Dead Sea Region,
Israel
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
This morning, we went to Masada which is an important site in Jewish history. It was originally built by Herod in the first century as a private palace, very luxurious, high on a mountain top, 1600 feet above the valley floor with only a very narrow trail to access it. After Herod died in 4 CE (common era, AD to us), it was taken over by a small garrison of Roman soldiers. However, around 60 CE, a small group of Jewish zealots took it over and established a community. This was officially the start of the Jewish rebellion against Rome. They lasted there for 6 years while the rest of rebellion in Israel was defeated and the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Finally, the Romans got tired of this first and last outpost of Jewish resistance, so they sent a force of 10 to 15,000 troops to defeat them. As Masada is on top of a plateau with almost no access, it took the Romans 7 months to build a dirt ramp up to the gate (they used Jewish slaves to build the ramp because they knew that the Jews inside Masada would not hurt their fellow slave Jews). Late one day in 73 CE, they finally broke through the front gate with a combination of rams and fire. It was so late, the Romans decided to go back to camp and then overtake the settlement early the next morning. However, during that night, the 960 Jewish people in Masada decided to commit suicide instead of surrendering or being overtaken by the Romans which they did. Each man killed his wife and children and then the remaining men drew lots to see who would kill the rest of the men. The last man fell on his own sword. When the Roman troops arrived early the next morning, everyone was dead. Apparently, the Romans were very impressed with the bravery of the Jewish people. This has become a very strong symbol for the Jewish state - many T-shirts,banners, saying "Masada will never fall again".
Later in the afternoon, we went to a moshev (an agricultural community but with private ownership of the fields, not a kibbutz). A very articulate young man, (32) took us on a tour of the fields. Each is privately owned by individual families, 10 acres each, and an amazing amount of produce is grown. This is stark, totally arid desert, but they have developed amazing techniques to grow vegetables and fruits and get amazing yields in very small fields. They cover their fields with plastic and use tubing to irrigate underneath. It is very hard work/This young man was born and grew up on this moshev but after high school and his compulsary military, he said he wanted to get "as far away as possible" from agriculture. He traveled around for several years and then settled down in another part of Israel. However, he found that his greatest enjoyment was growing things in his garden, so finally he and his wife decided to come back to this moshev and become farmers.He is an organic farmer while his father is conventional. I asked him why he chose organic, and he laughed and said that he had thought he had been smarter than his father. When he first started, organic produce produced more income but not now so he may consider changing to conventional.
Almost out of time so more later.
Masada Mom
Comments
Happy Thankgiving Mom and Dad!!
Neither of us are probably having a typical Thanksgiving holiday but wanted to wish you a Happy Holiday anyway, and of course, happy travels for the rest of your trip.
Love
Chris