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.