Following the Footsteps of the Lost Tribes

by Yossi Soika

  I briefly told him the story of my Holy Land tour, my meeting with a stranger, and how I received the black ring.

  “Maybe now you understand why I’m forbidden to share my big secret?” I asked, and continued, “There is one thing you can get from me –the professor’s translation of the diary. But that is all I am permitted to tell you.”

  “Dan, you are a fascinating person! After the night you spent in the company of professor Alon, I believe every word you say.

  “What do you mean? What happened to me last night?””

  “I must confess that only after seeing the professor’s failed efforts to remove the ring, I understood that there is something extraordinary about it.”

  “What?”

  “’Last night, after you agreed to be examined, we put you under general anesthesia and X-rayed your finger so many times that the machine was burned. Do you understand the implication of a burned X-ray machine? You certainly can’t imagine extent of the professor’s trauma when he saw the terrible result. He was at a total loss for words for few minutes, and only after recovering he screamed, “Bring me the electronic disc! We must put an end to this madness!”

  Then came the big surprise when the disk didn’t even scratch the ring in the slightest. The professor tried to pull the ring off with a pair of forceps, but it would not budge an inch. The rumor about a curious surgery spread quickly and many doctors came to the operating room. The professor and the entire medical staff stood around your bed, shocked and confused, no one saying a word.

  The professor circled your bed for long time, looking unbalanced and shaky, he hit the bed, mumbling something non-intelligible to himself, and occasionally stomped his feet in anger, and was even heard mumbling, “It’s impossible; I will not accept abnormalities –I never will… it’s irrational…” He kept mumbling incomprehensibly to himself, like a possessed person.

  “What do you say?” he suddenly asked the other doctors who stood around him gaping, “should we cut the ring with a diamond-blade disc and finish this surgery?”

  None of them said a word.

  “Alright, so be it. Silence means consent. Let’s go. Bring me the large diamond-blade disc”.”

  After few intensely stressful and anxiety-ridden minutes we realized that the diamond-blade disc wouldn’t change a thing.

  “I’m losing my mind,,” croaked the professor, “that’s enough for today. We shall resume our trials in the morning.”

  “So, Dan, my friend,,” Joe continued, “in an hour or so you’ll go through an extraordinary surgery, with the sole purpose of removing the ring. In a few minutes the professor will enter your room, and ask for your permission to conduct another trial. I just wanted to inform you about what is going to happen.”

  Before he finished talking I darted out of the bed and got dressed as fast as a lightning.

  “Send my warm regards to the professor and to all my fans here at the hospital,” I exclaimed with excitement, and hurried to leave the hospital, jogging.

  Back to the Holy Land

  It seems absolutely crazy!...How had I agreed to such a stupid thing? I’d fallen prey directly into the hands of a crazy professor. The man wished to remove my finger… still trying to digest that I had fallen victim to the professor’s madness.

  “Dan what happened? Where have you been since yesterday?” I heard my mother’s anxious voice as I entered my parents’ home. “You know, it’s strange but I had an ominous feeling, that something terrible happened… as if somebody was cutting your body.”

  I looked at her in amazement and asked, “Where do you get these horrific nightmares?” Probably Melanie had hinted about it unintentionally, I thought.

  “I can’t really explain it, but it really bothered and haunted me.”

  “Mom, I’m safe and sound, and nothing’s happened. You can see for yourself.”

  The ringing of my phone interrupted our conversation. It was Melanie who needed to see me urgently, so she claimed. I parted from my mother and promised to return as soon as I could. Half an hour later, I rang the doorbell at Melanie’s house, and a moment later I could hear her footsteps coming down the stairs. The door opened and she rushed into my arms and hugged me tightly.

  “I’m so happy to see you safe and sound! Joe gave me all the details of what happened there, and I am so sorry that I got you into that stupid test… unbelievable – I am really sorry for being so stupid and for disparaging your story. Now I’m absolutely sure that your story is true. Actually, you really confused all the doctors, especially that tough professor who almost went crazy. You don’t have any idea how shocked he was after he had failed to cut the ring with the electric disc. “Joe called a few moments ago to tell me that the professor has taken a week’s leave.”

  “Can you believe that such a respected professor almost went insane, and he even considered sawing off my finger?”

  “Dan, all I can say is that you are an extraordinary person. I heard from my brother that the entire hospital staff is talking about you – you have become famous.”

  “Just what I need! I’m afraid of this kind of fame. I need it like a hole in the head. If my parents hear any of it, even a little bit of what happened, it’s going to be a real mess. And yet the central question is - what am I to do right now?”

  “I’ve got an idea that’s not entirely bad,” Melanie said, “why won’t we hurry and get ourselves going on a trip?”

  “A trip? Where do you have in mind?”

  “Maybe we can go to the Holy Land?”

  “Oh! Now you’re singing a different tune… I just can’t believe it! Only yesterday you were laughing at me for wanting to visit the Holy Land, and now you’ve changed your mind. You’re turnabouts are really dazzling. You could be a perfect acrobat! The acrobatic world missed out on a big talent!” I concluded with a wide smile.

  “Melanie, how can I say this? I’m so very happy – so happy – to see the amazing, huge change in you, and it only took one single, short day – my beautiful acrobat!” I laughed and hugged her gently. After a moment of silence I whispered in her ear that in the Holy Land there are some sites where I can only visit on my own, without company. “You can’t enter those places without the ring, I’m truly sorry.”

  “In that case I will take a trip to the Holy Land but will not enter the forbidden locations.” Although I’m not sure if I can really keep my word, but there is something in me that keeps whispering, ‘go visit the Holy Land’.

  “I really don’t know what to say to you. I had planned to go there alone, and now you are asking for something that hasn’t crossed my mind before. I need some time to think about it. Please give me some time.”

  Early the next morning I received numerous calls, all of them from my girlfriend, Melanie, who requested or even actually pleaded to join me on a trip to the Holy Land and even promised me that it would be worthwhile and advisable and even desirable to take her with me. In fact it was starting to drive me mad-– show me the person who can stand up to all that begging and pleading repeated dozens of times a day? After three days Melanie appeared at the door dressed in long, white gown, her black hair fluttering in the wind. Her beauty was irresistible.

  She took my hand, kissed me lengthily and said, “Dan I’m so happy that you agreed to take me with you.”

  To tell the truth, I said nothing, but I also couldn’t resist the charm of her good-looks, so you probably already guessed what my answer was. The next day I spoke to my father and told him of my intentions to go on a trip to the Holy Land.

  “Are you really sure you want to go back to the Holy Land? Why don’t you take a trip to Europe or to some other exotic destination in Asia?”

  “Dad, everybody knows that the Holy Land is the most fascinating place. We have molded our religion from its ancient culture and so has its neighboring Muslim countries. You can find both new
and ancient there, and it’s marvelous”.”

  About a week later, Melanie and I were ensconced in an El-Al airplane making its way to the State of Israel. Punctually at nine o’clock the airplane ascended over the clouds. New York City disappeared from our eyes and all we could see was the sea and bright sky.

  About ten hours later we landed at Ben-Gurion Airport, but a little before touchdown Melanie gazed from the tiny window and exclaimed with amazement, “The country is astonishing from a bird’s eye view.”

  “Wait a little,” I answered her in amusement, “you ain’t seen nothing yet. Keep up your stamina for what is still to come. You’ll find yourself crying out in admiration a lot more in this special country.”

  A little later we made our way up to the capital, Jerusalem.

  On the morning of the second day Melanie started, “I’d be delighted if you’ll be the guide and of course, it’s nothing but your own decision where we go and what we do.”

  “Huh, that’s sweet of you to say. I’m confused – do you really mean that you’ll accept everything I do without any argument?”

  “Right now you are the one who decides,” and she added, “I trust you, and the truth is that I have no other choice!” she smiled faintly.

  For a whole week we traveled far and wide in the tiny country: we climbed the Golan Heights, waded in the fresh water of the Sea of Galilee, and visited the fascinating antiquities of ancient Beit She’an. In addition, we toured many archeological sites I hadn’t seen on my prior visit. Our tour ended in Jerusalem. The next morning we sat in a luxury tourist bus heading toward the Dead Sea and Masada.

  The tour guide stood next to the driver and told us the history of the place we were about to visit at length: “The land we are crossing right now has been part of our ancestral land for thousands of years. Here The Ten Tribes sat peacefully, until Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, conquered the Kingdom of Israel. In a campaign of plundering and destruction he exiled the Ten Tribes from their land. Then the razed and desolate land was inhabited only by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and no one knows what befell the Ten Tribes from that day, and it seems that they vanished forever.

  “Sir, you are wrong,” I began to protest, “they are alive and well!”

  I was getting surprised looks from every direction. The guide ceased his fluent speech and addressed me, “Excuse me sir, you probably misheard my words. The sons of Judah and Benjamin are alive and well to this very day, but the Ten Tribes were lost for eternity.

  “Oh, sure, please excuse me. I was dozing off and didn’t properly hear what you said.”

  For a moment my body felt entirely enfeebled and there was a lump in my throat, My God, what a slip of the tongue! I must be careful… a deadly mistake… a deadly mistake the thought sparked in my mind.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Melanie asked in surprise, “You look pale.”

  And I replied, whispering feebly, “Everything is fine with me.”

  “This land met with many conquerors: Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Egyptians, Crusaders, Mongols, Ottomans, and British,” the tourist guide continued with his speech. “Many of those conquerors pillaged the treasures of the Land and the Temple, and razed many homes to the ground. Others established many sites and temples in our Land to mark their victories. Most of those conquerors vanished into thin air, but some survived here.

  One exception was the Ottoman Empire that ruled the Land of Israel for four hundred years. This regime made enormous efforts to cultivate diverse populations in the Land and succeeded to fuse the country with foreign populations that immigrated from other surrounding nations. The Ottoman’s aim was to protect the land from invading occupying tribes that lived by their swords and pillaged all that they could lay their hands on.

  The hold on the Land of Israel has not ceased since the time of the Babylonian exile more than 2,000 years ago, and ever since then Jews from all over the world have not stopped returning to the Land and rebuilding it. At the turn of the twentieth century, almost fifty foreign languages were spoken here, a direct result of transferring various nations from the periphery of the Ottoman Empire. I’m sorry to tell you, but even today the Jewish people are an object of looks that come from greedy and coveting hostile eyes that aspire to occupy the blossoming Land. After 2,000 years of destruction, the Jewish people have returned to their Land, but only after many experiences of degradation, torture, and horrible mass-cleansing all over the world. But evil and malice cannot defeat the Jewish people after they have gone from strength to strength and became fortified against the world of evil. No one can harm the regenerating of a people, and of all those who are plotting to ruin the nation that has reestablished itself are going to fail and disappear in the same way as did the former occupiers who had tried to harm us…”

  To the sound of his last syllables all the passengers on the bus applauded the tour guide. Melanie and I did too, we applauded his brief, excellent speech. Shortly afterwards we arrived to the world-renowned lake with its healing properties, the Dead Sea, which is also called in Hebrew, the Sea of Salt. We spent a long time wading in the odd sea, and we smeared our bodies with the black, sulfur mud that is used as a cure for a whole lot of strange skin diseases. At the end of our muddy dip we washed ourselves in some hot water, and shortly afterwards we made our way to Masada. The closer we got to the citadel, the stronger I felt streams of tension building in me, as if I was a source of electrical flow.

  “Melanie, look at the towering cliff – this is Masada, which is famous all over the world. It was in Masada where I started my amazing adventures and it was there where the secret of the black ring began.”

  Melanie sat transfixed, her face pressed against the window. She watched the arid and unfamiliar desert landscape and was tongue-tied from astonishment. Our lunch at Masada Restaurant was surrounded by similar views. For a long time I watched the cable cars that moved up and down. At the end of the tasty meal we heard a lecture about Masada, the heroism of its warriors, and afterwards we exited to the cable car which took us to the heights of Masada.

  After a short wait we were lifted up to Masada and began our group tour.

  “Melanie,” I whispered in her ear, “I’m going out and I will be back in a few minutes.”

  “Alright then,” she whispered in response, “you are the ruler,” and a brief smile flashed over her face.

  I hastily left the group, my absence unnoticed by the guide, and I made my way toward the water cistern, at the western part of Masada. At the bottom of the cistern staircase I pulled out a tiny flashlight that lit my way down until I reached the middle of the cistern. Then I stood motionless on the spot and using the flash light lit up the surrounding walls. After a brief moment I turned the black ring, but to my surprise nothing happened. Suddenly I felt the ground beneath me starting to sink swiftly, and in a moment I found myself in a tunnel that was lit by a bluish glow.

  Strange, the place has changed a little, but who excavated the tunnel there and why? I pondered briefly on it, however nothing came to mind. I then turned left and strode toward the adjacent rooms and, after hesitating briefly, I opened the door on the left and entered the room.

  The furniture, the beds, and bedcovers remained exactly as they were six years ago, as if time had stood still. After I surveyed the adjacent rooms I returned and stood at the entrance to the tunnel.

  Who has dug and widened the tunnel, the question repeatedly occurred to me. Is it possible that someone found this spot? No, no it’s impossible. The whole world would have heard about the dramatic discovery. I took a few steps into the tunnel. I peered into it at length and I decided to go back. Time passed quickly. Melanie would worry if I didn’t return quickly, so I made up my mind and quickly walked out of the cistern.

  Melanie and the other group members were still standing in the center of Masada listening to the guide’s explana
tions about the grim battles that the zealots had waged here.

  “I was worried about you,” Melanie whispered in my ear, “where did you disappear to?”

  “I can’t tell you right now, I’ll tell you later, and you don’t need to worry about me; I’m a big boy, and I’m not going to get lost,” I replied in an amused voice.

  “Melanie, please listen to me. I have a small request – I’m going to back to that place. I saw something very strange there, something unique that I didn’t notice during my last visit. Please wait for me at the restaurant; we’ll meet there as soon as I’ve finished checking it out.”

  “No problem,” she answered with a smile, “I’ll see you soon.”

  So I left the group and walked quickly toward the water cisterns. Near the cistern I found some visitors standing and peering into its dim depths. I had to wait for a long time until they turned back, climbed uphill, and followed their footpath back. Fast as a jackrabbit I descended to the middle of the cistern and turned the ring. The floor began to sink very fast. Suddenly I felt two hands on my hips and for a moment my blood ran cold.

  “Don’t worry sweetheart; it’s only me,” I heard Melanie’s voice echoing, like a bolt from the blue.

  “What have you done?! How dare you follow me? This place is very secret and dangerous. You can’t follow me if you don’t have a black ring!”

  “Dan, why are you so mad? The same day you told me about your meeting with Arthur Da Costa at Masada, it became clear to me that your secret is linked to this place, so now I’m here!”

  “Melanie,” I said emphatically, “you simply don’t understand the severity of what you’ve done. You’ve stepped into a place where entry is forbidden, to the extent that your trespassing may threaten your life, perhaps mine too.”

  “Dan, why are you so agitated? I’m standing here right now, and nothing terrible has happened! Not to me and certainly not to you, so what exactly do you mean? And for now, could you please tell me something about this place, why is it such a secret? I don’t see anything special here except for the bluish light and I can’t see where it’s coming from.”