Dear Readers,
In this weeks post, I'd like to share with you where I'm having my Bat Mitzvah. My Bat Mitzvah will be at the historical sight, the Masada. The story of Masada is so amazing that I wanted to share it with you.
King Herod was a governor of Israel in the 1st century of BCE. He decided to build a fortress on the top of a mountain surrounded by the Dead Sea called Masada. In Herod's fortress, he had big rooms, a lot of extra food that he did not need, and he had twelve big cisterns. Cisterns are bowls that collect gallons of water when it rains.
In 66 CE, the Romans began to take over Jerusalem. They also destroyed the Second Temple in the year of 69 CE. The Romans made a deal, if you want to live, you had to join them and become Roman. But, if you want to be hunted down, you could chose not to join and run away. Well, a lot of the Jews decided to join the Romans but, there was still Jews that stood up for what they believed in.
The Jews went up to Masada and stayed in Herod's fortress. Since he had extra food and the cisterns, they thought they would be able to stay there for a while. 72 CE is when Flavius a governer of the Romans, decided to try to get the Jews in the fortress. There was over 1,000 men, women, and children who were in Herod's fortress who had to go up against the Romans and their Jewish slaves.
They tried to get at them but, it wasn't working. The Jews on the top of Masada had rocks that they threw down at the Romans. All the Jewish slaves were sent to make a path and kill their own kind. While they tried to make the path, all the men decided to kill themselves and their families. When all the Jews that were in the fortress finally came to the top they discovered everyone was dead.
Out of 1,000 Jews,two women with five children remained and stayed in a cistern until the Romans finally came up to the fortress. They were the only ones who survived and shared the information so we can learn about it today.
Today, Masada is open for everyone to see and I will be going there on my trip.
I decided to have my Bat Mitzvah at the Masada once our Rabbi shared the story with me. I found it really interesting because the story symbolizes the strength, determination and courage the Jews had. I also think that Masada shows that even though Jews died in the process, they still won. That is, because they probably felt that even though they did suicide to each other, they didn't get captured by the Romans. They kept Yiddishkeit and wanted to die as Jews. So, I think is that the story of Masada is a very inspirational story.
So far, I have raised $2,438 towards my fundraising goal of $3,600. I would like to thank all my friends and family who have donated to my Chai Raiser so far. If you have b een following my blog and have not donated yet, but like to make a donation please visit http://www.gofundme.com/50jj0s.
Have a wonderful New Year,
Samantha
Here is a picture of what Masada looks like
