“Our visit first was to David’s Tomb, but we were not allowed to go in.  Next we walked round the walls of Jerusalem, climbed up the Mount of Olives, then rested under the shade of a large olive-tree, where we spread out our table-cloth and arranged on it all the good things we had brought with us.  The long walk had given us good appetites.  After we had finished our meals, other groups of friends came close to us, and then some of the men in turns told us tales of our nation’s ancient glory, and each one had something interesting to relate.  Then a middle-aged man with a group of boys came near us.  I think he must have been a teacher, for he started telling the boys about Bar Cochba and his struggle with the Romans.

“’Fierce struggles for Jewish freedom went on for three years, and the Jews were proving so successful under the leadership of Bar Cochba that the Romans thought it necessary to bring their greatest general, Julius Severus, from Britain to command the Roman Army in Palestine.  At last the Samaritans betrayed our people:  our last remaining fortified city, Bethar, fell, and Bar Cochba died in defending it on 9th of Ab, 135 C.E.

“’The Jews were the last people under Roman rule in those days to fight for freedom, and over half-a-million of them lost their lives in this long struggle.  Rabbi Akiba, the wise and dearly-loved Jewish scholar, was taken prisoner and scourged, until he expired under his sufferings.  Jerusalem was turned into a Roman colony called Aelia Capitolina, and no Jew dared appear in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, under penalty of death.  Jews under the Roman rules were forbidden to practise their religion, and anyone found teaching or preaching Judaism was horribly tortured.’

“The Rabbi, continuing, reminded his boys that, in remembrance of the brave deeds of Bar Cochba and his Jewish soldiers, Jewish boys to this present time play with bows and arrows on Lag B’Omer.

“I was most interested to hear all the Rabbi had to tell his boys, and glad to feel I was at last living in the Holy Land where so many of our noble heroes of past ages lived and fought and suffered martyrdom.  I could not prevent tears coming to my eyes when thinking on our nation’s past glory and praying silently we may come again into our own; but I believe it will not be so much by the power of the sword, but as the Prophet Zachariah foretold unto Zerubbabel:  ’Not by might, nor by power (or arms), but by my spirit, saith the Lord.’  Those who have been born here or lived here for many years cannot understand our feeling thus, though they love their country and their nation dearly.