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Avir on the paths at the top of Masada
Avir is visiting Masada today. Masada is a rugged natural fortress situated on an isolated rock plateau, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a dramatic landscape of great natural beauty. On the eastern side, the rock falls in a sheer drop of approximately 450 metres to the Dead Sea.
Herod the Great had his ‘winter home’ on the top of Masada. During the Roman Period, Herod ruled Judea and with his great wealth he built several palaces based on classic Roman architecture. As a winter home, Masada was luxurious, particularly the ‘Hanging Palace’ with its three terraced swimming pools hanging off the top side of the hill at one end. These opulent terraces is an outstanding example of design and elaborate engineering, constructed in extreme conditions. As a fortress, it was well-stocked in its storehouses, cisterns and well protected by a wall.
The Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans began in 66 AD, about 36 years after the life of Yeshua and some 75 years after Herod’s death. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, a group of zealots joined the residents at Masada. For three years, this small band of Jewish zealots held out by harassing and raiding the significant Roman military force. The Romans finally held siege to this tiny fortress high up in the sky, which held the last of the Jewish rebels, an event which was chronicled by Flavius Josephus, a famous Jewish rebel leader whom the Romans captured and used his talents as an historian.
After three years of building a huge ramp on earth right up to the fortress on top of Masada, the Jews realised that the Tenth Roman Legion’s battering rams and catapults would succeed in breaching Masada’s walls. Elazar ben Yair, the Zealots’ leader, decided that all the Jewish defenders should commit suicide at their own hand, rather than be taken into slavery or killed at the hands of the Romans. The Zealots cast lots to choose ten men to kill the remainder as well as choosing one man who would kill the final few, after which he killed himself.
Flavius recounts this dramatically story, told to him by two surviving women. Ben Yair led almost one thousand men, women and children in this last heroic stand after they burnt down the fortress. To many, Masada symbolizes the determination of the Jewish people to be free in its own land. Avir is to appear in other Masada pictures over the next few weeks.
Pictures from Israel
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Avir at the Gates
From the top of the Mount of Olives, Avir is looking through the gates to a scene that is familiar to many visitors in Jerusalem, the 150,000 gravestones that cover the entire western and much of the southern slopes of this Mount, which has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years.
The Mount of Olives, where according to the Bible in Zechariah 14:4, those buried here will be resurrected when the Messiah comes. The earliest tombs are located at the foot of the mountain in the Kidron Valley, where great men of history were also buried. Some of them were: King David’s rebellious son Absalom; the First Temple priest Zechariah; another bears an inscription mentioning the sons of Hezir, a priestly family that lived 2,000 years ago.
Jewish burial here continued throughout the centuries, interrupted only between 1948 and 1967 when Jerusalem was divided.
Pictures from Israel
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On the road to Jerusalem
Avir is on the road again, with walking shoes on and camera ready, catching all the best sights of the Jerusalem skyline and the Old City. The view from the Mount of Olives is one of the best places to check out. This view of Jerusalem, where every building shines white with its golden-coloured sandstone, is a sight to behold! It is quite beautiful. Like most modern cities, Jerusalem’s architecture is uniquely different. Contemporary designs in Jerusalem are essentially Post-Modern, with lingering influences of the International Bauhaus style, as well as Functionalism, a late-20th Century reaction to Modernism, which itself was a post-World War development against established forms and designs.
There are even some old structures dating back thousands of years to Biblical times and many new structures that were built with the latest technology. High-rises weren’t always part of Jerusalem’s urban planning plan, although in its day, the Temple of Solomon rose to about 20-storys high on what is now known as the Temple Mount.
“Then Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It was on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David, his father.” (2 Chron.3:1)
The Temple Mount is the trapezoid-shaped, walled-in area at the south-eastern corner of the Old City of Jerusalem. The four walls surrounding it date back – at least in their lower parts – to the time of the Second Jewish Temple, built at the end of first century B.C.E. These huge supporting walls, partly buried underground, were built around the summit of the eastern hill identified as Mount Moriah, the site traditionally viewed as the location of where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice and the known location of the two Jewish Temples. The gaps between the walls and the mount were filled in to create a large surface area around the Temple. Its eastern wall and the eastern half of its southern wall form part of the city wall on those sides. Deep valleys (now partly filled by debris) run outside the walls (northeast, east, south, west), thus separating the Temple Mount from and elevating it above its surroundings, both inside and outside the city.
Many people who live and work in Jerusalem, including the tens of thousands of visitors a year, never seem to get bored with the amazing views it provides.
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Here we see Avir posing as a statue at the entrance to the Lion’s Gate. This road leads from the Old City of Jerusalem to many place including the Mount of Olives. Avir is trying to look as fierce as a lion, ready to pounce. If you look closely, you can see a pair of lions embedded in stone on both sides of the gate. The road, inside the wall, approximately one hundred metres distance, becomes the Via Dolorosa Road.
The symbol of Lions is well-known in Jewish history and in the Bible. The Lion of Judah identifies the Jewish people with Jerusalem, King David, the Nation of Israel and Messiah. Many surrounding nations at one time or other throughout history have also identified with an image of the lion. The lions which appear on the upper wall of both sides of this gate were added by the Ottomans in honuor of the Mameluke Sultan, Bybars (1223-1277), who was known as the “The Lion of Egypt and Syria”, a great warrior who conquered the Middle East, defeating both the Crusaders and the Mongols.
The Bible text attributes the characteristics of a lion, being fierce and forceful, to the Kingdom of Judah and the Messiah who would come from the line of Judah as part of the promises to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Y’hudah is a lion’s cub;
my son, you stand over the prey.
He crouches down and stretches like a lion;
like a lioness, who dares to provoke him? (Genesis 49:9)
Pictures from Israel
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Picture 160817 Avir on Mt of Olives overlooking Jerusalem
The Mount of Olives, where Avir is today, (with green backpack) is the site of many important biblical events, and offers expansive views of the city of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives, which rises over 60 metres above the Kidron Valley, is one of three peaks of a mountain ridge that runs for 3.5 kilometres just east of the Old City across the Kidron Valley, in this area called the Valley of Joshaphat.
This is an important place to pause and consider that the Mount of Olives is not only a geographical link between the desert and the fertile Jerusalem hills, it is where many of the most important people of the Bible, walked at some time in their life. King David fled over this Mount to escape from Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15:30). When King Solomon became corrupted by his pagan wives, he built pagan altars in “high places” here (1 Kings 11:7). By the time Josiah was made King, this place became known as the Hill of Corruption (2 Kings 23:13-14). It was here that Ezekiel had his vision of the glory of the Lord and the flying cherubim (Ezekiel 11:22-23). The Jewish people gathered olive branches here for their first Feast of Tabernacles in the Promised Land after their return from their 70-year Babylonian Exile (Nehemiah 8:15)
In the New Testament Yeshua (Jesus) regularly went up onto the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39). Yeshua began his famous donkey-ride into Jerusalem over and down from this Mount (Luke 19:28-44), and He appeared to the disciples here after His Resurrection (Acts 1:1-12).
Pictures from Israel
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In the foreground, Avir can be seen sitting under the shade of a date palm at the Jaffa
Gate entrance to the Old City. The Jaffa Gate is one of many gates, each with its own unique
story. Avir is resting and waiting for his friends to arrive after a two-kilometre walk from the
famous Old City markets commonly known as “the Shuk”
If one was to retrace Avir’s steps and walk back up the path, they would find the shop
and offices of the Bible Society of Israel, which is situated near the front of the modern
building in the middle of the picture.
The Jaffa Gate was built in the 16th Century by the Ottomans. It is located on the
western side of the old city, facing in the direction of Jaffa and Tel Aviv. It’s a very busy
thoroughfare, which leads to the Jewish Quarter, the Kotel (the Western ‘Prayer’ Wall) and
the Christian Quarter. In front of Avir, there are also several open-air vendors selling fresh
bread, juices and other delights.
The high stone walls in this part of the city were first built by the Hasmonean kings in
the 2nd Century B.C. The city sits on Jerusalem’s highest point which is 773 metres above sea
level. The reconstruction on this side of the Old City was necessary in order to strengthen
the expanded western side of the ‘upper city’ which had no natural defences, whereas the
Kidron Valley on the other side provided a natural defence line.
In 1948, during the War of Independence, the Israeli Forces attempted to enter the old
city through the Jaffa Gate. Numerous bullet holes can be seen in the walls as a result of
heavy fighting around the gate during this time. After this skirmish, the Jordanian army was
able to hold their position, take the Gate and shortly afterwards, seal up the entrance. The
Israelis would have to wait another 20-years before they would win back the Jaffa Gate
during the 1967 war. They then re-opened up the gate to once again unite the city. A major
road was constructed on the southside of the gate, which is a busy thoroughfare into the Old
City.
Over the next few weeks we will show more pictures of Jerusalem and the travels of
Avir.
