“Death gives freedom to our souls”

MAY 22—Masada is many things. It is a place, a rugged freestanding mountain near the very bottom of the world. Herod the Great built a winter palace here, a place to stay warm and stay safe in the cool Judean winter. It was a bastion of comfort and security for a paranoid ruler.

Less than 100 years later, it was the last rebel stronghold. In recent generations it has served as a rallying cry to Jewish nation-builders.

Masada’s walls rise steeply from the floor of the ancient Dead Sea, a mountain carved by the powerful floods so it stands alone from the surrounding highlands.

Masada has long been a name on the map. It took the first century historian Josephus to propel it into the popular imagination with his dramatic account of the great battle there (The Jewish Wars). When the Jews revolted against Roman rule in 66 AD, Rome moved to crush them. The Romans utterly destroyed Jerusalem and scattered its peoples throughout the earth.

Some fled to the wilderness. Rome pursued. They retreated to the impregnable Masada. But some 8,000 troops of the Roman 10th Legion, led by Flavius Silva, laid siege to the mountain. They built base camps around the wall and set about the hot and tedious task of building a ramp up the western escarpment in order to bring a battering ram into position to crash a gate.

In the early 1980s, Hollywood produced a blockbuster movie picturing the epic confrontation of a determined zealot leader and an equally determined Roman commander.

The story ends tragically. Roman might inevitably prevails, but before the Legion can finally enter the fortress and finish the job, the Jewish defenders kill their families and themselves. “Death gives freedom to our souls,” said Zealot leader Eleazer Ben Yair. “Better to die, than to live a slave.” All but two women and five children died, according to Josephus.

In the past century Masada has become a strong symbol for Zionism. As Jewish people emerged from the shadow of the Holocaust into the dangers of establishing a nation in the midst of hostile enemies, this story from the past provided potent inspiration to fight to the end. The people of Israel still feel beleaguered and surrounded by enemies who wish to drive them into the sea. Masada speaks powerfully to them.