May 6, 2010
…on the plan to JFK…
I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to journal. My penmanship and spelling has been awful throughout this trip and I am so sorry!
On the 7th day we did not rest! We visited Masada, which is near the Dead Sea. Masada is an amazing place! The story behind it is inspiring. The ruins of the city are on top of a large desert mountain that is shaped liked a boat. The city was built by Great King Herod, the murderer of the innocent, and once his reign was over it was taken by the Romans. A small garrison was being housed there when about 1,000 Jewish rebels claimed the city, trying to escape the Roman reign in Jerusalem after the Temple was destroyed. With the Romans in hot pursuit of the Jews, God’s people had no choice but to barricade themselves in Masada. They held the Romans off for three years. When capture was inevitable, the Jews decided it would be better to die than to be taken by the Romans and made into slaves and worship Caesar. The burnt everything except the ten-year supply of food, to show that they had chosen death purposefully. Each man was given the duty of killing their own families, and then the men drew lots to decide which man would kill the rest of the living men and then himself. All died, except for three woman and two children, who had hid themselves in a cisterean and were captured by the Romans and eventually told their story to the historian Josephus.
Eleazar ben Yair, the leader of the Jews, made this famous speech that lead everyone to agree to taking their own lives, “Consequently, let us beware of dishonoring ourselves by submitting to the cruelest servitude that can be imagined and that awaits us if we fall into the hands of the Romans alive, we who were the first to shake off their yoke and the last to still display the courage to hold out against them. We would not become unworthy of the grace that God grants us to be able to die willingly and gloriously as free men, a happiness that those who cherished the hope of being invincible have never known. The enemy desires nothing more than to hang us alive. As great as our resistance will be, we will not be able to avoid an onslaught. Nevertheless, the Romans cannot prevent us from denying them our lives by giving ourselves a noble death, ending our days together with the people who are the dearest to us...Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted slavery, and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually…. for [the food] will be a testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued for want of necessities; but that, according to our original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery."
In the end, the Romans were defeated and humiliated. They returned to Rome with nothing to show for their three year campaign in the desert against a rag-tag band of Jewish rebels. It is on top of Masada in the ruins of the garrison that every Israeli soldier takes their final oath to defend Israel, vowing that Masada will never fall again. It gives me goosebumps!
After Masada, we took a little detour and drove amongst the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. We then went to the Dead Sea. It was a fun experience! We changed in the locker rooms and then walked down to the Sea. You have to back up into the water and then sit yourself down so you will float right. There are mud pits all over the place, and you scoop up the mud and rub it all over yourself. The Dead Sea is big business; the climate and minerals in the water make it a popular place for people with various ailments to come too.
The last stop we made was Jericho. Jericho was so depressing. It is another Palestinian territory and people weren’t very nice. We stopped by the Sycamore tree that Zacchaeus supposedly climbed to see Jesus better. We then went to a shop that was known for its blown glass. The glass was beautiful and practically unbreakable.
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