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skinnyfeet In reply to little-gemo [2007-07-20 07:43:27 +0000 UTC]

aww happy extremely belated birthday! And thank you. I'll get around to the ones i took at ein gedi ( spring in the middle of the desert!) it was awesome, we went up as far as we could to "David's fall" and we just jumped right into the aqua water fully clothed have you ever heard the history behind masada?

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little-gemo In reply to skinnyfeet [2007-07-20 16:09:10 +0000 UTC]

no i have not.
and, uh, whats masada?

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skinnyfeet In reply to little-gemo [2007-07-20 20:20:04 +0000 UTC]

Masada is a city, or was, until the 70's AC. It's a fortified city in the Negev, the desert, and it sits on a huge plateau with gaping wadi's on all sides. King Herod the baby-killer carved his "step palace" onto the front of it, facing the dead sea. When the Romans came into Israel for the last time in huge numbers, they were going to kill ALL the jews. They cricified everyone, young and old. Not a tree was left within 25 miles of Jerusalem. 914 jews fled to masada. The romans followed them, but had no way of getting in. After a while the romans built a seige ramp and began ramming in the barracades, then they set fire to it - so they were going to get in. Ten men drew lots. All the men took sikkah's, curved knives so razor sharp that you'd die before you'd even notice you'd been slashed, and killed all their families, so they wouldn't be tortured or taken into captivity by the romans. They remembered Egypt vividly and weren't about to relive it. The man who drew the shortest lot then killed the other nine men and then fell on his own sword. The next day when the romans got in, expecting a bloody battle and tons of fun torture, it was totally silent, and no one was around. Some men went to look for the people and finally came across aall the blood and bodies, all 914 men women and children. The romans had nothing to take, nothing to pillage, and no one to hurt, so they left. I think, but i'm not sure that one or two people actually lived through it because they hid in some of the many cisterns for days until everything had quieted down. A similar thing happened at Gamla, about 100 years before, but with about 5000 ppl. Unfortunately Gamla gets no national recognition, like Masada does. With Gamla it was a cliff. The ladies threw down their children, the men threw down their wives, and then followed. Once again the Jews took away the romans satisfaction. But one thing that lightens the whole situation is that despite all the worlds attempts, Israel still lives. God is faithful. And when we were at Masada we went over to a corner where the Jews would yell things back and forth witht he romans encamped on the other side and we shouted Am Yisrael Chai into the wadis and instead of echoing the last part, it echoed the whole statement for a good ten seconds, and it can be heard for ten miles.

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