What does Masada mean ?

Question

masada

Answer 1

In its simplest terms-not with a capital letter-masada is a fotress.

According to Jews, it is a strong mountain fortress in Palestine, not far west of the Dead Sea. The fortress was built by the high priest Jonathan (a statement which Schürer upon insufficient grounds holds to be false), who also gave it its name The name is certainly Hebrew: "Meẓadah" = "mountain fortress."
Strabo defenders suffered from a scarcity of water
When Herod became king he repaired the fortress, building a wall with thirty-seven high turrets around the summit of the mountain, which was flat. Within the wall were dwelling-houses and a splendid palace for Herod, who wished the fortress to be a place of refuge from every danger. Grain, which was stored there, on account of the purity of the air did not spoil easily

Masada attained great importance in the war with the Romans. The Sicarii captured it and killed the Roman garrison
Menahem took possession of the arms stored there by Herod Menahem's relative Eleazar.
Jair governed the fortress for about six years; and Bar Giora also took refuge there for some time. From here the Sicarii harassed and plundered the whole vicinity, especially Engedi. Not until three years after the fall of Jerusalem did a Roman army, under Silva, advance upon Masada. Josephus in this connection gives a detailed account of the situation of the fortress, which was almost inaccessible and inexpugnable ; there was only one spot upon which the Romans could place a battering-ram, and even there only with great difficulty.
When, finally, a breach was made in the wall, the invaders were confronted by a newly erected bulwark, which, however, they succeeded in destroying by fire. Eleazar b. Jair persuaded the besieged to kill themselves, and when the Romans entered they found alive only two women.

However, Masada is also
*a fictional Jewish superhero from the Image Comics; a member of Team Youngblood. She has the power to increase her size and become a giantess.
*a musical project which John Zorn embarked upon in the early '90s.
* a professional wrestler. He is a member of The Carnage Crew in Ring of Honor. His finisher is the Death Valley Driver.
* an ablum by Alpha Blondy, a popular reggae artist.
* a film - a 1981 epic chronicling a rebellion by Jewish Zealots against Roman rule.
;-)

Answer 2

Masada (a romanization of the Hebrew מצדה, Metzada, from מצודה, metzuda, "fortress") is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada became famous for its significance in the First Jewish-Roman War (Great Jewish Revolt), when a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to a mass suicide of the site's Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent.

Answer 3

All correct "definitions" but what Masada (capital "M" please) MEANS is that the Israelis cherish a very long tradition of suicidal resistance to anything and anyone that would attempt to restrain them.
At Masada (as you no doubt are aware) the defenders, resisting Imperial Rome, fanatically fought to the last, and then when it became apparent that the Romans would gain entry to their fortress, they slaughtered themselves - men, women and children.
At least, that's how the Roman's described it at the court martial.
"Yeah, dey was all ded, Legate, I swears it on me mudda's sainted head," said Centurion Williamius Calleyus. "Dat's de trute."
Hmmmmmm.
Regardless of whether the Jews slaughtered or were slaughtered, they died to the last babe, and the recollection of the suicidal defense of Masada is a cherished legend, indicating a "Stiff Necked" national character that brooks no reins.
As the harpooner in Moby Dick said, "Once the blood is up, it's nay easy to stop killin'."
And that's what Masada means.

Answer 4

An ancient mountaintop fortress in southeast Israel on the southwest shore of the Dead Sea. In A.D. 73, after a two-year siege, members of the Zealot Jewish movement committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.

Answer 5

An ancient mountaintop fortress in southeast Israel on the southwest shore of the Dead Sea. In A.D. 73, after a two-year siege, members of the Zealot Jewish movement committed mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Masada (a romanization of the Hebrew Metzada, from, metzuda, "fortress") is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada became famous for its significance in the First Jewish-Roman War (Great Jewish Revolt), when a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to a mass suicide of the site's Jewish defenders when defeat became imminent.

Geography
The cliffs on the east edge of Masada are about 451 m high, dropping off to the Dead Sea, and the cliffs on the west are about 100 m high; the natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. The top of the plateau is flat and rhomboid-shaped, about 600 by 300 m. There was a casemate wall around the top of the plateau totaling 1400 m long and 4 m thick with many towers, and the fortress included storehouses, barracks, an armory, the palace, and cisterns that were refilled by rainwater. Three narrow, winding paths led from below to fortified gates.

History

Dovecote at Masada, where ashes were probably stored — the openings have been shown to be too small for pigeons to fit.According to Flavius Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. In 66 CE, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War (also called the Great Jewish Revolt) against the Roman Empire, a group of Jewish rebels called the Zealots (kana'im, "zealous ones") who objected to Roman rule of Judea (as the Roman province of Iudaea, its Latin name).

Commanded by Elazar ben Ya'ir (who may have been the same person as Eleazar ben Simon), the Zealots took Masada from the Roman garrison stationed there. In 70, they were joined by additional Zealots and their families who were expelled from Jerusalem by the other Jews living there shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem (and the Second Temple), and for the next two years used Masada as their base for raiding and harassing Roman and Jewish settlements alike

Then, in 72, the Roman governor of Iudaea, Lucius Flavius Silva, marched against Masada with the Roman legion X Fretensis and laid siege to the fortress. After failed attempts to breach the wall, they built a circumvallation wall and then a rampart against the western face of the plateau, using thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth. Josephus does not record any major attempts by the Zealots to counterattack the besiegers during this process, a significant difference from his accounts of other sieges against Jewish fortresses, suggesting that perhaps the Zealots lacked the equipment or skills to fight the Roman legion. Some historians also believe that Romans may have used Jewish slaves to build the rampart, whom the Zealots were reluctant to kill because of their beliefs.

The rampart was complete in the spring of 73, after approximately two to three months of siege, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram on April 16. When they entered the fortress, however, the Romans discovered that its approximately 1000 defenders had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide rather than face certain capture or defeat by their enemies (which would probably have led to slavery or execution). Because Judaism strongly discourages suicide, however, the defenders were reported to have drawn lots and slain each other in turn, down to the last man, who would be the only one to actually take his own life. The storerooms were apparently left standing to show that the defenders retained the ability to live and chose the time of their death. This account of the siege of Masada was apparently related to Josephus by two women who survived the suicide by hiding inside a cistern along with five children and repeated Elazar ben Yair's final exortation to his followers, prior to the mass suicide, verbatim to the Romans.

The site today

Platform access to the fortressThe site of Masada was identified in 1842 AD and extensively excavated in from 1963 AD to 1965 AD by an expedition led by Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin. A pair of cable cars now carries those visitors who do not wish to climb the ancient Snake Path, now restored on the eastern side of the mountain (access via the Dead Sea road). The area remained largely untouched by humans or nature in the past two millennia, due to the location's remoteness from human habitation and its arid environment. The Roman ramp still stands on the western side and can be climbed on foot. Many of the ancient buildings were restored from their remnants, as were the wall-paintings of Herod's two main palaces, and the Roman-style bathhouses that he built. The synagogue, storehouses, and houses of the Jewish rebels were also found and restored. The meter-high circumvallation wall that the Romans built around Masada can be seen, together with 11 barracks for the Roman soldiers just outside this wall. Water cisterns two-thirds of the way up the cliff drain the nearby wadis by an elaborate water system, which explains how the rebels managed to have enough water for such a long time.

The Masada legacy has been used in a similar context by the British Mandate of Palestine, which planned the Masada plan to man defensive positions on Mount Carmel with Palmach fighters, in order to stop Erwin Rommel's expected drive through Palestine in 1942 AD. The plan was abandoned following Rommel's defeat at El Alamein. Today Masada is used by the Israel Defense Forces and youth movements for swearing-in ceremonies, where participants swear the oath that "Masada shall never fall again."

Masada has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001 AD. An audio-visual show is presented nightly on the western side of the mountain (access by car from the Arad road or by foot, down the mountain via the Roman ramp path).

Answer 8

It's a fortress on a mountain in Israel

Answer 9

It's a fortress

Answer 10

literally fortress.

you probably already know its rather gruesome history.