The Masada Tiyul

By Elliot Sadoff,      11^th  Grade,          New York

Sunrise over the Dead Sea from on top of Masada

The sky was pitch black when we woke up. At 4 am, there isn’t much to see. We had begun climbing by 5:30, still unsure of where the top of the mountain was or what the view would even be.  Even though we were all very tired, we kept climbing up. We knew that the very long, yet very short 50 minute hike up the mountain would be worth it. The more we climbed, the more our eyes opened. Every few minutes as I turned and faced the view, I became less tired and I was able to see more. Soon, I could recognize the top of the mountain and if I turned around, I could make out the Dead Sea. Unfortunately, the temperature was much hotter near Masada than it was back at our campus at Kibbutz Tzuba, and it was not very cold in the morning. I was sweating like crazy after about 20 minutes, but I knew it wasn’t much longer until I could relax and take in the nice view. So I pushed myself upward. Step after step, more and more light rose into the sky. Getting higher and higher, eventually I saw the cable car stop at the top of the mountain and I knew I was almost there so I kept climbing. Then, it hit me. I had reached the top of the mountain and sat down on one of the walls facing the Dead Sea and the sunrise. At 6:37 am, we all watched the sun rise. We took in the first light of day together, and it was beautiful.

After some rest, some water, and then praying shacharit (the morning prayer service) with our traveler’s Mishkan T’filah prayerbook, the two classes split up and we began our Jewish history studies for the day. We walked around the top of the history-rich mountain, learning about what occurred on the mountain. At first, we learned that Masada, in Hebrew, means ‘fortress’. This name stems from the strategic advantage that the mountain top had. The mountain was hard to climb, it could not be climbed by an entire army, and it had the resources required to life, and the space for Jewish life to flourish.

Throughout his reign as a puppet king from 37 to 4 BCE, King Herod was constantly in fear of losing the power that the Romans gave to him. Due to his paranoia, King Herod built a few escape fortresses around the land of Israel so that he would be able to retreat to any one of them if he thought he would lose his power. Herod chose Masada due to its huge defensive advantage and its possession of the basic necessities of life. The fortress had access to water, agriculture, and defense, so the location was perfect. Herod built himself a lavish palace with a massive bedroom with a beautiful view on the northern side of the mountain, and made the residence very luxurious.  He also built a water system that allowed the water to run in paths on dry river beds from the desert (around the hills) and end up on the side of Masada in various caves. When these caves were full, Herod’s slaves would go halfway down that side of the mountain to collect the water, carry it back up, and then dump the water into cisterns on the top (shown below).

water cistern lined with plaster at Masada's northern palace

When the Jewish zealots tried to escape Roman rule in the year 66 CE, they conquered Masada and settled there. The Zealots wanted to escape Roman rule after the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 CE, and had known of the defensive capabilities of the mountain fortress. When they settled on top, a lot of the work that King Herod had done still existed.

The zealots used these resources to sustain basic life, and to continue Jewish life to its full capability on the top of Masada. They were able to use the water cisterns, they were able to convert the bathhouse to a facility for mikvaot, and they were able to create a synagogue. According to the historian Josephus, there were around 900 Jews living on Masada, and they were able to create a Jewish community on top of the mountain without having to go down. The zealots also created a food surplus, so they were able to create a functioning society on top of the mountain with everything they needed. In their minds, the zealots believed that perhaps they were the last remaining Jews in the world, so they did everything they could to keep themselves alive.

An ancient mikveh (Jewish ritual bath) at Masada

2000 year old frescos that have been restored in Herod's palace at Masada

            The zealots had lived safely on the top of Masada for three years. As time went on, Roman encampments that surrounded the mountain grew in size. Each night, it was said that the number of Roman campfires grew. However, the Romans knew that they would not easily be able to get an entire legion straight up the mountain in order to attack and subdue the Jews. After they grew their encampments (shown below), the Romans eventually were able to build a ramp up to the top of a mountain so they were able to carry up battering rams and take control of Masada and the zealots. The community of zealots knew that this attack was coming, but they could only become more and more paranoid as there was no way off of the mountain without directly fighting the Romans, a fight which the zealots would clearly lose.

a view of the remains of the largest Roman army camp on the western side of Masada

The rest of the story, according to the Jewish historian Josephus who actually wrote from the point-of-view of the Romans, went as it follows:  all of the men on Masada gathered and decided they must not submit to Roman rule and be forced to do Avodah Zara (idolatry), which is one of the reasons to break p’kuah nefesh (the rabbis’ ruling that saving a life takes precedent over all other mitzvoth). The men decided that they should all return to their families, and kill their wives and children. According to Josphus, after this the men met again and chose ten men to kill the rest. The remaining men chose one man to kill the other nine. This last man killed himself. Before all of this, Josphus writes that the Jews destroyed everything that could have been of use to the Romans and burned almost everything, except for their food stock. Josephus claims that they left their food untouched, so that the Romans would find the food and recognize that the Jews could have survived longer. This showed the Romans that the Jews were a great people, who prospered on top of the mountain, and it was not because of the Roman legion that they all died.

Today, when we say “Masada will not fall again”, we represent the heroism of those who died on top of Masada as to not submit to Avodah Zara and to remain faithful to God. These Jews were heroic enough to face the reality of murdering their own families and their friends, to remain faithful to their God. When we say this, we mean that we will continue to be heroic (maybe to a less extreme) and stand up to defend our values, our beliefs, and our people.