On October 12, 1984, the Irish Republican Army exploded a bomb planted in the Grand Hotel in Brighton, UK.  Their target was then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her ministers. It didn’t kill her or any ministers, but did take the lives of five other people..

The following morning, as dawn broke over Brighton seafront, Margaret Thatcher famously said, “This is the morning I was not meant to see.” The IRA replied with a sinister message: “We only have to be lucky once, you have to be lucky every time.”

As ominous as that message was,Thatcher was indeed “lucky every time” as she not only served as Prime Minister for six more years, but managed to be lucky to the age of 87.

Nevertheless, what the IRA’s message suggests is that those who pursue the way of violence cannot count on being immune from it.  In a way it sounds very much like the “blessing” Isaac bestowed on his eldest son Esau, when he said “And by your sword you shall live.”

Violence has been a part of our history, though we have mostly been on the receiving end.

Since the destruction of the First Temple and exile of most of Judea’s Jews to Babylon in the 6th century BCE, the Jewish people lived as a scattered (in the diaspora) and occupied people (in the land of Israel). Be it under the Persians, Greeks, Parthians, or Romans, the Jews were subject to the whims of a foreign power - and generally accepted their fate as a conquered people.

Until 66 CE.  The Jewish historian Josephus recounted that a local Greek sacrificed a bird at the entrance of a Caesarea synagogue, enraging the city’s Jewish residents. Tensions escalated even more when Governor Gessius Florus looted Jerusalem’s Temple treasury and massacred the Jewish residents who had the audacity to protest.  In response, armed Jewish zealot groups seized the Roman garrison and declared open rebellion. Emperor Nero dispatched Vespasian to quell the revolt.  Vespasian pushed south from the Galilee, forcing rebels and refugees to flee to Jerusalem. Jerusalem soon came under siege. Zealot groups, unhappy with the way the war was going, deposed the Jewish authority in the city, but then began to fight with each other. Jerusalem ultimately fell in the summer of 70 CE to Vespasian’s son Titus, resulting in the Temple's destruction and the city's razing. In the following year, Titus celebrated a triumph in Rome, and Legio X Fretensis remained in Judaea to suppress the last pockets of resistance, culminating in the fall of Masada on April 16, 73 CE - 1952 years ago TODAY.

The “Great Revolt” had profound consequences for the Jewish people. According to Josephus, 1.1 million died in Jerusalem alone.  Over 100,000 fell in the Galilee. Countless thousands more were displaced, or sold into slavery. However, when we look back on the events of 66-73 CE, we tend to focus on two singular events: the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Masada.  The former is a cause for mourning, while the latter is held up as a model for heroism, and a cornerstone for Israeli-Jewish identity.

The emergence of Masada in this manner can be traced to Shmarya Guttman's pivotal work in 1942. Through deliberate expeditions and passionate advocacy, Guttman transformed Masada from an ancient ruin into a powerful Zionist symbol. This reimagining often sanitized Josephus's historical account, downplaying the Sicarii's brutality while elevating them as noble freedom fighters. 

The shadow of the Holocaust provided fertile ground for this narrative shift. Between February and July 1942, the Masada ethos permeated youth movements and public consciousness, becoming an emotional touchstone that symbolized Jewish determination and isolation during humanity's darkest hour. 

The myth was embraced and reinforced through youth organizations and elite Palmach units, cementing its place in the national psyche.  To this day, Israeli soldiers march through the night before climbing the Masada plateau as part of their initiation into their units.  As part of that ceremony, the words Masada Will Not Fall Again would be set alight as the soldiers took their oath.

What does that mean in practical terms?  That Israel’s soldiers would rather kill each other and the last one commit suicide before submitting?  That Israel’s populace would follow a similar homicidal/suicidal path if faced with defeat?

Archaeologists, sociologists and public intellectuals have slowly nibbled around the edges of the “Masada Myth,” arguing that (a) Josephus’ account of mass suicide cannot actually be verified, (b) the Roman siege of Masada took a few weeks at the most, not three years, and most pressingly, (c) a military failure and a troubling case of mass murder and suicide by extremists (which stands in direct conflict with Judaism’s teachings) has no business serving as a heroic tale that drives foreign policy and military strategy.

The Masada narrative—powerful as it is—forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about the stories Israelis (and diaspora Jews) tell themselves. In our complex reality, simple heroism rarely exists without troubling contradictions. 

The zealots at Masada made their choice when faced with a harsher future under the Romans, but their actions should be examined with clear eyes rather than through the romanticized lens of modern myth-making.

As we navigate our own uncertain times, perhaps wisdom lies not in uncritical embrace of symbolic last stands, but in recognizing that survival sometimes demands compromise, diplomacy, and adaptation—qualities that have sustained the Jewish people throughout millennia of diaspora.

The words "Masada will not fall again" ring with visceral power, but they may lead us toward false choices. Our strength as a people has always come not merely from our willingness to fight, but from our capacity to question, to learn, and to choose life even in the darkest hours. 

In rethinking Masada, we might find that our greatest legacy is not in how we die, but in how we choose to live—not by the sword alone, but by the wisdom to know when to set it down.

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