Masada

Thursday morning, I awoke at 4:30 and got on a bus to Masada.  This was the beginning of, as Simon called it later in the day, the “quintessential Year Course siyur.”  It was easily the best siyur I’ve ever been on.  Upon arriving at Masada, we quickly ascended the Roman ramp.  In case you have never been to Masada or don’t know what it is, it’s basically a fortress on a giant plateau where a group of Jews held out against the Romans.  As the Jews saw that the Romans were going to make it up to Masada and defeat them, they decided to kill themselves rather than be enslaved by the Romans.  In recent years, Masada has been a small point of controversy in Israeli society—it used to be that part of one’s initiation into the army was taking the snake path up Masada, but not anymore.  I suppose it’s a matter of what moral and ethical issues the history of the place raises, especially in modern times when Israel itself seems like a Masada against surrounding enemy neighbors.  I don’t know that I personally agree with what happened there so many years ago, but I can certainly understand it from an ideological perspective.

In any case, after ascending the cliff, we watched the sun rise.  I saw this from the same vantage point when I was in Israel summer of 2008 for Machon, but it was amazing regardless.  There is something mystic about watching the sun rise over a long, outstretched landscape, especially from a giant cliff.  As the sun came up, we all got some excellent pictures, and what little is left of the Dead Sea shimmered in light.




After this, the Year Coursers who volunteer at Masada (Jake, Jordan, Nathan, and some more) put on a short play for us about the history of the place that was, of course, hysterical.  They then lead the rest of the siyur.  Aside from the sunrise, the coolest parts of this were the giant water cistern:




And a walkway out to a part of the cliff where you can yell something and hear it echo back at you three times.  Overall, the siyur was just an excellent time, partially because of the beauty of Masada but in large part due to its being lead by Year Coursers.  At the end, we rode down in the cable car, which I have never done before—not too surprising, considering that this was only my second time there.

Upon arriving home, we of course all napped, and then Scott and I woke up to go to Jerusalem.  We got a free ride because kids on Olami, a specialty track, were going up there with the program anyway.  We spent the night at a dance bar on Ben Yehuda street called Herzl, which was pretty fun.  This morning we awoke and caught the Olami bus back to Arad—I’m excited for the rest of this weekend.  The Marva kids are back, and I have missed their presence a good deal.  It should be good to see what they’ve been up to and get some time to hang out with them.  Tonight I also plan on going to a conservative synagogue in Arad, which will only be my second time going to synagogue since I’ve been in Israel.  I hope you have an excellent weekend and a שבת שלום!