My loyal followers, long ago we resolved to serve neither the Romans nor anyone else but only God; now the time is come that bids us prove our determination by our deeds...After all we were born to die.... But outrage, slavery, and the sight of our wives led away to shame with our children - these are not evils to which man is subject by the laws of nature: men undergo them through their own cowardice if they have a chance to forestall them by death and will not take it...
"Pity the young whose bodies are strong enough to survive the prolonged torture; pity the not so young whose old frames would break under such ill usage. A man will see his wife violently carried off; he will hear the voice of his child crying, 'Daddy!' when his own hands are fettered. Come! While our hands are free and can hold a sword, let them do a noble service! Let us die unenslaved by our enemies, and leave this world as free men in company with our wives and children."
These were words spoken by Eliezer ben Yair on the mountain called Masada before they chose suicide over death and slavery to the Romans.
On that same mountain Israeli paratroopers vow, "Never again will Masada fall!"
"Pity the young whose bodies are strong enough to survive the prolonged torture; pity the not so young whose old frames would break under such ill usage. A man will see his wife violently carried off; he will hear the voice of his child crying, 'Daddy!' when his own hands are fettered. Come! While our hands are free and can hold a sword, let them do a noble service! Let us die unenslaved by our enemies, and leave this world as free men in company with our wives and children."
These were words spoken by Eliezer ben Yair on the mountain called Masada before they chose suicide over death and slavery to the Romans.
On that same mountain Israeli paratroopers vow, "Never again will Masada fall!"
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