Metzada
Rabbi Lipman's Message
What's a Metzada?
We will be showing the full Massada mini-series on three nights running from October 16-18 at 7pm. I was telling someone about this the other day, and she asked, "What's a Massada?"
The second most famous site built by King Herod is Metzada (or, as we say in our tz-less English, Massada). Overlooking the Dead Sea, this plateau rises 1,300 feet above the Dead Sea, literally in the middle of nowhere. Two thousand years ago, it was accessible only via one narrow winding path to the top. This path, because of its shape, was called the Snake Path.
Metzada had been used as a fortress by the Hasmoneans. Herod decided it was an ideal place to re-fortify. Josephus described Herod's Metzada, and archaeologists have uncovered all of the structures described by Josephus.
On the top of the plateau, Herod built a thick wall all the way around the plateau. He built storehouses and filled them with grain, olives, dates, and wine, enough to last 1,000 men for ten years. (He wasn't taking any chances.)
He made sure there was enough water by creating a series of water channels and huge cisterns. Part of the plateau was used to grow food.
Once the basic physical needs were taken care of, Herod turned to his comforts. He had built two palaces, one on the west side of the plateau, complete with mosaic floors and elegant furniture; and one on the northern side. The northern palace, however, was built on three different levels connected by staircases.
Herod, following the Roman fashion, built a series of steam bath, ice bath (in the middle of the desert? yep.), and relaxing rooms near the northern palace. The third level of the northern palace was painted with bright happy frescoes, and it was surrounded by pillars. All of this finery had to be lugged from Jerusalem to Metzada through the middle of the Judean Desert, lugged up the Snake Path, and then built. Ironically, Herod never visited Metzada.
However, another group did, and it is this group that made Metzada so famous. In 70 C.E., Titus, the Roman General and son of the new emperor Vespasian, stormed Jerusalem and burned down the Second Temple. The remaining Jewish fighters, called Zealots, either died or were herded off to Rome as captives. However, more than 900 zealots sneaked through Hezekiah's Tunnel and raced across the desert toward Metzada. The Zealots arrived safely at Metzaada, where they joined other zealots who already held the fortress.(The Zealots had taken the fortress at the beginning of the Revolution in 66 C.E.)
The Romans initially ignored the group on top of Metzada, but the Zealots began to annoy the Romans by making raids from the top of the plateau and then fleeing back to safety. Something had to be done. Titus sent his general, Silvus after them. Silvus arrived at Metzada with the 10th Legion (10,000 men) anbd tried a head-on assault up the Snake Path. He failed. Then he decided to surround the entire plateau with a wall and Roman garrisons to starve the Jews out. He didn't know how well-supplied the Zealots were.
The Zealots, led by a young man named Eliezer ben Yair, built a synagogue on top of the plateau. They divided the palaces of Herod into separate family quarters, complete with cooking stoves on top of the nice mosaics. And they waited.
Titus, now emperor of Rome, wasn't prepared to wait. He ordered Silvus to take Metzada or else. Silvus, not really wanting to find out what "or else" meant, decided it was time to act. He couldn't take the city via the Snake Path. So he had his men, using Jews as slaves, build a ramp up the western side of the plateau with a gradual enough slope that his war machines could be pushed up. (That was 3 years of work to conquer 900 measly Jews!)
By 73 C.E. the ramp was complete. The Romans attacked, but the Zealots pushed them back. It was clear, however, that the next day Rome would win. The leader of the Zealots convinced his followers that it was better to die than to be slaves to Rome. The Zealots, all of them except five (which is how we know the story....) committed suicide, killing first their wives and children, and then themselves. They left all of their supplies to show the Romans that they were not dying from starvation. Josephus described the event in detail.
When archaeologists began digging at Metzada, they found food almost 2,000 years old; they found clothing, and they found the skeletons of the Zealots. Many of these finds are now housed in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.
At Metzada itself, you can still see the wall set up by the Romans encircling the base of the entire plateau and the ramp, still a grim reminder of the power that was Rome. Because of its history and the dramatic archaeological remains found there, Metzada has continued to be one of the most popular tourist sites in the world.
The tv mini-series Massada tells this story.