Journal of a Living Lady #203

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

After a good night’s rest in Tel Aviv, Buddy and I were ready for Masada. It was an optional side tour and well worth the money. Before that day, the story of Masada was just a couple of pages out of Jewish and Roman history. When we bedded down later than night, Buddy and I were in awe that we had traipsed the actual path of such epic courage.

 

Our guide picked up our group of seven at the hotel and drove us beyond the Dead Sea to Masada.  Unusually quiet tourists squeezed into the swinging cable car that took us to the top of the isolated mountain. The dusty Judean Desert was visible for miles.

 

For those who are rusty on history, let me tell you a condensed version of Masada. In 70 CE, Titus, a Roman general from the Western nations of the old Roman Empire invaded Jerusalem. His army destroyed the Temple and scattered millions of Jews.

 

King Herod, who ruled under Roman patronage, chose Masada as a place of refuge. He built enormous fortifications and beautiful palaces.

 

Josephus Flavius, a renowned historian of that age, described the desert fortress as “…fortified by Heaven and man alike against any enemy who might wage war against it.”  After Herod’s death, the Romans continued to occupy Masada.

 

During the Great Revolt against Rome in 66 CE, Masada was captured by a group of Sicari. This strong-willed group of Zealot extremists determined to fight against the Romans even if it meant death. They were named after the “Sica”, a dagger which many carried. For several years, Masada became a refuge for an increasing number of Zealots. Three years after Titus destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, the Roman army was determined to conquer the mountain fortress at Masada.

 

At first the Romans believed that the inhabitants of Masada, numbering a mere 967 people, including women and children, would simply surrender due to hunger and thirst. Not so.

 

The Romans, which included the Tenth Legion with all its auxiliaries, plus thousands of Jewish prisoners, built an embankment on the western slope of the mountain. The Masada wall could only be breached by waging a direct attack.

 

A lengthy earthen ramp was built to the west of the mountain giving the Romans easy access. Using siege engines, under the cover of arrows and stones, the Romans broke through the wall in only seven months. The Zealots countered with an improvised wooden wall. It could not withstand the fiery blaze of the Roman soldiers.

 

The Jewish Zealots realized there was no hope left. They decided to take their own lives rather than be captured by the Romans. On the 15^th day of Nissan, in 73 CE., Flavius wrote: “They then chose ten men from amongst them by lot, who would slay all the rest; every one of whom laid himself down by his wife and children on the ground, and threw his arms about them, and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office; and when these ten had without fear slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, after all, should kill himself…and he who was last of all, examined the mass of those who lay on the ground, and when he had perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to all corners of the royal palace, and with the great force of his hand ran his sword into his body and fell dead beside his kinsmen. Thus they all died believing that they had left no living soul behind to beat the Roman yoke. The Romans expected that they should be fought in the in the morning, accordingly put on their armor and laid bridges upon their ladders from their banks, to make an assault upon the fortress…saw nobody as an enemy, but a terrible solitude on every side, with a fire within the place, as well as a perfect silence. They were at a loss to guess at what had happed. Yet did they not easily give their attention to such a desperate undertaking, and did not believe it could be, nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown when they went through with such action.”

 

Following the self-inflicted deaths of the Masada defenders, the fortress fell into Roman hands. Later it lay desolate and uninhabited for hundreds of years. In the 5^th and 6^th centuries, a few Christian monks settled there. After a hundred years, they too left Masada. It became an unidentified, empty, desolate ruin.

 

Masada was re-discovered in 1838 by Israeli researchers. Now it is regarded as one of the significant symbols of heroism in Jewish history.  The stand of so few against so many is awesomely inspiring. Many tourists come to visit even in today’s turbulent times.

 

On this hot day, Buddy and I quietly roamed the Herodian ruins with its magnificent frescoes, mosaic floors, and ancient pillars. The somber atmosphere on the mountain was inwardly invasive. Buddy and I finally spoke of the sobering experience while drifting off to sleep.

 

Ethicists can debate the moral issue. Yet, history confirms that these Zealots died for what they cherished most: freedom.  By choice, they died unenslaved by their enemies.

 

How many more people throughout history, of all races and creeds, have died so as not to be enslaved by their enemies.  How many have given the most they had to give to ensure the perpetuation of freedom for their children and grandchildren.

 

Long live the brave and the free. Long live me and thee.

nancyk@alltel.net