Climbing on the ancient ruins of Caesarea
In more conventional days, when the skies were open and tourists flocked to Eretz Yisrael, the first and foremost stop was, of course, Jerusalem. But the skies are closed, and most of the museums and sites in the holy city aren’t even open for visitors. Baruch Hashem, we can still go to the Kosel, which has been divided into “capsules,” but Tziyon is crying for her absent children. So where shall we virtually tour this month?
Well, to paraphrase Chazal’s instruction regarding Jerusalem and Caesarea, that “If someone tells you that both are destroyed, do not believe him; if he says that both are flourishing, do not believe him… if this one is inhabited, that one is destroyed, and if that one is inhabited, this one is destroyed” (Megillah 6a), if Jerusalem is shut down then let’s check out Caesarea. There are lessons of galus that we’re meant to learn there until Jerusalem and the Beis Hamikdash will be rebuilt once again. And sure enough, even the Ministry of Health — or whoever is making up the rules of the week these days — has ordered that national parks should be open. So it’s off to Caesarea as we go to explore Jerusalem’s ancient foil, the Roman city of many gods, Roman-style entertainment, and painful memories.
Driving into Caesarea we pass through the town of Ohr Akiva, about a mile away from the ancient Roman city. There aren’t too many cities or even yishuvim in Israel named after Tannaim (your homework is to name at least three others). But the name is perhaps most appropriate, for Rabi Akiva, who was tortured and murdered in Caesarea, symbolizes hope for the future even as there is destruction all around — upon witnessing the foxes running out of the ruins of the destroyed Beis Hamikdash, he was able to laugh, for he saw in that the ultimate rebuilding and redemption. It is those thoughts, and that hope, of Rabi Akiva that we carry with us into the excavated ruins of Caesarea in an Eretz Yisrael that still awaits the Geulah, but that certainly is no longer in ruins.
Our first stop at the entrance to the Caesarea National Park is a model of the city. This was a central metropolis for over 1,200 years, originally built about 80 years before the Churban by Herod (who humbly called himself “the Great”). Herod’s intention was to build Caesarea as a Roman city from the very beginning, and he named it after Augustus Caesar, who was his benefactor.
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