seen at night, as the predators surrounding the Jews grew. It was a threat to the Romans to have even one community not under their rule, but the mountain was nearly impregnable and the Jews had spent 3 years on its top in safety. It was steep and could only be climbed single file. But eventually, the Romans were able to build a ramp and a battering ram. The Jews saw this and knew the end was near. But these were the people who fled to the dessert to avoid Roan rule, they weren't about to accept it now. According to the historian Josephus, they didn't accept it.  All the men went home and killed their wives and families. Then they reconvened and picked lots and ten men cut the necks of all the rest. Then lots were drawn again and one man killed the other nine. Then that man killed himself. They had burned their whole village to the ground, razed their houses and destroyed everything that might have been a spoil of war to the Romans. They left only one thing untouched, their food, a message to the Romans  saying “We could have survived longer”. In one final act of rebellion, they left on the floor of their synagogue a quote from Ezekiel's prophesy of dry bones, the prophesy that we would return to Israel, that we would be a great people again.

We sat among the ruins looking out at the Dead Sea. Leaning against the rocks, we contemplated whether these people who died willingly were ones to admire or condemn. Where they wrong for taking their own lives, surely they were for taking the lives of their families. Is this really what we should be aspiring to as a people? This is a story that was recounted at army ceremonies and bnei mitzvot and had truly become a symbol of Israeli independence, until the last 20 years when we started reconsidering the wisdom of promoting group suicide. On the other hand, these were a people who knew the end was coming, they could die at the hands of the enemy or be taken into slavery to be raped and beaten. Maybe they were exercising the last right they had left, the choice of how they died. In the end they took it into their own hands, they died on their own call, not by the swords of the Romans.

Three stories happened on the mountain in the desert, but I'd like to add a fourth. The story of a group of  highschoolers who faced a mountain and managed to climb it. Who went up to learn the history of their people and revel in collective memory. Who achieved a goal that looked so daunting from the ground, but one they fought for and were able to conquer.

Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period

      By Tanner Smith,     11^th grade,       Illinois

One, two, three, four, five steps. In just these few steps, statistically speaking, I have almost definitely followed the exact path of one of my predecessors. Two thousand years ago Jews would venture forth up the very stairs I climbed, carrying sacrifices for God.

I make it to the top, hit the wall, and search for shade. We proceed down to the fallen Robinson's Arch. I contemplate the path that the cohenim of the Temple would follow. Right above me, two thousand years ago, the great priests in control of the Temple would lead the Jewish people in their daily life.  The modern day leaders of my community have the last name Katz, one of the names indicating forefathers that were cohenim. To think that their forefathers were right next to me, displaced only by time. Just before this we traveled underground in the Old City, into the ancient mansions of the cohenim. Inside we found approximately six mikvaot, the remnants of rich Jewish life, and the cutest cat (we can only assume that he is two thousand years old and has lived there all this time).

It strikes me now how close to history I was. There are four dimensions and I was only separated from my forefathers by one of them. In fact the wall I stood in front of and the steps I walked upon made it through that fourth dimension, calling out to me, saying ‘hello’ in David’s terms.

Israel Museum:  Rome, who survives?, and the oldest and the smallest Tanachim

                by Maya Epstein,     11^th grade,        NJ

On September 21^st, Kitat Yarden traveled to the Israel Museum. We started off our day by talking about the Hasmoneans (more commonly known as the Maccabees) and their dynasty. They started out as a very powerful family and a people that are very loyal to Judaism, but as time went on and there were new descendants they became more assimilationists. They also began forcibly converting people to Judaism, which as we know is a huge No No.    Within about 100 years a group of Jews who fought to protect our Judaism and right to practice became Greeks. 63 BCE was the start of the Roman rule, and the start of some good and bad things in the province of Judea. The Romans actually brought some good things.  For example they brought more civilization, more technology, they built aqueducts, and overall they were good for the economy and for law and order. Although they brought all these good things they also brought about a period of Sinat Chinam (Senseless Hatred), and a time where people were not able to practice freely. Sinat Chinam was the Avodah Zerah of this time period.

During the time of the Roman rule there were 4 different sects of Judaism, each who had senseless hatred towards each other. You had the Sadducees (Priests), Pharisees (Rabbis), Essenes (Messianic/hippy Jews), and the Sikarim (Zealots/Militant Jews). Throughout our trip to the Israel Museum we met some people from these sects to learn about their life. First we met the Priests, and learned that they actually admired the Romans. They were rich and lived in really large houses with many mikves, and they also were not messianic at all. We then met the Rabbis who were the poorest class. They focused on Torah study and cared a lot about oral law and the interpretation of the Torah. They were the most adaptable and thought about what was good for the future of Judaism. Next we met the Essenes. They lived in the Kumran and near the Dead Sea in something resembling a Kibbutz. There were no women allowed. They consistently thought the messiah was coming and would go in the mikve as often as possible, many times before meals and working, to purify themselves for the coming of the messiah. The last group we met was the Zealots who were the ones who wanted to fight and wage war against the Romans. They were the ones held out at Masada and believed that the Romans and liking them meant Avodah Zerah. Only one of these groups survive. I believe it will be the Rabbis because we still have them now.

We also met King Herod, the first Roman puppet king of the Jews. His mother was one of those forcibly converted into Judaism during the Hasomean Dynasty. A puppet king was someone who was Jewish but was loyal to the Romans. This was because the people would trust him but the Romans still had control. King Herod reigned from 37-4 BCE. He was a massive builder, and whatever was built during his time period was called Herodian. The saying we started going by was “Think Herod, Think Big”.

 We have seen many models over the past few weeks, and at the Israel museum there was a huge model of Jerusalem during Roman rule. It used to be behind where the museum is, but once the hotel it was in got sold, the model got sold too. It had to be taken apart and moved piece by piece, and put back together at the museum piece by piece. It is also consistently being fixed as they find new information about what it looks like.

After that we went to a metal sculpture that said אהבה (Ahava, Love). The only thing that could combat Sinat Chinam was Love, only thing that could combat hate was love. We all took a picture together on the sculpture. I had seen this picture from many semesters of EIE students and finally being able to see it and take a picture in it myself made me feel like I was a part of the EIE legacy.

From there we went to the Dead Sea Scrolls. These scrolls were thought to be written by the Essenes. The story of the finding of them goes that the guy was a shepherd and 2 of his sheeps ran into this cave. He threw rocks to get them to come back to the flocks, but instead of hearing a rock hitting a rock was things breaking. Later he came back with his brother and they found these jars with scrolls inside of them. Inside were scrolls with writings from the Tanach and many from the book of Isiah, and writings about the rules of the Essenes. They longest scroll they found was the Book of Isiah. Before they found these scrolls the oldest scrolls were 1,000 years old. Once we found them we know have scrolls that are 2,000 years old.  We went inside where some of the Dead Sea scrolls were as well as where they had some of the tools from the area of the Essenes. Also, where the dead sea scrolls are place are very strategic. It is facing the Knesset to show the connection between the past and the present.

After that we went to where the nano-tanach was. When Barak Obama came to visit, they took him to the Israel museum where they put a lot of displays around. It also customary for leaders of countries to present other countries with a present. Israel presented Obama with the nano-tanach. It is the entire Tanach engraved onto a tiny piece of metal that could fit on the tip of your finger. Every word of the Tanach is on the piece of metal.