Betar fortress was an ancient, terraced farming village in the Judean highlands. The Betar fortress was the last standing Jewish fortress in the Bar Kokhba revolt of the 2nd century CE, destroyed by the Roman army of Emperor Hadrian in the year 135. The site of historic Betar, next to the modern Palestinian village of Battir, southwest of Jerusalem, is known as Khirbet al-Yahud in Arabic. Today, the Israeli settlement and city Beitar Illit is also located nearby.
Etymology
Bet tar in ancient Hebrew means the place of the blade. Based on the variant spelling found in the Jerusalem Talmud, where the place name is written בֵּיתתֹּר, the name may have simply been a contraction of two words: בית + תר, meaning, "the house of a dove."
History
Early mentions
The origins of Betar are likely in the Iron Age Kingdom of Judea. It is not mentioned in the Bible, but is specified in the Septuagint as one of the cities of the Tribe of Judah. The location produced archaeological finds of pottery beginning from 8th century BCE and until late period of the Kingdom of Judah and again from early Roman period. In the early second century the town was a major stronghold and urban center in the Bethlehem area.
Fall of Betar
According to the Jerusalem Talmud, Betar remained a thriving town fifty-two years after the destruction of the Second Temple, until it came to its demise. The city was the stronghold of Bar Kokhba, the leader of the Jewish Revolt against Hadrian. Hadrian sent against several of his Roman legions to capture the city. According to historical records, the city was besieged for three and a half years before it finally fell, and its defenders were put to death. According to Jewish tradition, the fortress was breached and destroyed on the fast of Tisha B'av, in the year 135, on the ninth day of the lunar month Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and the Second Jewish Temple. The horrendous scene after the city's capture could be best described as a massacre. Earlier, when the Roman army had set-up a blockade around the city, some sixty men of Israel went down and tried to make a breach in the Roman barricade, but to no avail. When they had not returned and were assumed as dead, the Sages of Israel permitted their wives to remarry, even though their husbands' bodies had not been retrieved.
After losing many of their strongholds, Bar Kokhba and the remnants of his army withdrew to the fortress of Betar, which subsequently came under siege in the summer of 135. Legio V Macedonica and Legio XI Claudia are said to have taken part in the siege. Rabbinical literature ascribes the defeat to Bar Kokhba killing his maternal uncle, Rabbi Elazar Hamudaʻi, after suspecting him of collaborating with the enemy, thereby forfeiting Divine protection. According to Jewish tradition, the fortress was breached and destroyed on the fast of Tisha B'av, in the year 135, on the ninth day of the lunar month Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and the Second Jewish Temple. The Jerusalem Talmud relates that the number of dead in Betar was enormous, that the Romans "went on killing until their horses were submerged in blood to their nostrils." The horrendous scene after the city's capture could be best described as a massacre. The Romans killed all the defenders except for one Jewish youth whose life was spared, viz. Simeon ben Gamliel.
Aftermath
Hadrian had prohibited their burial, and so all the bodies remained above ground. According to Jewish legend, they miraculously did not decompose. Many years later Hadrian's successor, Antoninus, allowed the dead to be afforded a decent burial. The destruction of Betar in 135 put an end to the Jewish–Roman wars against Rome, and effectively quashed any Jewish hopes for self-governance in that period. Following the Fall of Betar, the Romans went on a systematic campaign of wiping out the remaining Judean villages, and hunting down refugees and the remaining rebels, with the last pockets of resistance being eliminated by the spring of 136.
Legacy
The fouth blessing that is said by Israel in the Grace over meals is said to have been enacted by the Sages of Israel in recognition of the dead at Betar who, although not afforded proper burial, their bodies did not putrefy and were, at last, brought to burial. The name for Betar movement refers to both the last Jewish fort to fall in the Bar Kokhba revolt and to the altered Hebrew name of "Brit Yosef Trumpeldor". The Mevo Betar village was established on 24 April 1950 by native Israelis and immigrants from Argentina who were members of the Beitar movement, including Matityahu Drobles, later a member of the Knesset. It was founded in the vicinity of the Betar fortress location, around a kilometre from the Green Line. it was a border settlement until the Six-Day War. Beitar Illit, is named after the ancient Jewish city of Betar, whose ruins lie away. It was established by a small group of young families from the religious Zionistyeshiva of Machon Meir. The first residents settled in 1990.
