Learning from Masada
We traveled two thousand years to Masada where we witnessed the dawn over The Dead Sea, the distant mountains of Jordan and the story upon stories of Masada. The Jewish people,The Babylonoians, The Persians, The Romans, The British, The Arabs, The Israelis … all feature in this place of myth. Looking to Masada from the South, in this morning light, would be a spectacle of almost unimaginable beauty and power two thousand years ago. A palace hewn from the red rock mountain. The stone masons of Petra worked their magic here.
But on this morning, my son and I simply admired the beauty of the landscape and the ancient ruins in the dawn light. These things are permanent and human conflict can come and go but the sun still rises here every morning.
Masada has become totemic in modern Israeli storytelling as they, like millions before them, redefine the reality of this place through narrative. It is part of the learning here, that the world is made up of stories, many are so powerful they define the reality of our existence. At Masada you feel it all, a magical reality made more so by the beauty of the land.