Friday, January 31, 2014

Archeological Dig

The first tiyul of the semester was a trip to Qiryat Ba for an archeological dig. This ancient city was built during the time of the second temple and was destroyed by the Roman during the Bar Kochva rebellion. In order to protect themselves, they would dig underground tunnels and hide during the day. At night they would come out to fight using guerrilla war tactics. 
During the tiyul, I felt especially connected to my Jewish roots. Sitting in the dark of the tunnels really helped me understand what our ancestors went through. The ancient Jews sat in the darkness for three years. I had a hard time sitting there for three minutes. 
On our way to the archeological dig.
Crawling through the tunnels built by the settlers to hide from the Romans.
 
Last sight of daylight for about 5 minutes.
Standing in the remains of the ancient Christian graves.

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1 comment:

  1. UnknownFebruary 1, 2014 at 7:37 AM

    Glad to hear you enjoyed the tiyul so much! I'm still amazed by how difficult it must have been for Am Yisrael during the Bar Kochba revolt. And they held out against the mighty Roman army for three years! The Romans eventually sent reinforcements (parts of 12 legions, a HUGE number) from all over the Middle East and from as far away as Britain and Germany. Especially in Israel this revolt as seen as one of the last instances of "strong Jews" up until the modern state.

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