Twice Again and Thrice Shall Masada Fall
“Never again shall Masada fall” was the motto on which I grew up in Israel. We will never again have our fate determined by a foreign power. We will be strong and independent!
Israeli kids were all taken on class trips to the lonely hilltop upon which stood the fortress of Masada. The trip was meant to fill us with awe and admiration for the bravery of Elazar Ben Yair and his fellow Kanaim – the Zealots who chose to kill themselves, en masse, rather than surrender to the Romans. Instead, it made me question how the zealots had ever ended up on that outpost to begin with, surrounded by desolation, overlooking the abyss, and choosing death.
“Never again shall Masada fall” – we were taught to see this motto as self-evident. To be perfectly honest – many of us Israelis did not love the Masada story. We understood early on that throwing children and women off a cliff was, somehow, not the romantic-heroic act it was made out to be.
The Kanaim were not the embodiment of normative Judaism, nor were they representative of the Judeans of their time. They were a fringe, extremist minority who had retreated to Masada, in the Judean Desert, after the fall of the 2nd Temple in 70, C.E. The origin of their zealotry, however, preceded the fall of the Temple by, at least, two-hundred years.
In November of 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu invited Itamar Ben Gvir, Raphael Smotrich, and Orit Strook, the new Kanaim, to be a part of the government he was assembling. These three invitees were no mere right-wing nationalists, the likes of which had been a part of Israeli politics since the early days of statehood. These three were the banner bearers of the most radical right-wing nationalist segment of religious West Bank settlers.
All three are messianic nationalists who believe in the imperative of settling the entire Promised Land with its maximalist biblical borders while ‘encouraging’ the Palestinian population to leave. All three are comfortable with Jewish settlers torching Palestinian homes, uprooting their crops, breaking bones, and even killing civilians on the West Bank – not to mention their approval of the horror visited upon civilians in Gaza. None of these three ministers represent the majority of Israeli Jews any more than did the Kanaim in the first century, C.E.
Since the catastrophe of October 7th, this government has been dragging the Israeli nation towards Masada – many of them kicking and screaming, but way too many willingly marching towards the precipice. Grief-stricken and devastated by the horror that Hamas had unleashed, much of the Israeli public has been persuaded that the devastation of the Gaza Strip and its civilian population is, somehow, justifiable. Opposition to this narrative has been vocal, passionate, and inspiring, but not enough to stop the senseless war.
We want to believe that we are one people, but Jews were never one people – that myth was shattered early on with the birth of our independent state. Israelis discovered that contentiousness and divisiveness were always a part of the biblical narrative. The contemporary political, ideological, and religious conflicts are simply- and sadly – a genuine expression of our historically fragmented peoplehood.
The miracle of the rebirth of Israel as an independent nation was that we, somehow, had managed to bridge those differences and come together for the good of our nation. It took vision, enormous courage, and a willingness to compromise. It also took resourcefulness and ingenuity which are still present in Israel today, however, resourcefulness and ingenuity without the vision and moral anchor we once had are dangerous attributes.
There is still plenty of courage left in Israel, but courage harnessed to the wrong team of oxen is as dangerous as paralyzing fear. Such courage can become an instrument of wickedness.
Instead of vision – we have succumbed to messianic zealotry. Instead of compromise – we have been overtaken by eschatology. We have exhibited a profound thirst for revenge, fueled by selective texts curated from the Hebrew Bible, maliciously interpreted by pseudo-mystical religious ‘sages.’
Jews are in possession of some of the greatest wisdom ever shared with humanity. To think that the main lesson too many Jews seem to have internalized is that “they all hate us” is, at best, horribly misguided. While too many people worldwide irrationally hate Jews and Israel, that fact carries no moral value in and of itself; it offers no path to the future. Worse – it instills paranoia as a moral imperative and excuses any action Israel takes as ethically sanctioned by definition.
The Israeli government has been handed over to zealots and there is one thing of which religious zealots are certain: they are the sole possessors of God’s truth. The fact that they might be misunderstanding God never occurs to them – nor does the fact that they may be misinterpreting scripture or ignoring holy text that does not conform to their views.
The new Kanaim love the Masada narrative and they are happy to jump off the cliff along with their children because they truly believe they are on a mission from God – specifically, the God of vengeance. The problem is – they are also happy to throw your children off the cliff. They have already tossed Israel’s credibility, international standing, and Israel’s relationship with half of the Jewish world off the hilltop.
The fact that so many Israelis have been staring at this giant Masada metaphor without even noticing it is astounding. It does not bode well.
Benjamin Netanyahu, as prime minister of Israel, is ultimately responsible for this disaster. Unlike the Kanaim, whom he invited into his government, he is NOT a believer. He is a cynical, mendacious strongman, using this messianic mania to keep himself in power, no matter the bloody consequences.
As Yom Kippur approaches I pray for sanity. I beg for awareness. I ask for us all to return to a place of compassion and reason and step away from the precipice. The fall is not survivable.
Indeed, Masada must not fall again but it surely will if we do not stop this horror show right now, while the gates of mercy are still barely open. Let the year and its curses end and let a new year and its blessings begin.
