May  13; I forgot to mention the we are taking 2 additional courses. One is finished now and was 4 part lecture on the Book of Ruth which is read on Shavuot that starts tonight May 14. The lecturer was Yael Zieegler , Ph.D. who was superb with a detailed analysis of the story that I will go into later. Course was at Pardes with a full house and all friends there were very impressed too.

Second course is on archeology entitled" Jerusalem during the First and Second Temple periods in light of Latest Archeological Discoveries' given by The City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies. We meet 4 hours every Monday for lecture and tour of the sites.

May 13 Lecture was King Hezekiah who was King of Judah, the southern Kingdom with capitol in Jerusalem,  who comes to power in 726 BCE at the age of 25.  He followed his father King Ahaz who was not good. However the son Hezekiah was pleasing to the Lord  2 Kings 18:1.( where most of this story is told).
BOTTOM LINE; HE SAVED JUDAISM FOR CERTAIN DESTRUCTION.

At this time the Assyrian empire out of Northern Iraq was the dominant force  and had conquered most of middle east from Egypt to Iran and had an incredible fighting machine that was really cruel that I will spare you the details.  They would conquer a city and either kill people or transport them elsewhere and then settle some other peoples in the area thus  preventing any chance of return. This is what they did with the Kingdom of Israel which was comprised ten of the twelve tribes; these  northern 10 tribes really did disappear.

After defeating the 46 fortified cities along the coastal  plain of Israel with  their army under King Sennacherib ( Abbr: Senn. ) who called himself King of the Universe and his palace in Nineveh the capitol, the 'Palace Like No Other '. Their attack and victory at Lachish in the south of Israel  north of Gaza is told in very large bas relief in the Israel Museum , a copy as the orginial is in Damascus ( maybe). We visited Lachish 2 trips ago;  the seige ramp is still there and the ruins of the city destroyed. King Senn. then moved his army of 250,000 toward Jerusalem the last prize. Meanwhile King Hezekiah had 4 years warning to prepare. Water was key for defense of the city. Jerusalem is built where it is only because of the Shiloah Spring below the current hillside now called The City of David just outside the Dung Gate of the Old City. Now the area is mostly Arab called Silwan, but many Jews have moved in and on the hillside where all the archeology digging is going on. Hezekiah  wanted the water totally inside the city walls and not acessible to the Assyrians who need a large water supply for their (200,000) men and horses.

So Hezekiah ordered a new tunnel be built that would divert the spring output to totally inside the new wall  he is building at the same time. Two sets of diggers chipped thru the mountain at 2 ends and one year later met inside the mountain  although neither went in a straight line. How they met inside the mountain is still a complete mystery. Many theories have been proposed and all easily rejected. How they meet at the same altitude is amazing too. Unfortunately the floor sloped slightly uphill so they lowered one end 5 m to correct this and now with a 2 feet drop over the 533 m tunnel, water did flow downhill into a new pool he constructed and the city was secure that way. We walked in this tunnel with water flowing some places to mid calf and most above the angles. It was so interesting to see the chisel marks going one direction at one end and the other direction at the opposite end.  It took maybe 30 minutes to slosh thru the 3-4 ft wide tunnel. The northern workers only went 233 m and the southern workers 300 m.  

The next project was to build a new wall around the new water pool  and around the new city  that had expanded as a result of Jews moving from the north  as the Assyrians conquered all their cities. Jerusalem expanded 5 fold in a short time and this new area is now where the Jewish quarter is.This  new wall  is the 7 meter wide Broad Wall visible in the Jewish Quarter and a few other places. There is a goal of digging up  a major part of the wall by Israeli school children though some land still needs to be acquired.

Now with water secure and a big tall wall in place  how does Hezekiah still defend his city against the most powerful army the world  had ever known. He followed the commandment, destroyed idols, and paid some 30 talents of gold to Sennacherib  by tearing down gold doors and other stuff to raise the amount. see 2 Kings 18; 1-16.  Next comes a exchange between the new General of the Sennacherib and 3 men sent out to meet him. This is straight from Hollywood dialog with threats, insults, don't trust  your supposed allies nor your Gd,  and don't worry if you surrender , we will treat you nicely and you can eat of your fig tree, all since we will defeat you for sure (2 Kings 18; 18:19-37). They also add that the gods of all the  cities we just capture didn't help what makes you think your Gd will save you?

King Hezekiah now rents his clothes, listens to the Prophet Isaiah who said don't be afraid GD will save us. But only when The King prays and says to Gd don' t let us  be  destroyed or your work will be for naught and a beautiful prayer and  logical argument --  a must read @  2 Kings 19: 14- 19. Isaiah the adds his prayer and prediction that Sennnacherib will not enter the city nor even an arrow shot  at the city, but the enemy  shall just go  home !    see 19:20-34. The next morning most of the soldiers were  dead! Theories are that a plague came, that rats came and eat their leather shields or both occurred or just a plain old miracle unfolded immediately.

So with Hezekiah's excellent preparations and help from Gd , Judaism was saved from certain destruction. It looks like every 1000  year some empire tries to destroy the Jews. They do succeed in killing a large number of people, but we survive some how while all the evil empires do disappear. The Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians,  Romans, National Socialists( Nazis) all gone. But  why Jews have to suffer so, is beyond me!
Amazingly, the Assyrians were soon  defeated by the Babylonians, the later by the Persians, the latter by the Greeks, then by  the Romans. This area was not safe and has not known peace and interestingly that is still is true today!
 Hope you learned something new, we certainly did.