Rabbi Mitch Leads Prayer Service at Masada
Yesterday (Monday) we went down from the mountains of Jerusalem into the Judean Desert.
On our way, we passed the oldest city on earth. Although smaller settlements elsewhere may have been this old, archaeologists have as yet found no walled city as old as Jericho. This oasis city, twelve thousand years old, dates back to 10,000 B.C.E.
Shortly after passing the oldest city on earth, we catch sight of the lowest place on earth. We are at the Dead Sea. We have descended to 1200 feet below sea level. The sea, which has been rapidly receding in recent years, is increasingly becoming dry desert land, just as the Jordan River is being reduced to a trickle. The Jordan River runs from Lake Kenneret, or the Sea of Galilee in the north, into the Dead Sea. However, over the years, water has been diverted from the Kenneret for human use, cutting off the water supply to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. David Keren, our guide, tells us that Israel is planning a joint project with Jordan and perhaps the Palestinian Authority to bring in water from the Red Sea, although this is not likely to happen in the near future.
To our right are the Judean Hills … desert hills. The Judean Desert stretches before us, the Dead Sea now to our left. It is hot, the sunlight hazy. The temperature outside the air conditioned bus is in the eighties, and it is still morning. As the day progresses, the temperature will climb into the nineties. We pass camels belonging to Bedouins. A group of wild Ibex stands by the roadside. Neatly cultivated groves of date palms can be seen from time to time.
Arriving at Qumran shortly after 9 a.m., we are only a half hour away from Jerusalem, a day’s walk in ancient times. Here two thousand years ago lived the community known as Essenes. It was here, in 1947, that a young Bedouin boy, tending to his goats, accidentally found the first of the Dead Sea scrolls to be recovered. He had stumbled upon a cave in the Judean Hills overlooking the Dead Sea and discovered earthen jars that contained scrolls. The lack of humidity in this hot, dry desert climate with a temperature that is constant throughout the year has allowed these scrolls to be preserved in caves for 2000 years.
Dead Sea Scrolls Caves
The scrolls include pieces of the Bible, the oldest Biblical texts in existence. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, there were no original Bible scrolls in existence that were this old. The scrolls include a complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah. The oldest original Isaiah up until this discovery dates from a thousand years later. In addition to the Biblical works, the scrolls also include information about the people who lived in this community 2000 years ago. Scholarship seems to indicate that they were from families associated with the Temple in Jerusalem who had come into the desert to isolate themselves from the corruption at the Temple in order to live more pure lives. They brought the scrolls from Jerusalem, probably hiding them in the caves during the Jewish revolt against Rome, at the time of the destruction of the Temple. The Romans destroyed Qumran in 68 C.E.
This community may have had some connection to early Christianity. Although John the Baptist was probably not a member of the community, he lived and preached in this area, and performed baptisms in the Jordan River near to Jericho, where Jesus was baptized.
Spa on the Dead Sea
After leaving Qumran, we continue south along the Dead Sea to Masada, known as the last holdout in the Jewish Revolt against Rome. Here, high on a hill above the Dead Sea, King Herod built an impregnable palace refuge in the 1st century B.C.E. Herod, of non-Jewish, Idumean origin, reigned as King of the Jews with the support of Rome until his death in 4 C.E.
After the Jewish revolt against Rome that began in 66 C.E. and ended with the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., a group of 1000 Jewish zealots, including women and children, continued to hold out against the Romans in this fortress that had originally been Herod’s palace. They held out for 3 years after the Temple was destroyed, until 73 C.E. when they all committed suicide rather than be captured by the Romans.
We arrived at Masada shortly before 11 a.m., and here, high above the Dead Sea, our interfaith group held a prayer service, the Jewish Shacharit, or Morning Service, with everyone, Christians as well as Jews, participating.
Saying that Masada is often called ‘the Jewish Alamo,’ Rabbi Mitch described those who in this spot held out against the Romans for three years as having faced the end of the Jewish world. For the next 2000 years, Jews would be exiled from the land, and for 2000 years would harbor the hope of return to this land that is so much a part of the Jewish people.
Our standing here is bringing this dream to life, Rabbi Mitch said. It is a powerful thing, giving life to this dream that the Jewish world has not ended and will continue in its service to God, betrothed to God. It is even more powerful that we stand here with our Christian brothers, Rabbi Mitch said. This coming together is the service that does honor to God.
The Reverend Lemler’s prayer invoked the One God before whom we stand knit together in faith.
The service, which included the traditional elements of the Jewish morning service such as songs of praise, the call to worship, the Shema, V’ahavta, Amidah and Kaddish, was inclusive of the Christians in our group. Rabbi Mitch – in Hebrew – and the Reverend Lemler – in English – recited the Priestly Blessing while all the adults held the Jewish prayer shawl, the tallit, over all the children.
Both Christians and Jews use the Priestly Blessing in their services. As Rabbi Mitch points out, it is the oldest continuously recited blessing in the world. On Sunday, when we were taking a tour of the ancient City of David, we learned that a woman’s necklace containing the Priestly Blessing had been found in the archaeological excavations. The necklace is 2800 years old.
There are 27 people in our interfaith group, 28 including our guide, David Keren. Ten of these are children and teenagers. The Christian children as well as the Jewish children participated in the service.
David Darling of Christ Church read the 145th psalm. His older brother, William Darling, read the 23rd psalm. And the youngest Darling brother, George, recited the Lord’s Prayer, which, although wholly identified with Christianity, is really a very Jewish form of expression.
It was a very moving service, and a very special time of togetherness.
After leaving Masada, we went to a spa for a swim in the Dead Sea, and then back to Jerusalem for a tour of the tunnels along the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.
It was a full day, a happy day, and a rewarding one. A good way to start the month of Adar, a joyous month on the Jewish calendar.
