Masada Witnesses Completion of First Torah Since Roman Siege

The ancient synagogue atop the Judean desert fortress of Masada is by no means large. But on the eighth night of Chanukah last week, the rededicated space seemed to expand with revelers as they celebrated the completion of the first Torah scroll to be written on the historic mountaintop in 2,000 years.

As the sun began to set Wednesday, hundreds of people pooled together at the complex’s Western Palace – a massive structure once used by Herod the Great, but later the location of an unsuccessful Jewish stand against a determined Roman army – to watch Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Shai Abramovich carefully ink the final lines of the holy scroll. But the letters were hardly dry when Abramovich picked up his quill once more to embark on yet another Torah, this one funded by the local Tamar Regional Council.

When darkness fell, Rabbi Shimon Elharar, director of Chabad of the Dead Sea, lit all eight candles of a Chanukah menorah atop Masada, and the party began.

“All the actual ceremonies were carried out in the Western Palace,” Elharar, who lives in nearby Arad, explained, “in order to minimize the difficulties with space, since the ancient synagogue is so small. We were fortunate to have singer David Broza also join us for the occasion.”

With a smile, he added: “It made the celebration even happier.”

Broza, who graced the gathering with a small concert, lit one of the menorah’s candles. So did Arad Chief Rabbi Yosef Albo; Eli Amitai, director of Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority; Dov Litavinoff, director of the Tamar Regional Council; and Abramovich.

Abramovich, who works in a special glass-enclosed chamber within the synagogue that both facilitates climate-controlled protection for the Torah scrolls and a ready viewing space for Masada’s many tourists, accompanied the scroll to its new home.

According to Elharar, more than 800,000 visitors file through the synagogue annually.

“It’s a little like working in an aquarium,” he commented. “You need to have a calm nature.”

Elharar, who dreamed up the idea of having a scribe work day in and day out at the synagogue with Masada National Park director Eitan Campbell, said that the first scroll’s completion “brings the tragic story of Masada full circle.”

The room holding the Torah “is built directly over the burial place of the Torah scroll of Masada,” he noted. “From this we can see the clear message that the Jewish people live!”