MASADA:  The Experience Of a Lifetime

by Andrew Bonds,       11^th grade,       Philadelphia

 

view of the snake path up the eastern side of Masada

            Nine out of ten times when you ask a teenager to get up at 4:00 AM, you can pretty much guarantee it is not going to be followed with cheers or any sort of positive emotion. This instance however was very different. Even as we went over the supplies list for what we would need the next morning, the overwhelming feeling of joy, nerves, excitement, and anticipation filled the entirety of the room with its presence.

            As hard as getting up before the sun was, we all did and started our journey up towards the top by 5:15 AM. While the hike up was a challenge, the remarkable and breathtaking view at the top made it all worth it. After a long rest and an opportunity to take pictures we had the morning prayer service (shacharit) at the top of mountain led by our classmates and now unbelievably close friends. Finally we split up into our individual Jewish-History classes and began the educational point of the trip. The Hebrew definition of Masada, or מצדה (literally ‘fortress’) was the last Jewish stronghold that served as the Jews last stand against the Romans after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

             The king who built palaces at Masada was known as King Herod. The main reason The King picked this mountain is because it is on a plateau and while the environment around was obviously consumed by desert they were able to find the necessities to having a successful community that started at around 40 and grew to 900 when it fell.          

In order to have a surviving city that can grow and expand, in class we look at the 4 D’s that are the essential keys any city in ancient times would need.

King Herod's northern palace at Masada

a model of King Herod's northern palace

     The first D is Defense. The height of the mountain presented a successful defense tactic, when attacked they would throw rocks and oil on attackers causing them to plunge to their death. The second D Stands for Drink, Water was acquired by sophisticated water ways that used trenches to guide the water into a holding area on the mountain and was then brought up to the town. The third D is a bit of a stretch but stands for Dinner. To obtain food and nutrition they had multiple forms of agriculture and strategies to provide food for everyone. Because of the heat the soil dies and turns to dust. Their solution was to keep doves, at first thought you would think that has no relativity to anything but in fact they used dove droppings for fertilizer which when combined with the unhealthy dried out soil on the mountain created dirt that let them grow a plentiful amount of fruit trees and plants. In year 2000 they found a pit of a date tree that was from the time period of מצדה. When they found this they took the pit and planted one of the oldest trees in history. I find this so impressive because the Date tree takes the most amount of water out of almost all the plant trees to grow (need the fourth D Dollars).

a view of the Judean Desert from the northern edge of Masada

Rather than speaking about the day to day life I would rather talk about how to understand their final act here at Masada. I have no doubt many people question the choices of our ancestors, whether it’s the integrity of the story or just the flat out reasoning behind the choices they made and why. After continues days of worry and fear with the Romans closing in on them once again, it started to become clear to the Jews that this was the beginning of the end for their community on מצדה something had to be done. According to the historian Josephus Flavius, all men were sent home and forced to kill their wives and families. They then proceeded to write down the names of each man and hold a lottery. Ten men were picked at random and told to kill the rest of them, and then one man to kill those ten, then finally after burning down their whole village and leaving nothing of value or use left for the Romans, except the food to portray that there was no sign of an end to this community any time soon. That one man took his own life, leaving no survivors on מצדה and ending its reign. Left on the floor of their synagogue was a quote from Ezekiel's prophesy of dry bones (chap. 37), the prophesy that we would return to Israel, that we would be a great nation on our own soil again.

a model of the water system at Masada and the local dry river beds that would flood

            What do we mean today when we say “Masada will not fall again”? I think this phrase still remains so popular today because of its horrific ending. You realize what happened and can understand why it is necessary for Jewish people to keep the memory of מצדה alive. We have to preserve the idea that the innovations and remarkable skill it took from people to make living in this super hot desert on this super high mountain and not go anywhere else ever is extremely empowering to Jews today.

the "shouting edge" of the south of Masda where your voice echoes!