Dedicated to the memory of all the defenders of Jerusalem

Galilee

Prologue
Autumn 66 AD in Judea, a powerful anti-Roman uprising began, soon turning into a real war (Judean war, Great war, Milham ha-gadol). The reason for the uprising was the robbery of the temple treasury by the procurator Judea Flore. In punishment for the ensuing unrest, Flor, appearing in Jerusalem, gave part of the city to the plundering of his army, crucified and blasphemed many of the inhabitants of the city.
Atrocities Flora caused popular resistance. A small Roman garrison stationed in Jerusalem was destroyed. Syria Governor Guy Cestius Gall, who was subordinate to Judea, assembled an army (more than 30 thousand soldiers) and in the beginning of autumn (in the month of Tishrei) opposed the rebel Jews. On the way to Jerusalem, Gall burned the cities and destroyed their inhabitants. After a punitive expedition in Galilee, he arrived with his troops to Jerusalem and, settling on Mount Zofim (Scopus), began an attack on the city. After many days of fruitless fighting, he decided to retreat. The number of the Roman army, its skills, experience and weapons gave Gall every reason to win over the inhabitants of Jerusalem who were unprepared for the assault. But Gall retreated in the direction of the seaside valley. Until now, for historians it remains a mystery, what caused this sudden turn. Be that as it may, the Jews, under the leadership of Eleazar ben Shimon, rushed to pursue the Romans. The Romans were surrounded in a gorge near the town of Beth-Horon. Gul lost five thousand warriors. Judea was cleared of the Romans. The defense of Galilee was entrusted to Yosef ben Mattityah (later called Josephus Flavius), who formed the rebel army. Another major commander of the uprising in Galilee was Johanan of Gush-Khalawa (Johanan Gishal), who created the partisan militia.
In the spring of 67, the Roman military commander Vespasian, at the head of the 60-thousandth corps, invaded Galilee. The forces of the Jews and the Romans were about equal. The difference was that the Roman army was made up of experienced professional soldiers, while the Jewish army was in fact the peasant militia, many of its soldiers took up arms for the first time. In addition, the Roman army was constrained by iron discipline, and Flavius ​​and Johannan entered into a violent conflict between themselves. The troops of the rebels, who had no combat experience or skilled commanders, were defeated. Flavius’s attempt to stop the advancement of the Romans ended in failure. Most of his soldiers fled, while he himself, with part of his forces, took refuge in the fortress city Yodfat (Iotapata). In December, 67, AD Vespasian appeared under the walls of Jodaphat. From this moment our story begins.
Johanan ben zvi
For the first time, Johanan ben Zvi saw a dead city. I saw dead people. Saw the dead beasts. But never seen dead cities. Burned houses without windows and doors, bloodied bodies on the streets, blood everywhere. A black ominous skeleton towered above the town of Migdal ha-Shemesh synagogue. At the threshold of the synagogue, seized by hands a pile of ancient scrolls, lay a torn old man. The wind ruffled a huge mane of gray hair. He seemed alive, and it was scary. The rays of the setting sun glided over the scrolls, the Torahs, along the black rows of letters, highlighting the words: “Do not pick your vineyard yourself: leave it to a foreigner and a poor person. I am the Lord your Gd ... ”Yair carefully walked around the dead old man and entered the synagogue. The floor was littered with scraps of scrolls, parchment sheets, fragments of lamps. By the wall, where instead of Aaron a black hole was black, he saw a fragment of the tablets of the covenant on the floor and picked it up. The sixth and seventh commandments were inscribed on a flat stone, but the particle “not” was repelled: “Kill! Adore! ”
And in the corner - children's shoes. And Aaron has a murdered and raped woman.
Eagle's Nest
Among the eagle's nests and cliffs of Greater Hermon, the refuge of the rebel detachment Johanan ben Zvi was hidden. The winding little noticeable paths that led to their cave were littered with rock fragments and crossed by ravines. The thorny bushes and fig trees in front of the cave entrance were mated and mixed up so that mountain goats could not get through.
Once late at night, the guys from the detachment were sitting at their cave and sang songs in a low voice. Suddenly the branches of the bush parted. A tall old man appeared. I looked around slowly, walked over to the fire, sat down and was silent for a long time. Johanan looked at him carefully. Wrinkles on a rough face, black from stubborn soot, predatory aquiline nose, tough crease of thin weathered lips ...
- Sholom, hebarim! Said the old man after a long silence.
- Sholem! - Johanan answered for all.
Paused.
“I am from Banias, from the town, not far from here ...”, breaking the silence, the old man finally said. And somehow foolishly added: - We have one whore in the town, that's the thing.
Paused ...
- You for this, father, beat your shoes on the rocks at night to tell us about it? - grinning, said Johanan. - Thank you, father, let us go by - let's wrap up Only one thing is not enough for us.
Everyone laughed, and the old man spat in annoyance at the fire:
- Here are the stallions ... Yes, it's not about her ... To her a dog to walk alone got better - that's what it is!
- And to whom to go to her, if not a dog? - Johann laughed. “It’s not for the priest to go to her ...”
The old man was getting angry. He was apparently a capricious man and cool.
- No, not to those I came. You are not kanaim, and you are not Yohanan ...
- Kanaim, we or Kanaim, father, do not you know about that. You better tell us directly why you came? - Johanan rose from his seat, went around the fire and sat down next to the old man, lowering his heavy hand on his shoulder.
- Well, talk!
The old man grinned:
- What are you sitting next to me? Stabbed, if that, yes? Zagi, slaughter the old man who came to you himself. Anyway, soon die. And I have already done my business on the ground. He buried his wife. Daughter married well issued. And the son of God did not give. I was afraid of nothing from my youth, but now ... We are not weak in Galilee ... - he laughed. “My name is Arie HaGarizim.” Maybe you heard?
Ben-Zvi flinched. Is Arie himself ?! Once the most famous robber of Galilee. Isn't the old man lying? Maybe he is a Roman scout? They have this case well-placed.
- Do you remember ben Nahmi from Yavne? Asked Johanan, to whom his father once said that he was hiding Arieh in his house.
The old man’s bushy eyebrows shot up.
- Do I not remember him? How do you know him?
- Well, that's my business.
- Yours is so yours ... He saved me ... He hid ... He lived on the edge of Yavne, near the source. Why do I know this about him that others could not tell me? - The old man apparently realized that Yair decided to give him a check. - Yes, what the hell ... He had a Damascus dagger, he was beautiful ... and the inscription on it ... What was there? Yes, here: "Do not hesitate!"
“That's right,” said Johanan after a short silence. “I'm sorry I didn't believe you right away.” So for what ...
- So, I'm about a dog this ... Roman he. He comes at night, hides his face. Guard with him. It became interesting to me - who is that? And you know who the Roman turned out to be?
- Well?
- Cestius Gall - that's who! .. Himself ... And now listen, tomorrow night ...
Night without mercy
Night ... The Earth is resting from worries, labors and grief. It is full of its own special music. The ringing of cicadas, the faint sounds of a distant song, the slight rustling of leaves, silvery in the moonlight — all this is intertwined into a gentle symphony of the night. The town of Banias is sleeping. Trees are sleeping, birds are sleeping, people are sleeping in their homes. Sage Rav Shmuel sleeps and resolves complex halachic questions in a dream. His face is stern and calm. Sleeps Shlomo, the city idiot. He sees in a dream that he has reached the highest limits of human wisdom - he has learned all the letters, all twenty-two letters. The freak Nathan, the shopkeeper and a rare villain, is sleeping, and the first bride of the town, Esther, is also sleeping. And Nathan sees naked Ketura, and Esther - her fiance, who disgusts her. Nathan’s disgusting face is blissful, and Esther’s face is in tears of despair. Beautiful Ketura is lying in her bed, but she is not sleeping. The light trembles in her window. The leaves rustle in her garden. Do not sleep, and seven kanaim for her garden. They lie in the bushes, and their hearts merge into one. They are waiting. They listen to the painful music of the night. And here comes the sounds they were waiting for: the clatter of horses, the noise of an approaching chariot, the snort of horses. Two jump off the chariot. The creaking of the door ... a strip of light on the ground ... muffled voices ... shadows ... a cry of a woman ... a fall of the body ...
“Now go ahead,” says the Cestius man with a lion's mane of curly hair with a lot of silver. - Go ahead ... And remember: there, at home, you are legate, here you are nobody. Your bodyguard is dead!
- Who you are? - says Cestius Gall hoarsely.
- We - kanaim, heard of these? - mockingly asks a man with a lion's mane hair. - There is no ruler, except Gd, there is no tax, except for the Temple, there are no friends, except Kanaym. We are your death! Got it?
The voice is calm and domineering. Gall is silent. He is humiliated and scared. For all his adventurous life, he did not experience this. Death had looked into his eyes before, but not so. He always had a sword in his hands, and soldiers were at his side. And here - the darkness, in the back stabs the tip of the dagger, and next to it is a man with a lion's hair that commands them, Tsestie! Legate and darling Nero! And this man quietly tells Gaul about the world unknown to him. About the world of a whole people, about men, women and children who have come to despair from hunger, humiliation and fear. About the world of suffering and hardship. They go up the road for a long time. Moon, stones, dry grass on the sides. The creek rumbles, sings the song of life, falling into the stone pool. The edges of the basin are overgrown with blackberries and wolf berries. Cestia's throat was dry. A man with a lion-maned hair reads his thoughts.
“Sit down,” he says. “Sit down, rest, legate, drink some water.” Here is the sweetest water in all of Galilee. You know, five people rested here two days ago. They went to the wedding and sat down to rest. They drank water, they said ... Five people ... One - a teacher. All the boys of three villages studied with him the Torah. This is our holy book. You do not have one. You have no holy books at all. There was also a midwife. No one came into the world without her help. Another - a doctor. He treated with herbs. He went through all the roads of our neighborhood. He was treating your dogs too ... I once, for this, in the heat of the moment, didn’t poke a knife under my heart. And he looks into my face ... "Before the Lord, everyone is equal!" - says. With him his son and daughter. And your detachment was passing by. They hunted me. But, see, not found. We went to the spring ... They got drunk. And then they decided to have some fun. You see, they did not find us, it was necessary to disrupt the evil ... Everyone who was sitting here was killed ... No, the girl was left alive. Raped and thrown on the road. My mother picked her up. This is the story that came out, the legate ... So you are ordering this rabble ... Get up, let's go on ...
Road, stones, village, hedges, houses, gardens. Quiet, incredible, oppressive silence. The whole village is silent ... No sigh, no exclamation, no wheeze. Somewhere the door creaks, opens and closes ... It opens again, slams again ...
“People lived in this village,” says a man with a lion's mane, “a lot of people.” They were killed. All For the fact that they hid ours. First, children were killed in front of their parents, then women in front of men. One woman hid in this house, look, legate, look, here in this ... She was found. Centurion offered her to lie with him ... For this, he will give her life. Your Roman sluts would dance under him for such a royal gift all night. But our woman killed him. Hit him at random with a knife for cutting meat. From it poured a whole skunk of blood. Then they killed her ... And now come here, legate ... - the voice of a man with a lion's mane is calm and powerful.
Three people are pushing the legate to the shed with the gate wide open.
“The family lived here: a father, a mother, and four sons,” the voice is still calm. “The elder served in your legions and died in Parthia.” Two - Kanayim - went to the mountains. The fourth - a boy, with his mother ... Yours came for Kanayim, but did not find them. Then they grabbed the youngest and in front of the mother at this gate - touch this gate, legate, touch it, they tell you - they crucified it.
“It can't be,” says Gall. - You have been deceived. I gave the order - do not touch women and children.
“No,” says a man with a lion's mane, “no, no one could deceive me.” I myself took my brother from the gate!
Gall is silent. He feels very tired. And the desire to quickly finish. He sits on a big rock by the wall. He says:
- If it's true, kill me. Why do you hesitate? Kill here. I will not get up anymore.
- Get up! - shortly says a man with a lion's mane.
Three lift Gaul and put on cotton feet. He is being led again. Previously, Gall saw people like them during interrogations and executions. They were in his hands, but he never assumed the size of their power. He did not know that it was they who owned the land, the land that he submits to humility and that he hates ... Insane, breathing the desert of Judea. He did not know that the Romans had only roads and fortresses in their hands. And big cities. And a little to the side - and the land belongs entirely to them. And today he will pay for his ignorance. Yesterday, his executioners tortured them, and today ... You think about what will happen next year, stupid, think what will happen in a moment - so say their wise men. And after a moment, well, maybe a little later, there will be nothing. Nothing at all. And suddenly life, a beautiful, sweet life filled his whole being. He cannot be killed, he does not want to be killed ... And unexpectedly for himself, he falls on his knees and wheezes: "Mercy!"
“That's what a legate is,” says the man with the lion's mane, “we will let you and your bodyguard go.” He is not killed. We just stunned him a bit so that he would not do anything stupid! Go to your room. I hope you will not be a fool and will not lift your legion. Otherwise, your shameful night will be on everyone's tongue. It will be very funny ... Yes, here it is ... After seven days, our great holiday comes, Yom Ha-Kipurim. On this day, the Lord writes in the special Book of Fate all people on earth. If you left alive today from our hands, it means that the Lord loved you for something. You will live long! Good entries in the book of fate!
Everybody laughs. Broken Gully slowly walks to the chariot.
* * *
Soon, Cestius Gall, obeying a strange but insurmountable demand of the soul, will hand over the control of the army to his assistant and willfully return to Rome to tell Nero the simple truth that suddenly revealed to him: you must leave Judea, the Jewish war is the beginning of the end of the empire. But Nero will not accept him and will order him to be thrown into prison. Two years later, Nero will commit suicide, and Gall will be released from the dungeon. And until the end of his life he will talk about the amazing people and the Book of Fate, which records are made about the future of man.
To be continued