{UAH} What you don't know about Israeli army oath
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8:11 PM |
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"Masada shall not fall again" is a slogan and a symbolic representation of the modern state of Israel. It refers to the mass suicide of Jewish people who chose to die rather than be enslaved or killed by the Roman army during the First Jewish Revolt.
- In 70 CE, 967 Jewish people, including men, women, and children, chose to commit mass suicide on Masada rather than be enslaved or killed by the Roman army. The rebel leader, Eleazar Ben-Yair, convinced the people to do so.
As impressive as Masada once was, what brings it into focus today is its first-century history. Disaster came upon the Jews when they revolted against their Roman overlords in 66 AD. Four years later, Jerusalem fell, just as Jesus had foretold (Matthew 24:1–2). The siege of Jerusalem was brutal—again, as Jesus had foretold (Matthew 23:37–39)—and the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus recorded some of the details.
Zealots took to Masada to make a last stand—the only way to the top of the plateau was by way of a long, snaking trail, which could easily be defended. You can still see this well-defined trail today, along with the remains of eight stone-walled camps surrounding the fortress. There was no easy way to attack the holdouts who sat comfortably atop the plateau, but the determined Romans embarked on an ambitious building project. They built a ramp of dirt and gravel up to the top of the western side—a time-weathered structure that remains to this day.
Outnumbered 15 to one, once the Jews realized the day of doom was upon them, they chose to kill one another (Jewish law forbidding suicide) rather than have their wives abused, their children enslaved, and the men defeated in battle. Josephus records what happened from the testimony of the very few women and children who survived. He also records the gist of an impassioned speech with which the leader of the enclave encouraged his countrymen.
Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. But first let us destroy our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall fail of our wealth also; and let us spare nothing but our provisions; for they will be a testimony when we are dead that we were not subdued for want of necessaries; but that, according to our original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery (The Wars of the Jews, translated by William Whiston, book 7, chapter 8, section 6).
Masada is a monument in and a symbol for Israel. Modern Israeli soldiers swear "Masada shall not fall again" and make nighttime pilgrimages to the site as part of their initiation into the military
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