Talia Ferree

By Talia Ferree

During birthright, I learned and was awed by the story of Masada. The story teaches us that there is always a way to succeed and that everyone always has choice in life. A group of Jewish rebels took their last stand on top of a mesa overlooking the Dead Sea. Walking around this mesa, I was amazed how well preserved everything was. It felt like it wasn't long ago when the Jewish rebels were living there. Even walking through the bath house the tile floor was still intact and I could almost travel through time to be one of the community members coming to relax after a long week. I also was astonished that without modern technology the Jewish residents found a way to use flash floods to fuel the water reservoirs on top of the mesa. What would have never been looked at as a good place to call home ended up to be a self sufficient land that would have been bountiful and extravagant for many more generations. A utopia. Sadly, the Romans did not allow this to be the fate of the Jewish people living there. Despite the feeling of hopelessness, they had and made a choice. What stays with me the most from this story was that when they were surrounded by eight Roman siege camps they decided to take their own lives rather than to become slaves under Roman rule because dying as a free Jew outweighed the cost of living as a Roman slave unable to worship Adonai. This story speaks volumes to me because it shows how throughout history we have always fought hard to follow the word of G-d. This makes me feel proud to be Jewish and blessed to practice Judaism.