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.