Photos from this day

Shenit metzada lo tipol: Masadah will not fall again

Am yisrael chai: Israel lives!

We relived Masadah.

We woke up at 3 to leave at 4 to climb the snake path up Masadah. I can never forget this experience. We climb up in darkness in the starlight. The climb was difficult, but not long – only an hour. We begin touring as the false sunrise hits us. Unfortunately there were clouds so we couldn’t see the sunrise. We start our day in the oldest beit knesset, synagogue in the world – 2000 years old! We pray – shema, amidah, aleinu, kaddish. Yossi (our excellent tour guide from Alexander Muss) told us about tefillin and a message to learn from them.

The story was that Yigal Yadin (archaeologist, Chief of staff in war of independence, dad discovered Dead Sea Scrolls) was on a train headed to Tel Aviv to use a special camera on a package he had with him from the archaeological dig. A russian immigrant was asking everyone to put on tefillin. An orthodox woman was sitting across from him. yigal was a prominent man, and everyone knew he was a secular jew. The Russian came up, and yigal asked him how he came to Israel, since at this time Russian accents were rarer in Israel. The Russian told a story of how he asked the Soviets to leave the country to return to his homeland Israel, and instead was tortured by the KGB and sent to a gulag, only to be hurt more there by guards and his fellow antisemitic prisoners. yigal asked him if he wrapped tefillin everyday there, and the Russian said yes. yigal then wrapped teflillin on the train. The Russian then moved on, asking the next person to wrap tefillin, with no idea who he had just spoken with. After the train arrived, the woman who had been sitting across from him came up to him in tears. She told him how she knew who he was, and she hadn’t wanted to bother him just to rub shoulders with a famous man, but she had to tell him her story. She told how her husband was fighting in the 1967 war in an area with snipers in caves. They were losing and didn’t know where the fire was coming from. Her husband simply ran out into the open to draw fire. Now his fellow soliders could eliminate the enemy. They then ran to her husband, overwhelmed by his bravery. They asked him for his last request, as he was dying from his wounds. He asked them all to wrap tefillin everyday. The woman told Yigal how to her his putting on tefillin helped to fulfill her husbands dying wish. Yigal then told her how the package he was carrying was actually the world’s oldest known pair of teflillin, from Masadah. [another source for the story]

Yossi said how the teflillin found at the site were the same as we use today. He also told us how the tefillin on the arm has 1 internal box, while the head one has 4. It is a reminder in a way that while us jews can have different ideas in the mind – Essenes, Saducees, Pharisees, Zealots – Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox- or any other mental division – we must always act as one.

We looked at the mikveh and heard a story of how a orthodox rabbi came and measured the dimensions of the mikveh there and found it to be perfectly kosher. Wow. What a tradition we have, with traditions that have remained constant for millenia.

We spent an hour discussing, as if we were the Siccarri, the sect of jews at Masadah, what we would do if we were in their situation, with 15,000 romans ready to rape and kill us. We did this in one of the giant water cisterns at the site (12 of them together stored enough water for 1000 people for over 2 years).

This was the most powerful part of my experience at Masadah. We went to the place where Israeli military men and women say their special Masadah oath. Shenit metzada lo tipol: Masadah will not fall again, a metaphor for Israel will not fall again. Usually, they do the oath as the completion of a 3 day hike in the desert. We stood there and shouted it, one word at a time. At this spot, our words echoed back perfectly. The first bit of the echo is just noise, but then our word comes back fully understandable. it was unbelievable. it was as if it was not just the echo, the scientific explanation, but that the spirit of those from Masadah was crying back to us. We then yelled am yisrael chai, Israel lives. I never want to forget that moment.

Yossi told us a few stories about that chant, that pledge.

Yossi told how he once had a group at the railing doing the chant, and an Israeli fighter was flying in the area doing maneuvers. The pilot saw the students at the railing, where he likely also did the oath at one time. He told us how the pilot then flew low, so low that the group could see the pilot in the cockpit. The pilot then rocked his wings up and down in a salute and jetted back up. Awesome!

There was a tank commander in the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. There were 8 tanks left, with a total of 40 shells, facing 750 Syrian tanks. They started to retreat, but were told that they were all that stood between themselves and Haifa and Israel falling. The men kept leaving, but with shells and bullets falling, he tackled his men and yelled at them to remember the pledge that made on Masadah – shenit metazada lo tipol. His own tank men went into their tank, inspiring the other men. They moved up and attacked the Syrians. With extraordinary effort, every single one of the 40 shells hit a Syrian tank – this does not happen! The tanks were moving in a column, and tank 41 was intimidated and turned around. Israeli reserve tanks then unexpectedly came into the battle and chased the Syrians, and more acts of heroism followed.

On Masadah, we all picked up 2 rocks. One is for me, and the other is for me to give to someone else to bring back to Masdah. The rocks are not ours, but belong to Masada.

I brought a rock from Auschwitz to Masadah. I placed it in a spot overlooking the ravine where we yelled.

This day was simply an awesome, awesome experience. It was beautiful, and I’m looking forward to the day I return.

From Adam Feldman's blog, blog.pamiproductions.com.