a butte overlooking the Dead Sea, became a place of refuge that the Sachari fled to after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. There's but one narrow trail, called the Snake, leading to the top of the butte and a small garrison can defend the fortress from a much larger army. The Romans laid siege to the fortress over a two-year period of time. Instead of trying to navigate the treacherous trail, they put their engineering expertise to work and built a massive ramp. The day before they were to breach the walls, Elazar ben Ya'ir, the Sachari leader, urged all his followers to commit suicide. The Rabbis and the Synagogue Judea was fast becoming a wasteland. All the Sachari and Essenes were dead and, with no temple, the priesthood was now meaningless. Only one group remained in the Holy Land, the Pharisees. Yochanan ben Zakai, their leader, set up his headquarters and a biblical school in the town of Yavne. In this school Yochanan and his followers slowly rebuilt Judaism from the ashes of the destroyed temple. His first act was to transformed the synagogue, long a meeting place within the Jewish community to discuss daily living along with religious matters, into a more formal place which now focused exclusively on honoring God. He also revived, or reinforced, a seldom used practice favored by the writer of Psalms - prayer. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was his teaching the concept that one can come closer to God through acts of loving kindness and by studying the Hebrew Bible or Torah. Seder One of the major feasts at the temple was Passover where the participants celebrated their liberation from the Egyptians with an elaborate ceremony. With the temple gone, a new kind of celebration had to be devised - the Seder. Instead of being a mass celebration, it was now done in the home with family and friends. Bar Kockba Rebellion During the 60 years since the temple's destruction, an uneasy truce existed between the Jews and the Romans. In 130 AD, a petition to Emperor Hadrian to rebuild the temple had been refused. With tempers rising, Rome next tried to either establish a pagan city, Aelia Capitolina, on the ashes of Jerusalem, or issue a decree forbidding circumcision. Whichever one it was, it turned out to be the catalyst that launched a new rebellion within Judea. Simon Bar Kockba