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chose to die. Ele’azar spoke to all who had fought so valiantly. Standing in the center he studied each face. For a long moment he searched his heart, and then without hesitation he said, “My loyal friends, you have followed me to this forsaken place knowing what would happen. That one day all this would end. That day is now. But we resolved that neither the Romans nor anyone else would we serve, that we would serve no man, only God. Once before we were spared and continued to exist until our shackles were taken from us. It was then that we made our exodus from Egypt. We have lived according to the laws of Moses, and now the time has come that bids us to reaffirm our love of God by the determination of our deeds. We have never willingly submitted to slavery even though we were cast into it We were the first of all men to revolt, and shall be the last to break off the struggle. I believe it is God who has given us this privilege, this choice. Life without freedom is darkness. Daybreak will bring an end to our existence, but we are still free to choose an honorable death with our loved ones. Our enemies cannot prevent that, no matter how much they try to take us alive.” Ele’azar paused, and once again looked at the faces he’d come to know and love. “Let our wives die unabused, our children without the knowledge of slavery. After that, we shall do for each other. But first, let our possessions, and the whole fortress, go up in flames. It will be a bitter blow to the Romans to find our dear ones beyond their reach, and nothing left for them to loot or plunder. Let us leave our store of food, to bear witness that we did not perish because of famine but because we resolved as one voice to choose death rather than slavery.”
    When the inner wall had burned, Ele’azar gathered the ten men the community had chosen to decide. It was a signal for all to return to their homes, where they were to lie down. Of their free will husbands embraced wives and children, then offered their necks to the stroke from those whose lot it was to perform the task. When the ten had carried out their mission, they in turn lay down their lives, until the last remaining man thrust his sword deeply and fell with the rest of his brethren. The legend of Masada became a beacon of courage, Dovid concluded, an inspiration handed down through the ages to Jews everywhere.
    In the dimly lit kitchen in Odessa, that small assembly kept unusually silent. Finally Dovid spoke again, looking at each of the children and finally at Chavala. “We must always remember this story. The watchword is, Never again Masada. It is our pledge.”
    Moishe sat there perplexed, trying to understand the meaning of Dovid’s words, repeating to himself, Never again Masada … except how did this apply to him? To his family? The stories of brave warriors were great, but Odessa wasn’t Masada…
    Seeing the confusion on Moishe’s face, Dovid asked him what was the matter.
    “What do we do, Dovid? The same thing that Ele’azar asked the zealots of Masada to do? Lie down and die when the pogroms start?”
    “No. In fact, just the opposite. The story I’ve just told has a simple message for us … we must survive until we can redeem our land. The message of Masada is courage. It is burned into our souls, so that in spite of the pogroms no one will ever defeat our determination to become free. It is difficult to understand, I know, because we live as the oppressed, the downtrodden, but one day Eretz Yisroel will rise up, and on that day we will have our revenge for all the tyranny and injustice perpetrated against us.”
    Moishe still looked at Dovid in confusion. “How will we do that, Dovid?”
    “Through Zionism.”
    “Zionism? What is that?”
    “It’s getting late, but tomorrow night I’ll tell you about a man named Theodore Herzl. He dedicated his life to that one dream. There’s so much I want to tell you about. How soon there will come from Eretz Yisroel a