Reflection by: Marcus Liow
Chronicles of a pilgrim – Day 12 – Masada, Dead Sea
We started out early in the morning for a 2-hour drive to Masada, an ancient stone fortress in Israel, located high above the Dead Sea on a tall, rocky mesa. Now an Israeli national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 840-acre complex holds well-preserved ruins attesting to the history of the ancient kingdom of Israel and the courage of its people in the face of a Roman siege. Taking the cable car up, we visited the Masada Fortress which it tells a conflicting story. On one hand, it speaks of the Jewish rebels who, led by Eleazar Ben Yair, committed mass suicide in preference for slavery under Roman rule. On the other hand, history paints the truth to be one of mass killing as instigated by Commander Eleazar who unilaterally chose death over slavery for the inhabitants of the fortress.
Next, we visited the site of the Qumran Caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Qumran, identified by some scholars with the biblical “City of Salt”, was occupied mainly during the Greco-Roman period (ca. 150 BC-68 AD). The community that inhabited Qumran is generally identified with the Essenes, a religious sect, which lived in isolation in this region west of the Dead Sea.
In 1947, a Bedouin Shepherd was chasing one of his goats that had strayed into a cave. He flung a stone into the dark cavern and the resulting clink against a pot prompted him to investigate. He emerged with the first of what would be about 15,000 fragments of some 850 scrolls secreted in the many caves that pock the cliffs rising above the Dead Sea. These scrolls are also known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Qumran ruins also shed light on how life in Qumran used to be. For example, we now know that Qumran was not the remote place it is today. Two millennia ago, there was a thriving commercial trade in the region; numerous settlements dotted the shore, while ships plied the sea. Springs and runoff from the steep hills were carefully engineered to provide water for drinking and agriculture, and date palms and plants produced valuable resins used in perfume. And while the heavily salinated sea lacked fish, it provided salt and bitumen, the substance used in ancient times to seal boats and mortar bricks. Far from being a lonely and distant community of religious nonconformists, Qumran was a valuable piece of real estate—a day’s donkey ride to Jerusalem, a two-hour walk to Jericho, and a stroll to docks and settlements along the sea.
We could only look at the caves from afar as visitors are not allowed in the caves. It is truly amazing that it took a lost goat to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls which hold critical pieces of information which have been recognized as one of the most convincing methods of proof of Jesus’ existence.
Dead Sea
Next, we visited the Dead Sea, known in Hebrew as Yam Ha-Melakh (the Sea of Salt) was created by the same shift of tectonic plates that formed the Syrian-African Rift Valley several million years ago. Originally part of an ancient, much larger lake that extended to the Sea of Galilee, its outlet to the sea evaporated some 18,000 years ago, leaving a salty residue in a desert basin at the lowest point on earth—1,300 feet below sea level. Really just a lake, the Dead Sea is part of the long border between Israel and Jordan whose towering mountains can be seen from the Israeli side, part of the Judean and Negev deserts. The saline waters of the lake mean no fish can survive in the salty waters, hence the name. The other result of the salty water is its renowned health and healing properties of the mud.
A good analogy can be drawn from the 2 Seas: the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee, teeming with life, is able to give and receive water. Whereas the Dead Sea, with no life whatsoever, is only able to receive water. In terms of our daily lives, this analogy means that those who give flourish, while those who keep everything for themselves dry up and wither.
Floating in the dead sea was quite surreal as I’ve always heard and seen videos about it. But experiencing it firsthand was incredible and all of us pilgrims had a whale of a time floating and spreading mud on our skin.
Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
After our Dead Sea swim, we headed to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem to meet His Beatitude, Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM, who has been the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since November 2020. As a Franciscan Friar, he served as Custos of the Holy Land from 2004 to 2016, and as Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate from 2016 to 2020.
Sitting down in the room with him, he talked to us about the Catholics in the Holy Land as well as some of the issues they were facing. He then opened the floor for discussion where he further explained a few of the questions that we had for him. He struck me as a very genuine person and answered each question with honesty and enthusiasm.
