Judah sat in the main room of the inn, eating his morning repast, rejuvenated by his good nights sleep. From his seat he had a good view of the door when the laundress walked in, carrying her partly filled laundry basket. He watched, not quite sure what he was expecting, as she hurriedly conferred with the innkeeper who pointed her in his direction and then approached.
Judah decided she looked exactly as he expected any washerwoman to look. A kerchief tied modestly around her hair, served to keep it covered as well as out of the way. Her dress was a practical piece, shoulder to ankle, and looked faded and slightly grimy. As if some of the dirt in others people clothes made its way onto hers -but only a little bit so as not to scare away potential customers.
She arrived at his table
“Bruriah the laundress,” she said to him crisply, “You called?”
“Ehh…” he stumbled, not sure how to begin. “so you take my clothes in your basket and bring it back?”
She glared at him as if he was daft, before brightening as if she just realized what was bothering him. “Don’t be a dumbox, I can’t fit everybody’s clothes into one basket. I have a cart with me outside with an ox to lug it. I bring everything back to you before you sup.”
Judah cringed at how silly he sounded. He hurried to try and get to the lady to see what he needed.
“I… ahh… you see I’m looking for a fellow named Abba,” he inquired, hopefully? The Loundress wore an inscrutable expression, so he plunged onward. “He wrote to me that I should find you and…and that you’d take me to him.”
Bruriah took a step back as if looking him over for the first time though Judah had the distinct impression she had been examining him carefully the whole time.
“Judah? I’ve been looking out for you wondering when you would finally show up.” Bruriah carefully checked that nobody else in the room was watching them, before pulling up a chair and plopping herself down on it.
She gave him a surly smile, “truth be told I knew who you were right when I walked in and saw you; Abba described you perfectly. I was just kidding around with you before, its not everyday that I get an opportunity to call somebody a dumbox! The type of wealthy folks I usually work for would never tolerate that.”
After Judah got over his initial astonishment he couldn’t hold back from letting out a good long belly laugh. Then Bruriah quickly pulled the conversation back to the reason she had come.
“I don’t really have the time now to bring you to Abba, I have people expecting me along my route. How about you take the morning to rest up or go explore the city if that’s what you want and then I’ll come back at lunchtime bringing Abba to you. Does that work?”
Yehuda agreed and Bruriah got up to go. “You’ll find,” she said, with a smile, “that you nolonger have to pay for anything at this inn. The owner and Abba already have some sort of arrangement and so he agreed to throw in your lodgings for free.”
“wow you had time to work that out during the breif conversation you had with the innkeeper right when you came in? Thanks.”
And then Bruriah was gone bolting back to her cart and on with her rounds.
As the morning wore on and the inn emptied for the day Yehuda grew bored with willing away the time. Eventually he went out and about into the streets of Jerusalem, curious to explore..
Once outside he immediately realized something was off kilter in the city. He didn’t like what he saw. People went about on edge looking sideways at every shadow. Nearly everyone seemed to be carrying some sort of weapon. After careful watching, Judah observed, that everyone at the market was doing their best to loiter as little as possible.
He stopped by an elderly lady selling pies to see if he could learn anything. “is it always this way on the streets here, he asked? “Everybody walks around like their scared of something.”
“Well,” the kindly lady told him philosophically, totally missing his point, “that’s how it is in a big city, always you have many bad ones. But the difference now is that before if somebody were to, say, rob my stand and make off with my pies I would have recourse. I would go to the authorities and I would have forces of protection on my side. Now with the way things are There aren’t any authorities left in the city; everyone does what they want.”
“So how do you manage,” Judah asked curiously, “Aren't you scared to be out here selling?”
The Pie Lady grinned grinned back at him evilly, lowering her voice as if giving away a state secret. “I wouldn’t try to to rob this old lady if I was you. Always, I have in my pile of pies a few that are rotten and terrible. Only I know which ones they are. Anyone who tries to rob me will succeed, but they will also get more than they bargained for.
Yehuda continued to traipse around the market place at ease. He certainly didn’t fear anything. He befriended some of the street venders as well as stepped into explore the shops of the craftsmen he passed. He was curious to see what they were making. He remembered from when he was a kid that Jerusalem was renowned for its goldsmiths.
All the while, wherever he wandered, the silhouette of the Temple towered over everything, a golden monolith. The highest point in the city. Its visage hovered over everything in a way that didn’t allow its presence to be forgotton. To Judah’s imagination, it was as if the temple was saying, ‘all this is for me’ I am the reason for this fighting, I rule this city’. Conversing with a passerby, earlier, the fellow had pointed out to him that all visitors to the city by necessity, ended up there, even if they hadn’t intended to visit the temple, for that was the place to go change money.
During his rounds of the market, the talk of the city was the new coins the rebellious regime had just begun minting. Judah nearly went to the temple money changers solely to get his hands on some. However, something inside him, made holdback. First he found himself procrastinating and then after he's noticed what he was doing it, he found himself fabricating excuses as to why he had to push it off. it was almost as if a part of him was intimidated. As if his childhood reflex to run from g-d, was still irrationally there, whispering in his ear that he needed to stay far far away.
When he saw that the sun had reached its zenith high overhead, he made the trek back to his inn, satistied with his explorations. His stomach was growling after the morning spent looking at pies sold by various street stands. The innkeeper true to Brurriah's promise made himself helpful, quickly spreading out a mini feast for Judah to enjoy. He had hardly gotton down two bites, in before Bruriah The Laundress hersel,f came bounding in, kerchief askew. She showed signs of having done manual labor, yet her energy was in no way diminished.
“Tsk Tsk,” Brurriah said, "we really don’t have time for you to sit down for a whole feast now. Abba is waiting to greet you. Lets get you up to him.”
Judah hastily crammed a few more bite-fulls in his mouth, determined to get down as much as he could. “Where to?” he inquired, through a cheekful of food, spraying fleks of spittle everywhere.
Bruriah gave a mock cringe as if unable to bear the presence of the uncouth male before her. “He’s on the temple mount in the court of the gentiles.
As they made their way through the open floored inn and out the door. Bruriah offered some more information.
“It’s where I would say he spends the bulk of his time when not taken away by pressing concerns. The temple is the heart of the city. He insists, we will all eventually see that who ever controls the temple controls the city. At the court of the gentiles, everybody mingles, and it is a hub of commerce. So he set himself up on guard duty there?
“The temple needs guards? don’t the priests supervise everything?”
Bruriah smirked at him, “You really have a lot to learn about this city. Abba set himself up on his own guard duty; on behalf of our faction. Really, he spends his time there parading with his weapons and does whatever he wants. Interjecting himself into other peoples affairs whenever he wants to, conducting all sorts of meetings there like the one your going to have. And of course, most importantly, he keeps out anyone he wants to keep out. I guess you would say he is really guarding the temple to ensure that nobody else is guarding it. It must become our future stronghold.”
Yehuda thought back with disgust, of the soldiers he’d witnessed yesterday at the citys gate. He strongly sus[ected Abba guarding the Temple with a bunch of men would look basically the same. “Sounds like a really important soldierly job,” Yehuda observed, sarcastically.
Bruriah just shook her head, “You’ll understand eventually, you'll just have to see for yourself, its how this city works. This gives Abba power. And power is important. In this rebellious place, he with the power, makes the rules. Its how this game is played here.
This only served to make Judah cringe more. To hear of leading a rebellion against the Legions as ‘a game’ was terrible. He had to remind himself, he would be a fool not to take advice he was given by the locals seriously. He was the one who needed to learn to adapt. He hoped he would acclimate to Jerusalem life quickly. He was in new waters and his only choice, now, was to either sink or swim.
They were steadily approaching the temple mount. It stood on the eastern border of the city and when all the new additions to the city were taken into account, the temple stood roughly in the center of its eastern defences. It was the fortress which formed its central hub. Earlier, when he had looked at maps drawn of the city, it reminded Yehuda of a diadem like the kind which the wealthy woman wore. The Temple was the crown jewel hovering crouched above its center
Crown jewel, was an apt description. Like a jewel, the building which looked so massive from a distance looked even more dazzling up close. From outside the city you saw its towering golden heights reflected under a dazzling array of light which blinded you to everything else. Inside the city and up close, the lower structure of the temple was revealed. It didn’t just sit inside the city, It sat astride massive embankments which ringed in the peak of Mt. Moriah, thus leveling its top. The lower level of the structure first began about thirty Amos above the rest of the city. From there enormous stone battlements – as always Judah viewed everything through the prism of war – sprang up majestically, into the air hovering protectively over the city. Or lurking, Judah supposed, if it was garrisoned by the enemy. The stones where ginormous, the smallest at two amos' length, while the largest hewn to a length which dwarfed the size of a man. He couldn’t see how thick they actually were but his imagination ran wild. He gasped in astonishment. It was a gift from g-d! He hadn’t dreamed the city could boast of defenses like this. watching, Bruriah merely smiled back at his reaction.
The area in front of the temple was bustling with a sea of humanity. Large pens of goats for temple slaughter filled the area. People from all streams of back-round moved about preparing to enter the Temple.
Bruriah led him first to a quick stop by a small door in the rear of a nearby shop. There, were a couple of soldiers sitting around a table, gossiping, who didn’t do more than wave as they entered. Ignoring them, Bruriah explained that this was a small way station owned by Abba's men. She said Judah should leave anything behind that he wasn’t taking in to the temple. He looked at her blankly and she laughed in his face. “Tell me again, you call yourself Jewish and you have no Idea what I’m talking about?
Judahs face reddened with embarrassment, but he was forced to admit that he did not.
She pointed towards his leather boots. “Those won’t be permitted on the temple mt.” He started removing them.
“Your money belt” he didn’t know whether she meant it was also forbidden or he should be worried about cut purses but here too he hurried to comply.
“And your weopons.”
Here Judah raised an eyebrow. “are you telling me Abba doesn’t bring any weapons on guard duty, on the temple mount?”
“I didn’t say he doesn’t. You my friend are currently a visiting pilgrim and so are a different story. But you can keep small knives”
“So guards are different, they have their own rules?”
Bruriah shrugged indifferently. “I don’t know the law,” she said truthfully. “Maybe the priests don’t get to tell him what to do. One thing I’ll tell you for sure, when the Romans were here, nobody stopped their garrison from entering with their weapons, I think Abba simply took over their privilege.”
As they left, Judah asked what everybody else did with their stuff?
“Oh there are places to leave it over by the temple. However, as you would imagine our choice is much simpler. No need to stress anymore whether all your stuff will be there upon your return.
Bruriah led him up into Temple Mount, there they walked along the inner wall until eventually arriving at a small room. Inside were five men. Judah immediately locked eyes on his old friend, A tall lanky man with willowy limbs and a craggy beard, which started charcoal grey, then faded, at the edges, to white. his gaze was startling; his eyes a rich chocolate color, bore a piercing look that constantly soaked up everything going on all around him.
Wow Judah marveled to himself, upon seeing the glint in Abba's in his eyes and the vitality with which the man carried himself. It was much the same as in his youth, despite how much he’d aged. Smiling broadly back at Judah, Abba leapt to embrace him.
“Ahh my old friend,” he said happily, “Is it really you, after all this time. I had wondered if If we were destined by the fate to never meet.”
Abbas companions, stood around viewing the reunion of the two friends hesitantly, unsure of when to introduce themselves.
Abba turned back to them grandly, “This my friends, is our secret weapon,” he proclaimed, indicating Judah, “The one who's exploits I have been telling you. The best part is, that he and I already have wonderful rapport from our youth together. It will take almost no time to return to being like brothers.”
Judah rolled his eyes and reddened a bit at this extravagant praise. “Please please,” he demurred, “Let's not overdo it and create expectations I can’t meet.
Judah's eyes searched the faces of Abbas companions and found only signs of a warm welcome. This was a relief. He had been briefly worried his arrival would trample on some toes.
“Unarmed ehh,” someone noted. We’ll have a weapon back in your hands in no time.
“Oh ho,” Abba shot back, “The Judah I recall was equally, dangerous without a weapon in his hand as with.”
Judah asked about the meeting he had interrupted, "what was it about?"
“Actually,” Abba said, “we were just filling the time waiting for you. I wanted you to meet my captains and also to fully brief you on everything going on here.
"Come lets get seated around the table and get you introduced to Jerusalem for real.”
They all got seated, then Abba made a short introduction. “Judah, as I just mentioned, these five men are my captains. Each one oversees a whole area of our operation.” He indicated the five other men in the room and went around the table in order. “Avner, Hyrcanus, Chanan Hanagar, Xander and of course last but not least Uri haludi.” Judah dipped his head in acknowledgement at each of the men in turn as they were indicated.
“Men this is Judah, he is my new second in command.”
Then Abba nodded at the man sitting to his left, a short stout fellow with jet black hair,who had just been introduced as Avner, who now stood up to take the floor.
“Avner here,” Abba explained, is the one in charge of keeping track of all the politics in this city, for us. He will do the talking and we all will listen.”
Avner ran a hand through his hair, gathering his thoughts and then giving Judah a quick glance began his presentation of the city.
“So Judah, I’m told by Abba we will start with the basics. Do you know the history of the Pharisees and the Sadducees'” Yehuda shook his head no, so Avner launched an explanation. “The Pharisees, are the men of religious law. They claim to have ancient traditions about Jewish law and they impose its legislation on the masses whenever they can. They are the majority of our fellows, as the overwhelming masses of simple folk that make up our nation, support them. Even if, admittedly, these same masses are ignorant villagers and by and large don’t fully keep all the laws themselves,they alway throw their support behind the Pharisees. Its strange; they resent them, they are jealous of them, and they themselves are utterly too ignorant to keep the detailed laws, even if they wanted to. Yet they always support them."
Avner paused to give Judah a moment to absorb the import of his words before plowing on.
"The Sadducees, deny the existence of these traditions and try mainly to stick to the law of Moses as laid out in the plain sense of the Holy writ. The problem for them, is there is no uniform excepted way to read the Holy Writ, and so what ends up happening is, you end up with everyman being able to choose for themselves how to interpret the text. As you would imagine" Avner continued cynically, "this mode of faith is very common among the upper class as it affords them the freedom to choose their own set of noble ideas with which to live by. Most importantly the upper-crust of the priestly class is heavily dominated by this group. However, always, this philosophy has been generally speaking the property of an exclusive minority never the majority. That is what you need to know.
"Now we will label a third group, for everybody else; this includes those with no faith, in addition to a myriad of smaller groups with countless strange ideas. Jerusalem always houses its share of strange occult cults. All this is just backround information before I get to the actual factions. You need to understand the thought proccess of these different types of people as it often determines who joins which faction. As well as the general makup of local politics.”
“Now Judah my question for you is do you know to which group your family belonged to growing up in the Galil?”
Yehuda paused to think for a moment and realized he did not. “I…I came from a village not far from Tiberius, and we didn’t really know much about anything, except life in our vineyard. That’s actually why I left, I realized I wanted to see the world… I guess we were probably part of those ignorant masses you mentioned who just sort of bobbled along keeping whatever traditions we knew.”
Avner picked up the thread of the discussion where he had left it. Now just so you understand the basics of the class warfare here in Jerusalem. In this city, a great deal of life revolves around the Temple service right here. This affords the priestly class a great deal of power. As mentioned they are mainly Sadducees, who make their own morals yet to balance things out, they are forced to inhibit what they may really want to do by the need to maintain mass support. Now there is another group, that together with the priests maintain a firm grip on the upper-crust of this city and in many ways they vie for control with the priests, that’s the wealthy business men of Jerusalem. A small amount of men have obtained financial means of controlling the olive business or the wine business and a few other areas of business. They own large houses here spend lavishly and expect to make decisions of importance in this city. One thing important to bear in mind is that this latter group is intensely despised by the rest of the country. Everyone comes to Jerusalem at some point on pilgrimage and so everyone in our nation has encountered them at some point and not for the better. Its pretty much the only thing the rest of our nation agrees on. -still with me Judah?”
Judah nodded slowly. To his surprise, he actually found he was interested, fascinated to learn about his fellow countrymen, for the first time.
“Good. Now the history lesson is over and we can focus on the current factions. In Jerusalem, for the last bunch of years, you have large groups of fiercely nationalistic people, who have been agitating for freedom and dream of driving out the romans; that’s us. We are called by the others the Kanoim because of the zealousness with which we pursue our goal. We are also sometimes called the beryonim -the armed ones- and the siccrikon -siccary dagger men, - due obviously to our famed daggers. The make up of these armed groups has constantly shifted. Currently, our own group under Abba, consists of roughly one thousand men and we are competing with a man Eliezer ben Simon, a brazon individual heavily imbedded with the priesthood. He commands a similar number of men but a little more. Got it?”
“Yes, your telling me they are winning.”
“Yes,” Avner confirmed. As things stand today, if the siege were to begin today, Eliezer Ben Shimon would be the one manning the defences and we would be forced to buckle and accept his command.”
Judah turned to Abba curiously, “You accept this situation or do you expect to eventually take over?”
The Abba he'd known always aimed for the top, to be in charge.
Abba stroked his beard for a moment, “No I don’t expect to be able to change it. Yet a lot remains to be seen. I don’t necessarily expect to lead the defenders however I don’t necessarily expect Simon, to be the top dog. It will be someone else.”
Judah had no clue what Abba meant, who he could be referring to but he supposed he would eventually figure it out after he grew more familiar with the goings on in the city.
Regardless, Judah accepted his response at face value. Abba certainly was the master of politics as far as Judah was concerned. If Abba didn’t think he could change it, then Judah certainly didn’t think there was anything he could do that would make a difference.
Avner continued his lecture, “So who else is there in this city fighting us? Well first of all, You need to realize the wealthy and the privileged are terrified of this war. In their mind the only have what to lose; they can lose their money and more than that they potentially can come to physical harm.” He imbued these last words with all the scorn he could muster.
“Now we need to go back to the beginning of this war. Before it all began you can say there were three groups, those who wanted peace at all costs, those who wanted to fight at all costs and those who wished for change but who certainly had no intention of doing anything to actually achieve this.” Again the note of scorn was back in his voice. “When the war began and the Romans were run out of the city, What happened was the city banded together, united around creating a governing council. At least that’s how people see it. What really happened, is that the city united around keeping people like us out of power. What happened was this, they created a ruling council consisting of A priest Chananya, a few rich gentleman and a token Pharisee Rabbi, Shimon ben Gamliel. They made the majority of the decisions, who should be generals what should be the strategy. We were hardly consulted. What is happening now, is that unfortunately the citizens are being made to realize the error of their ways. How can they fight this war, excluding the main groups of fighting men our country has.”
Avner wound down his speech. Judah noticed Abba had winced at this last bit, but whatever disturbed him clearly he didn’t feel a need to add anything on his own.
Judah looked around at the other captains and saw that they had all been listening politely to what to them was likely a boring and childlike presentation. He appreciated that nobody complained out loud.
Abbas five captains began to get up letting JudaH know the briefing was over.
“One moment,” Abba called, “some orders. Chanan I want you to take some men to Bet Shean, as you know we are expecting a shipment of grain, I need you to go pick it up and bring it back. This is important. If we want to get rid of everyone else's private storage, we must first show we have are own supply to get us through the siege. Hyrcanus, you are on gate duty this afternoon, keep an eye on Eleazars men, I’ve noticed they seem to have better updates on the Galil than we do, watch were they go and how they scout. I can’t figure out what they are doing that we are not.”
The man called Xander wasn’t ready to go. “Wait I have something I want to say. “The man called Yosef ben Parah, he has gone around spreading stories that we have been stealing his money.”
Chanan hanagar laughed, “We have been, I’ve been buying his olives at a pittance. I’m in charge of our supplies, so I know.”
Xander nodded, “But he’s been saying that we have been stealing them. So I will kill him.” He delivered the pronouncement so plainly, Judah noticed, ait was as if he was indifferent to his violent act.
Abba sighed, “Must you?”
“He has begun to recruit men to his cause. Not just any men. I have noticed him in conversation with Eleazers men. So yes I must before this gets out of hand.”
Abba looked over at Avner who nodded, “That would be pretty bad,” Avner admitted, “they would have real potential to cut us off from our olive oil.”
Abba gave in, “Fine do it. But one better, find a way to blame it on Eleazars men. Make it look like a double cross, that will convince people to think twice before working with that traitorous fellow.”
With that, the meeting was over and Abbas officers marched out. “A good group,” Abba said to Judah once they were alone, I can rely on all of them.”
“I see they don’t hesitate at bloodshed, that is good, when I first heard this army was mainly citizens and bandits, I wondered if jews would have the stomach to fight. The villagers I remember growing up around, certainly wouldn’t have been capable of the voilence neccessary.”
Abba met Judah’s broad grin with squirming, “Erm perhaps, I only hope it’s the right kind of killing we need. Take it from me, this group will prove much better at giving a knife in the back then standing up front looking the enemy in the eye.”
Abba gave Judah a slap on the back, “That’s what I need you for my old friend, I need someone to whip them into shape. To transform this ragtag bunch of wannabee soldiers into a real fighting force.
“Lets do it. So when do we begin?”
Abba laughed, “Relax tonight is Shabbat, remember that? At least publicly nothing gets done over shabbat.. So Take it easy. A Shabbat rest will do you good and then on Yom Rishon we will get started.”
Abba paused, "Oh, I almost forget if you are now one of my men then theres something I need to give you. The final sign that you are a Sicarri.
Abba walked over to the far corner of the room before pulling something out from a filled sack. Then he returned to stand before Judah. In his outstretched hand he held a large oversized, curved dagger.
"You're sicarii blade." Abba pointed to the carvings that marked both the hilt of the knife and the leather sheathe. Judah saw there was one triangle in the hilt and a second one on the sheathe. their points were facing outwards from each other protruding in opposite directions. the flat base of the two bronze colored triangles were side by side, separated only by the protruding, knife guard which sprouted from between them.
Abba pointed, "That's our sigil. two horns with which to gore down our enemies. They represent the horns of our nation which will rise up in glory. I had these made special for our own band only. If you ever see someone with this mark than you know they are a fellow brother of our band of Sicari warriors."
Judah looked over the knife, admiringly, and saw it was truly finely made. It showed that Abbas band took their work seriously; a fighter was only as good as his weapons.
He respectfully, took his new weapon in both hands with care and held it aloft with care.
"No longer a roman centurion," he whispered out loud, "now a Sicarii Warrior."