a brighter day........

We finished our day in Jerusalem by going to the Jerusalem Theatre to see a quilt exhibition, again we had had one of these beautiful pieces in the Ailsa Craig Festival, and again, it was good to see it.

Were up bright and early as we were heading into the desert today and going to Masada. Again, our drive took us to Jerusalem, over the hills and across the other side........ and then into a totally different landscape.

The sun was shining brightly and, in fact, there had been quite the discussion before we left between Yemima and Chaim as to whether we would actually be able to use this road as there had been some major flooding the day before with all the rain but they decided to take a chance. I am glad to say that all was well and we had no hold ups on our way.

The landscape is truly amazing and so different, and it wasn't long before we were passing Bedouin villages which was interesting to see.

We stopped a little further on at a sign that said Sea Level and there was a Bedouin man with his camel and a busload of tourists. I took a snap and Yemima told me he would probably charge me, but there were too many others who were happy to sit on his camel and have their picture taken, so he ignored me.

The route we were taking was going to take us along the edge of the Dead Sea, so this is why the sea level sign was there, we were now going to be dropping down 400 metres below it. The drive was lovely and we passed kibbutz and Date palms. It was also interesting to see a couple of companies that produce skin care and body care, my favourite being Ahava, which I have found for sale here in Canada, I did buy some body wash and lotion later in the day. We were heading for Qumran which is where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. The drive was long but interesting and we did stop a couple of times for photos.

Qumran is now in ruins, but it was a place where a very religious group had lived thousands of years ago, and it was thought that John the Baptist may have joined them for a while. 

This photo shows the sort of jars that the scrolls were packed in, and there was a display inside a small museum which had lots of information and even some small scroll fragments. The main area outside housed the buildings and ritual baths that they would have lived in and used. There were seven ritual baths and they would have had one to cleanse themselves before they ate. 

It was interesting to see in some small restaurants, a sink with a can chained to the tap with which you would see men wash there hands before they started their meal, especially the more religious.

The photo above, shows the cave where the scrolls were found. There was a shepherd boy looking for a lost goat, and he threw a stone inside and heard a clunk so investigated, he found the jars and took the scroll he found to a shoemaker as he thought he might be able to use them in shoes. Luckily the shoemaker thought there was more to it and showed a Rabbi the scroll and made the discovery. There have always been a lot of people who think the bible stories are just that, stories, but I believe the scrolls actually give credence to the existence of events. There are lots of caves dotted in the hillsides, makes you wonder what else they may find one day.

Anyway, it was time to move on as there was a lot to see at Masada. This is also my third border, I had seen Syria and Lebanon, and now I was at the Dead Sea looking across to Jordan. 

Before I left on this trip, several people suggested that I went into Jordan and to the Rose City of Petra, I would love to have done it, and there were tours I could have taken, but I was travelling alone and am not as adventurous as I once was, so decided I would leave that for another time when perhaps I might have a travelling companion.

Jordan across the sea

We carried on and it after a little while I got my first glimpse of Masada, a high plateau sitting alone and not joined to the rest of the mountains around it. It really is quite the place and I don't think my photos do it justice, so I shall do my best to describe it. We drove into the site from the east side, (I've just looked at the map), and from here we could take the cable car, or, if we felt really adventurous, we could walk up the Snake Path. They say it is nice to do that in the early morning so that you get to the top to see the sunrise, we were a little late for that, and it is quite the walk so we took the cable car to the top.

In this photo, you can clearly see the snaking path that would have taken us up. When we got to the top, the views are incredible. I had looked out of the windows of the cable car and got a little dizzy, I'm not great with heights, but I really did want to see Masada. I don't know how familiar you all are with the story of Masada, but it was here that King Herod built two palaces, the most impressive of which would be the northern palace. He also built a western palace.

I have to say that it was all very impressive and you had to wonder how they got all this stone up here in the first place, not the mention columns etc,. The photo above was one of the administrative buildings, and there was some beautifully decorated plasterwork in the corner. The black line in the wall is to show what they originally found upon excavation. Anything above that was added after they excavated the site to give an idea of what the building would have looked like. I found that very interesting and it did give a better sense of size and scale. The whole site was enormous.

This was a storeroom, one of several built side by side, but this one had been cleared so you could get a feel for the size, the others were still full of rubble 

Now, the story of Masada is very complex and I will try not to bore you too much, but I have cribbed a bit from the guidebook I got there as I would never remember it all myself! But the events of 74CE were written about by a Jewish historian, Joseph ben Mattathias who had links to Rome and was known as Josephus Flavius, it is all very complicated and it is probably best to research it for yourselves. But it would appear that Josephus wrote a book, "Wars of the Jews", which described events leading up to what happened on Masada, and he wrote it to discourage others from rebelling against Rome.

Masada is strategically very important, it is as I said on a plateau of it's own and the view over the area is also important, and a desert fortress would have been a necessity. To cut a long and complicated story short, Herod eventually dies and Masada passes to his son, totally incompetent by all accounts, and he was eventually deposed and a Roman garrison installed, Are you with me so far?

A full rebellion eventually erupted as the Romans were not sensitive to "Jewish religious sensibilities", I quote my guide book here. So the rebellion continues with emancipation from Rome being at the core. There was trouble in Jerusalem, and a small group then flees to Masada led by Eleazar ben Yair. So more fighting and eventually the Romans get to Masada.

The rebels are safely ensconced on Masada, and have food and water. The Romans are left to wonder how they are going to attack, and build a ramp on the western approach to Masada. They had built encampments at the base of Masada, and once the ramp was up, were able to fire into the rebel stronghold. However, the rebels have built a new wall and so the soldiers are told to burn it down, but the wind changed and the Romans were in danger of losing their own encampments.

It was that night that Eleazar ben Yair called everyone together and made an impassioned plea to them. They would not under any circumstance acquiesce to Rome and become slaves, so that left only one option, they would all rather die. So, lots were drawn to see who would carry out this deed.

Ten men were chosen of which Eleazar ben Yair was one, and killed everyone on Masada and then themselves or each other. When the Romans finally breached the walls the following day, they were met by a scene which I am sure, they found unbelievable. There were only two women and five children who survived by hiding in water conduits, so they emerged and were able to tell the Romans what had happened.

The stones with names on which are presumed to be the lots that were drawn to see who was going to do the killings

Looking down on one of the levels of Herod's northern palace

This model shows what it would have looked like

One of the encampments which was on the western side.

The stairs down to the lower level of Herod's palace

Wall frescoes and columns

We sat and rested here for a little and ate some fruit and drank water. It was actually the perfect day to be doing this as it was breezy and although sunny, not too hot. In the summer I am sure it must be incredibly hot as there is no shade whatsoever.

We carried on and went into the ruin of the synagogue, there were several tour groups here with their guides, and we had a quick look when Yemima went into a room at the back of the synagogue and there, sitting behind a glass window was a scribe writing the Torah with a quill pen. I couldn't quite believe my eyes that I would ever see something like this. I watched him work in fascination as he copied the script from a master copy I suppose, and when he reached the end of a line, he would fold that line on the one he was following so he could copy the next line. Yemima told him I was from Canada, and he asked my name. He took a small piece of paper out of a jar and wrote my name in Hebrew, but changed the last letter, I will have to wait for clarification as to why as I can't remember but I will let you know when I get it. It was fascinating to watch and I don't know how he could chat and not make a mistake, I do know that if a mistake is made while writing the Torah it cannot be changed and the whole thing has to be destroyed. While I watched him work, I could here the tour groups outside, one guide even told her group, " oh there's only someone writing in there.." almost in a bored way and as if it was nothing really very special. It made me glad that I wasn't with a group as I think they miss so much.

My name in Hebrew. I have this very safe as I want it laminated so that I can use it, I will also scan it so that I can use it in my work. 

An explanation of the breaching point and the ramp on the western approach

One of the many Artisan's workshops

Again the mosaic floors were breathtaking, and I really enjoyed looking at them we spent a lot of time there and then took the cable car back down the mountain. Once at the bottom, we went into an excellent museum which explained in more detail what it was like to live there, and also had the lots which were drawn in a case.

The sun was beginning to go down now, so it was time to head home. I was moving on again tomorrow and had another great day ahead of me........

Sh'ma Israel...................

I am with Yemima today and we are going to Jerusalem. Maybe I should write what I put in my journal.

"Yemima took me to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, I don't really know what I can say about it."

That was my entry and I have been wondering what I would write about when I got to this point, but think I have an awful lot to say about it which surprises me.

I was now in Modi'in just north of Tel Aviv, and there had been a terrific storm during the night, in fact it was still raining when we left for Jerusalem and continued raining for quite some time. I didn't realize that the drive to Jerusalem was taking us right through the West Bank until I got to a checkpoint. The country is probably only nine miles wide at this point, but there is an agreement that the road is open. We passed road signs for Ramallah where there has recently been trouble, but that was as close as I go to it.

An Israeli settlement on the West Bank

A different view of the Dome of the Rock from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Yemima took me a little further up the hill as she wanted to show me the desert which is literally just the other side of the hill. It does seem strange to have forests and fertile land on one side and then for the greenery to peter out and then desert. Anyway, we then made our way down from here to Yad Vashem.

I really wasn't sure what I was going to feel or how I would react to whatever I was going to see there. I know there are a lot of people who think it didn't happen or would rather shut their eyes to it, so if you do not wish to read further please feel free to close this down now, but personally I felt that I had to face it, it is such a huge chunk of history that is important. I remember seeing it in my history books at school, and hearing about it - even though I am not Jewish, and because of that it would be easy to ignore it. But..........

Yemima and I parked the car and then she said we should have a coffee before going in. I was surprised how busy it was with lots of tour groups so down we went and got our coffee. We took the only two seats left which was at a table with a couple of bus drivers. I'm busy trying to prepare myself with whatever I'm going to face when a woman came up to the table and spoke to one of the drivers:-

"Where's Andre?"

"I don't know, he must be with your group."

"I lost my group. Call him.Tell him I've had enough Hell for one day I want to go - now."

REALLY?????????

And that was before I've even gone through the main entrance to the Museum. 

We finished our coffee, me seething inwardly at the crassness of this person, and then made our way to the main entrance. We had entered through the main foyer, but then had to go outside again and through the arch that leads to the tunnel where the museum is housed but before we could go in, there were a couple of women using the archway as a photo op. Now I don't mind a photo op, not that I feature in too many, but throwing you hair over your shoulder and posing hand on hip and smiling under the arch that plainly says Holocaust museum didn't seem particularly appropriate to me, but maybe I just have a funny way of looking at things.

So down we go and enter the museum. It is a long tunnel but takes you from one side to the other in a zigzag, you cannot walk straight down the middle. It's an incredibly large space and starts with illustrations in books from the Middle Ages showing how Jews have been viewed through history. I spent a lot of time reading and learnt a lot, then it was through this room and out into the tunnel where there were books which were similar to the ones that would have been burnt on Kristallnacht.

And onwards with the story of how things deteriorated from this point, the rise of Hitler, his persecution of the Jews and others, Romanies and later, Resistance members, the ghettos, the round up of Jews in Paris which tied up with a film I had seen last year at the film society, but here it was. Photograph albums by German soldiers showing them laughing while they cut the beards of Jewish men who looked resigned and proud- I told you this would be difficult - the personal stories of so many people and the stories of heroism, cabinets full of stories and moving across the museum in a zigzag as I mentioned, here are the rails and a wagon, here the story of Treblinka, Auschwitz, Belsen Bergen, the death marches. In the floor, a pile of shoes under glass, ( It took me back to some photos that Shoshi had posted last summer when she was in  Hungary on business. They went to the memorial there on the banks of the Danube. Rows of shoes on the the walk by the river where they had ben told to take them off and then shot and dumped in the river), a model of Auschwitz with model figures, nothing left to the imagination, the uniforms of the camps, the yellow Star of David which would have been sewn to their clothes.  The photographs, the recording of physical state when the American doctors went into some of the camps, "22yrs old, but emaciated so looks much older, died the following day".  So much to see and take in. I also learnt a lot, I didn't know that Europe was a bit slow on the uptake and largely shutting their eyes to what was going on.

 I think we spent four hours going through here.

The museum was full, lots of tour groups but also school groups and Army groups. It was interesting to se that the school groups were quite boisterous at the beginning but became very subdued towards the end.

Carrying on into the Hall of Names where the names of victims are recorded.

Eventually coming out of the tunnel into the light- which I didn't think I was feeling

This lovely sculpture is explained in the first photo and I show it here so you can read about it.

The gate to the Hall of Remembrance. On the floor the names of 22 camps in Europe

The Menorah outside the Hall of Remembrance 

For me, this was the saddest place of all. the Children's memorial. We walked down this ramp and then walked through a door. The room inside is pitch black save for five candles burning which are reflected in hundreds of mirrors as a memorial to the 1.5 million children who were murdered. It is hard to get your bearings as you cannot see yourself reflected at all. As you walk round this memorial, the names, age and country of origin of all the children are read out.

I told you I had a lot to say and I think I will leave this here.