we visited masada today. before the visit, i think the last time i thought about the masada story was when i learned about it as a kid. i probably just accepted the idea of 900+ jewish rebels taking a roman fortress, holding it for several years, and then killing themselves rather than being captured. but today, hearing it again it now strikes me as really problematic.
for example: to avoid the prohibition of suicide under jewish law, the masada rebels had all the men kill their families, then elected ten men to kill all the other men, and then those ten drew lots to see who would kill the other 9. the last one committed suicide, leaving only one with the sin of suicide on his soul. but isn't it still suicide when you consent to have someone else kill you? and even if it weren't classified as "suicide" isn't slaughtering people itself a problem under jewish law? the whole story of the final murder-suicide doesn't really make all that sense. although that doesn't mean it didn't happen that way. i guess those zealots didn't necessarily think the whole thing through.
and it's also kind of disturbing how israeli society has adopted the masada story as a national morality tale. personally, i don't think what the masada rebels did is all that admirable. when given a choice between slavery or death, slavery still seems like the best of two bad options to me. it's weird that so many israeli children go to masada and are asked to identify with the suicidal rebels. it's also strange that the IDF swears in its soldiers on masada. it would be like holding the induction ceremony for the american military at the alamo. besides, the jews lost at masada, and slaughtered their families just before losing. it's a pretty disturbing story, not one that i would want to build into a national myth. i guess it feeds into the notion that the jews are surrounded by enemies. even if that were true, why pick a story with such an unhappy ending?
and then there's the irony of the whole masada as a founding myth for the jewish state. the zealots were fighting against the roman occupation of their homeland, and particularly the occupiers' control of jerusalem. the jews had several uprisings against the romans, but they lost each one over the course of several decades. still, they never gave up on getting the land back. in the end, thousands of years later, after the roman empire was long gone, they finally got their state.
i dunno, there seems to be a metaphor for the current state of israel in there somewhere. i'm just not sure it favors the israelis.
