During my time at Muss I have gone on more tiyuls than I can count on two hands.

During my time at Muss I have gone on more tiyuls than I can count on two hands. They have all been great in different ways but one that stands out to me was our Bar Kochba tiyul. During this tiyul we learned about the Bar Kochba Revolt. We learned about the techniques they used to win and then we explored those methods. The people of the Bar Kochba revolt used their knowledge of the landscape to build a system of tunnels and caves to hind in during the day. They would stay hidden and rest during the day and fight during the night. After learning about these tunnels, we explored them and spelunked in the same tunnels the people of the Bar Kochba Revolt did. 

The two ideas that had the greatest impact on me was that how strong the Jewish people used to be and how bad of a situation they were in. The Jewish people defeated an entire Roman legion where they were severely outnumbered. They fought hard and were successful. It is impressive to see how strong we used to be compared to today’s conceptions about the Jew. Today Jewish people aren’t supposed to be athletic and strong, they are supposed to be short and smart. It was very inspiring to hear how valiantly they fought until the revolt was out to a bitter end. This is what also impacted me. The Jewish people at the time were left starving in the caves at the end of the revolt and were put in a die or die situation. Unlike Masada, they decided to die by fighting. I had not learned about the Bar Kochba revolt in this much depth before and I now realize it is a very important chapter in the book of Jewish suffering. In my opinion the end of this revolt is not talked about enough. 

This tiyul was very inspiring and eye opening. It showed me what the fighting Jew was like and it was the beginning of two thousand years of Jewish suffering.