Yair Ben-Elazar's speech at Masada

The importance of the speech

In the first years of the establishment of the state, Masada served as a symbol and role model for the Zionist movement. The willingness to fight to the bitter end against endless odds for personal and national freedom struck a deep chord in a generation that personally knew the heroes of Tel Hai, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Mountain Division. The last speech of the leader of the Zealots in Masada, Elazar Ben Yair, was a rhetorical distillation of the willingness to die a heroic death and not surrender to the occupying enemy. The speech was used by countless instructors in youth movements and educational organizations to instill Zionist motivation and illustrate how committed one can be to political freedom.
Lazer Ben Yair presents the inevitable defeat, the enslavement, torture and humiliation that will follow, and presents death as a respectable and moral alternative. He manages (after initial hesitation) to convince his fellow travelers to slaughter their families, then choose ten to kill the other men, one to kill the rest of the ten - and then commit suicide. The power of Ben Yair's leadership, backed by the fear of the atrocities of the Romans (who were well known to the besieged) gives the speech a chilling power of persuasion.

The decades that have passed since then have led to a cooling of the Israeli public's attitude towards Masada fighters. The willingness of the Sikri fanatics to call secular Jews traitors and to murder them caused discomfort in the days after the murder of Emil Greenzweig and Yitzchak Rabin. Historical research has shown that the Sikris killed more Jews than Romans, and that Ben-Elazar's group did indeed start the great rebellion when it conquered Masada in 66, and also gave it a heroic ending chord with its suicide in 72, but in the middle it did not really fight and preferred to remain isolated in Masada and murder politicians in Jerusalem while the battles were taking place in the Galilee and Judea. Even the willingness to commit suicide - personal, group and national - has over the years been seen less as courage and more as childish impulsiveness. Less of the Warsaw Ghetto and more of the 48-hour attack in the 2nd Lebanon War. Less of "it's good to die for our country" and more of "my soul will die with Philistines".
In this situation, Eleazar's speech is still a powerful and heart-wrenching text, but more out of despair and pity and less out of pride and admiration.

A two-part speech - Part One A direct and clear short (and in my opinion also more successful) in which Ben Yair speaks with power and leadership and convinces some of those present but not all. When Ben Yair notices that not everyone is convinced, he changes style and moves on to part two Scary, horrifying and desperate that enumerates the horrors that fell to the lot of those who surrendered to the Romans and those who fought them to the bitter end.

 Elazar ben Yair - the suicide speech at Masada

and. But Eleazar did not think of escaping for his life. Nor did it occur to him to let one of his men do such a thing. And when he saw that the wall was burnt with fire, and that every way of salvation and every counsel of valor was hidden from him, he compared before his eyes everything that the Romans would do to him and his men and their women, and to destroy them at the time when their hand would prevail against them, and he concluded in his soul that he and all who were with him should die, in his mind, because this is the most honest of all The ways in this class. He gathered the good-hearted among his friends and encouraged them to do the deed, saying to them:
"Oh people, the heroes of the army! Both from me-then we agreed upon us, not to serve the Romans, nor any other masters, except God alone, for He alone is the ruler of man in truth and justice. And here has come the hour that commands us to complete our soul's desire by force, and let no disgrace fall upon us at this hour. And after our souls were sick of slavery which is not dangerous, we did not choose this time a life of slavery with terrible judgments - and that would be our portion from the Romans, if our lives fell into their hands. Because here we were the first to raise a hand against them, and we remained the last to fight with them. And here I think, that God has done us justice by allowing us to die the death of heroes who were free, when God did not have the hand of our brothers, whose downfall came as a curse. And here it is clear and known before us, that tomorrow our day will come, but the authority is given to us to choose the death of heroes, we and the darlings of our eyes together. They will prevent the enemies from dissuading us from this advice, even though all they want is to take our lives! And also from him it will be difficult to win them in the war. And indeed it begins, when we stood up to fight for our freedom and suffered many tribulations at the hands of our brothers, and even greater ones than these at the hands of our enemies, - perhaps then we should have prepared the spirit of God and understood that He had sealed His fate on the seed of the Jews that He had loved before. Because Lee continued to shine his face on us, or just for a small moment, he shone on us, because then he did not hide his face from the sight of this great loss and did not surrender his holy city to the fire and the ruins of the enemy. And we - do we think in our souls to be saved alone from all the seed of the Jews and to preserve our freedom, as if we have not sinned against God and no yoke has stuck in our hands - under which we have also taught others to do evil? Look and see! Here God showed us that all our confidence was vain and vain, by bringing upon us a terrible trouble to shame our good hopes. Because we did not have the feature of Mishgav the fortress for salvation, and with all the bread in our hands to eat and the many large weapons and all the great and enormous baggage we are ashamed of all our hopes and we will not be able to save our lives, - it is not because the hand of God did it! It was not by chance that the fire inclined towards the enemy turned its face to the wall, which our hands had erected. It is only a sign of her transgression, the recompense of our many sins, which we have sinned in revenge and malice towards our brothers, our people. And it is true that for these things we must give an account, not before the Romans, our enemies, but before God, and His judgment will be easier for us than the judgment of the haters. Therefore, let our women die before they are defiled, let our sons die before they taste the taste of slavery. And then we will repay one another the kindness of heroes, and what good and what is beautiful will be in carrying our freedom to the grave, and before our death the property and the fortress will be destroyed by fire. And I know that I am right, that the Romans will be grieved to their hearts, if they do not take lives, and they will lose hope of finding booty. We will leave only the side for them, so that it will be for the congregation after our death, because we did not die in hunger and lack, because if we chose to die from a life of slavery, when we accepted it in advance." to part two

G. These are the things that Eleazar spoke. But his words did not enter the hearts of all those who stood by him. It is true that many rushed to listen to his advice, and almost lustfully approached to follow it, thinking that their death would be good and beautiful. However, the soft-hearted in them woke up to take pity on their wives and they touched and compared with their eyes the future death for themselves, and they looked at each other and the tears in their eyes answered them, because their minds are not comfortable with this thought. And Lazarus saw the soft-heartedness of the people, who did not have the spirit to listen to his great advice, and he was anxious lest they melt with their sighs and tears the hearts of the heroes of the army who listened to his words, and therefore he did not stop talking about their hearts, because if he stood on his feet full of stature With a true heart and a mighty spirit and speak to them lofty things about the eternity of the human soul (in the original: about the immortality of the soul). And he called out to them in a loud and strong voice, piercing his eyes with tears:  to part two