Masada will Not Fall Again... The clash of History and Modern Mythology

I need to make several prefaces before I write about my experience of Masada and what has happened in my emotionally since I was there.

Masada is visually stunning. I took more pictures there (300+) than at any other single site I have visited in Israel.

I have had a hard time organizing my thoughts and feelings about Masada largely because what it means historically is quite ambivalent...

While I am in a land I call a "Holy Land," I know that that distinction means something very different to me than it does to Jewish people. So I have the luxury of seeing the many sides of Masada and reflecting on them all simply because Masada has little to do with me. I interpret it differently religiously and historically than a Jew would. I am here on a religious pilgrimage. I am here visiting holy sites. There is much about Masada that I find troubling and somewhat less than holy.

Now for some geographic context: What is Masada? Well, it's a big rock - right on the Dead Sea. The photo above was taken from a kilometer away and gives you a sense of the immensity of the rock in question. It is a plateau or a mesa. the roadbed in this picture is at approximately 400 meters (1300') below sea level. The highest point on the Masada Mesa is 59 meters (193') above sea level. The plateau on top is shaped kind of like a huge ship, it is 550 meters (1800') long and 275 meters (900') at its widest point.

And some historical context:

(N.B. If you already know the history of Masada, I suggest you
skip the next few paragraphs down to the paragraph headed "My Masada Struggle." What Follows is my encapsulation of Josephus' history of Masada

Everything we know about Masada we owe to Flavius Josephus who tells us that it
was the Maccabean High Priest Jonathan who first built a fortress on top of this
imposing stone and that, in the 4th Century BC, Herod the Great refortified
Masada and built his own survival bunker there. That being true, Masada should be
a great symbol of paranoia. Josephus writes:

There was also found here a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which
had been treasured up by that king, and were sufficient for ten thousand men;
there was east iron, and brass, and tin, which show that he had taken much pains
to have all things here ready for the greatest occasions; for the report goes
how Herod thus prepared this fortress on his own account, as a refuge against
two kinds of danger; the one for fear of the multitude of the Jews, lest they
should depose him, and restore their former kings to the government; the other
danger was greater and more terrible, which arose from Cleopatra queen of Egypt,
who did not conceal her intentions, but spoke often to Antony, and desired him
to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the kingdom of Judea upon her. And
certainly it is a great wonder that Antony did never comply with her commands in
this point, as he was so miserably enslaved to his passion for her; nor should
any one have been surprised if she had been gratified in such her request. So
the fear of these dangers made Herod rebuild Masada, and thereby leave it for
the finishing stroke of the Romans in this Jewish war.—The Jewish Wars 7:8:4

I have already written in a number of blogposts about the great building projects of Herod the Great - the man was indefatigable in this respect. The most illustrious of all his projects has to be this fortress palace which hangs on three terraces off the north point of Masada. Even in ruins, it is breath-taking - and my favorite part of my day on Masada was climbing the stairs down to the lowest of the three terraces (The picture to the right is me on that terrace). Were I a megalomaniac King, it would be very easy to imagine that the whole world were my oyster entertaining guest on such a platform.

Masada and the Destruction of Israel by the Roman Empire. As great as the architectural achievements are, it is not these for which Masada is remembered. This mountain fortress on the Dead Sea is mostly remembered as the final blow of the Roman Empire in its total destruction of Israel in 74 AD. Masada was the final battle. I will give only the most basic facts here as they are recorded in Josephus.

A group of Jewish extremists called the Sicarii wreaked havoc among the Jewish population at the beginning of the Jewish Revolt against Roman domination in 66 AD. The Sicarii were distinguished from other Zealots because they did not attack only Romans. They were particularly ruthless towards Jews that they considered collaborators of Rome or wealthy men who were too comfortable with Roman rule. They tended to strike at public festivals in crowds by killing their victims with daggers (sicari in Latin). They were reviled by Romans and Jews alike. They saw themselves as trying to force all Jews to fight. They are held responsible by many for the final blow that lead to the destruction of the Temple because they burned the granaries of Jerusalem - a move that would harm not Romans, but Jews. By every measure, the Sicarii were terrorists.

According to Josephus, the Sicarii took Masada by defeating a Roman Garrison there in 66 or 67. From there they set up a base from which they terrorized Roman soldiers adn the local populace in the neigboring area near the Dead Sea. Josephus tells of one night raid during which the Sicarii killed 700 Jewish residence of Ein Gedi, just north of Masada (The Jewish Wars 4:7:2). After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, remaining Sicarii and other Zealots fled Jerusalem and joined the Sicarii at the stronghold of Masada. According to Josephus, there were 960 Jews on top of Masada when the Roman Army reach it. But I get ahead of myself.

The Roman Governor, Silva, lead the clean up operation to wipeout this particularly troublesome unit holed up on top of Masada. He took the elite 10th Legion and laid a three year seige to this impregnable fortress. Josephus' descriptions of the geography and the operations are a masterpiece of historical writing. (an aside: I read Josephus as an undergraduate - what a waste. I read it again in graduate school and found it fascinating. The Bible is certainly not the only literature taking on new meaning during this sojourne in the Holy Land - so is Josephus.) After building a wall all the way around the bottom of the fortress, the Roman Soldiers builts an earthen ramp on a rock outcrop between Masada and the mountain immediately west. Then they drove a siege machine with battering ram up that ramp and used it to knockdown Herod's impregnable fortress.

According to Josephus, it would be the next day before the Roman Soldiers would pour into the mountain fortress. And this is where the story gets ugly. During the hours leading up to the final destruction of the Walls, Eliezar, the leader of the Sicarii gave two speeches (Josephus claims to have gotten the words of these speeches from 2 women who survived the fall of Masada, most reputable historians believe that he probably made them up). The two speeches exhorted the Jews inside the fortress that it would be better to die at their own hands rather than being killed, captured, or sold into slavery by the Romans. When his first speech did not convince everybody, Eliezar made a second which so inspired every man that they immediately went home and killed their wife and children in a great act of merciful love. Then one by one, the remaining men killed each other until the last one remaining had to kill the second to last and then commit suicide. When Silva and his men had gird for war the next day, they march unopposed into the fortress and found 953 dead Jews (2 women and 5 children had escaped death by hiding in a cistern...) The war with the Jews was over.

My Masada Struggle: As with all my experience of antiquities in the last month, there are a number of different ways I view them: artistically or architecturally, historically, geographically, and religilously. I can be awed by any of these. I can be inspired by each. I can be also be troubled, or even horrified by any or all of them. In the end, I tend to view them as a whole and judge them accordingly - and therein lies my struggle in the aftermath of a visit to Masada.

I am in absolute awe of the human endeavor to fortify this hill. I am blown away by the architecture - especially the Herodian architecture. That palace is amazing. The God-created parts of this fortress (the word Masada means 'fortress')is imposing itself, but to fortify the top of the hill is truly awe-inspiring. To be on top of the hill one gets a real sense of the awesomenss peering down on the surrounding desert and the Dead Sea. So I can really appreciate the artistic and geographic awesomeness. That's what inspired me to take more than 300 pictures.

Another aside: I did not walk either up or down the mountain - I took the tram. It was simply too hot for me to attempt either. I am so in awe of the geography that I chose not to try to "conquer" it...

My real struggle is with the historical and religious dimensions of this particular spot. Those two get tangled up with one another pretty quickly in the story. 1st Century Zealotry was both a religious and politcal reality. Zealots were opposed on religous grounds to any foreign occupation of the land God had given to their ancestors. Their primary hero was Judas Maccabeus. Maccabeus was a real hero - inspired by his Zeal for the Lord - who fought against the Seleucid domination of Israel and profanations of the Temple. Josephus makes it clear in his accounts (Josephus was a Jew.) that Eliezar and his followers were not Maccabees, they were terrorists who caused many, many problems in their day.

So wherein my conflict? There seems to be a willingness to lionize Eliezar and the other Jews at Masada. Excavators found 25 previously unknown bodys at the excavation site (giving lie to Josephus' account - Josephus is a notorius exaggerator!). These bodies were reburied with full military honors (?!)in modern Israel. The dead of Masada are treated as vicitims of the Roman siege - but to my estimation, they are victims of the misguided terrorism of Eliezar. the massacre on the hill is the natural conclusion to a misguided life which terrorized everybody else and was turned inward.

It is interesting to point out that the Masada story is told nowhere in ancient literature except Josephus - what that means is that it is not related in the Talmud. Talmudic writings were specifically recorded so that the stories of Israel would not be lost in diaspora. Scholars speculate that this story is excluded from the Talmud because of the suicide element. This is an embarrasing story in Jewish history. Jews look dimly at suicide and to commit suicide instead of fighting the enemy is not laudable.

And yet, in the modern state of Israel, Masada has become an important symbol of Zionist nationalism. My trouble with this site began when I was told that Moshe Dayan, who was the Israel's first Defense Minister, began the custom of having young conscripts in the IDF march up Masada and take their swearing in oath at the mountain fortress in a late night, torch-lit ceremony. The oath ends with the promise that "Masada will not fall again..." I suppose the site of an unmitigated military defeat has an negative inspirtational quality - but I cannot imagine French soldiers being sworn in at Waterloo, or English soldiers at Ticonderoga. It seems to me that modern Israelis have reappropriated the story of Masada and created a new mythology around it. A story that was too embarrasing to be included in ancient Jewish writings has become part of the modern triumphalism. As a student of history, especially of religous history, I believe that Masada is not worthy of this reappropriation of history.

I guess this version of history fits the narrative a little better. I remember seeing the movie "Waltz with Bashir" last winter and attending a discussion after the screening in Tucson. The professor who lead the discussion said that the problem with the massacre that was the subject of that movie, is that it is this one modern Israeli military operation that does not fit the Israeli military narrative: the beseiged people who have had to protect their land from interlopers and outsiders - When you are surrounded on all sides by enemies who want you dead, the only answer is a strong military. (Jews in the audience did not like what this Jewish commentator from Israel had to say and shamed him for showing this horrible movie!) But that is the way I understand this reappropriation of the Masada story and it unsettles me a great deal. As I walk around Jerusalem or other parts of Israel, one of the things that takes away from the holiness of the place (in my opinion) is all these fresh-faced boys and girls walking around in soldier uniforms armed with loaded weopons. I understand it - it's part of the narrative, but it makes me sad. Masada has become part of that narrative.

I did not go to Masada as a sacred site. There are the ruins of a 4th Century Monastic Church there. Monks settled there in the Byzantine Era. Other than that, it has nothing to do with Christianity. But I am visiting a lot of Holy Sites that have nothing to do with Christianity and I am deeply moved by their holiness. Masada is different. To me, holiness and peace have so much to do with each other and Masada stands as a symbol of anything but Peace - it is a monument to death, destruction and terrorism. I think part of my problem is that I am haunted by a T-shirt that was on sale in the Masada gift shop. There amid the "Masada will not Fall again..." memorabilia, was this shirt. Talk about appropriating history to support the mythology... disturbing.

These are my reflections, such as they are. If you want to see some more images of this geographically and architecturally awe-inspiring place, check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/FrBart/0707MASADA