Sacred Places

Between 70CE and 1948CE the Jews were in the time of the Diaspora or the "scattering" and as such they felt that they had no homeland. In 1947 CE the state of Israel was reformed. Israel is the most sacred place for all Jews, and many have since left the countries of their birth to come back to the "homeland". There are many places in Israel that are special to the Jews, we are going to look at 3 of them, Jerusalem, Masada and Yad Vashem.

Jerusalem

"If I forget you O Jerusalem , may my right hand forget its skills."

(Psalm 137:5)

Jerusalem is the religious capital of the Jewish faith, and it has been so since the 10th century BCE. It was then that the first temple was built by King Solomon in about 1900 BCE). This temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE when the Jews were taken into exile in Babylon.

"By the waters of Babylon there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion On the willows there we hung up our lyres... How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?"

(Psalm 137)

The second temple was built in the same place. Jews would come to the city for the important festivals of Pesach (Passover), Shauvot and Sukkot. The second temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70CE, and has never been rebuilt. All that remains of the second temple is the Western Wall. This has become a very special place of pilgrimage for Jews. All Jews who travel to Jerusalem will visit the Western Wall to pray, some will write prayers on small pieces of paper and leave them wedged between the great stones of the wall. Some Jews believe that the now the new state of Israel has come into existence the temple should be rebuilt, others say that the temple can only be rebuilt when the Messiah comes.

Masada

The Judean desert stretches all the way from the eastern side of Jerusalem all the way to the dead sea. This desert is a rough, hilly barren area, strewn with rocks. Towards the southern end of the Dead Sea is a flat topped hill some 400m high looking a little like a ship set down in the desert, its sides are steep cliffs and it tapers almost to a point at one end. This hill is called Masada and is an important place of pilgrimage for the Jewish visitors to Israel. The story begins in 43BCE when Herod the great transformed this hill into an impressive fortress with large water supplies and 37 watchtowers. After Herod died the Romans took over Masada as a garrison. In 66CE the Zealots led a rebellion in Palestine and captures the fortress of Masada. The Jewish community on Masada grew to be about a thousand strong and it was not until 72CE that the Roman commander of the area Flavius Silva attacked. After a long campaign the Romans broke through the fortress wall and were sure that they would be able to capture Masada. The Jews were also sure that they would be defeated and their leader, Eleazar, called them together and spoke to them;

"My loyal followers, the time has come for us to prove our determination by our deeds.... In the past we have never submitted to slavery and we must not choose slavery now. It is evident that day break will end our resistance but we are free to choose an honourable death with our loved ones......Come ! while are hands are free and can hold a sword let them do a noble service. Let us die unenslaved by our enemies, and leave this world as free men in the company of our wives and children"

It was decided and ten men were chosen to kill the others, when this was done nine put themselves to the sword of the tenth and after he has set fire to the fortress he fell on his own sword. All in all 960 people committed suicide. The next morning the Romans broke through the wall and expecting fierce resistance were greeted with a deathly hush. The victory must have turned sour, the Zealots had won after all.

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is a very different place of pilgrimage to the Western Wall and to Masada. It is not a link to events that happened long ago that have made them holy. It is a memorial to the Jews who were murdered during the holocaust, and to the non-Jews who helped them. Yad Vashem can be found on the outskirts of Jerusalem and it means 'lasting memorial'. Between 1933 and 1945 six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. If one person was to walk past you each 5 seconds it would take 49 weeks, 4 days, 5 hours and 20 minutes for 6,000,000 to do so. A director of Yad Vashem said that everyone should visit the memorial so that the world never forgets. It is not the keeping alive of hated against the people who committed the holocaust that is important it is keeping alive the hatred of the evil that allowed the holocaust to take place.