The Book of Josippon (Arabic Version)

Account of Eleazar ben ‘Anani after the destruction of the Temple and what befell him.

When the rebel Eleazar ben ‘Anani saw that Simon the Rebel had killed Amittai the priest and other members of the peace party, he realized that the outcome would be the destruction of the city and the downfall of the nation. So he left Jerusalem and camped in a certain place until Titus and his troops had left Jerusalem. When they were some distance from it, Eleazar emerged and went to a town called Masada, built up its fortress, and made camp there. Some of the scattered Judean survivors heard about him, joined him, and made camp with him. Titus, in Antioch, heard about them. Fearing that their power would become entrenched, he sent a general of his, named Silva, with a powerful force against them. Silva came to the fortress of Masada, made camp there, and besieged it until he conquered it. Eleazar came out and battled him and blocked him and his men from entering the fortress. [ . . . ]

During that night, Eleazar gathered his men in the fortress. [ . . . ] Eleazar said to them, “Hear me, seed of Abraham, scions of the prophets. You have long overwhelmed nations, beaten kings, and conquered enemies. Now the situation has changed. Our good fortune is over, and our enemies have beaten and overpowered us. That is because God has abandoned us in anger since we stopped obeying Him. We disobeyed Him and transgressed His law and His commandments. But know that everything has a period at which it comes to an end. Wars have their times. Warriors are now victorious, now vanquished. This has been the way of the world as long as it has existed. There is no shame for the vanquished in losing and no boast for the victorious in victory, because circumstances are constantly changing. Many a vanquished, beaten army has come to be victorious and successful. How often have the victors and conquerors been beaten and conquered! There is shame only in cowardice, weakness of heart, failure to endure hardship, and in too quickly submitting and yielding in the trial. The brave man is he who endures hardship when he meets it, who is not in thrall to fear, whose counsel and reason are not overpowered by panic. [ . . . ]

Before you now are two choices. On the one hand, you may choose life, in horror of death. In that case, surrender to the enemy, become prisoners in their power, and come under their control. Abandon your present honor and accept humiliation and shame. Formerly thought of as courageous and intrepid, you will be considered weak, feeble, and impotent. If, on the other hand, you abstain from continued life and [instead] brave death, you will thereby reach the highest degree of courage and will fully deserve to be called indomitable. Your courage, the power of your souls, and the strength of your hearts will be evident to all, and you will be free of subjection to your enemies and of their domination and control over you. Know that death with glory is better than life with shame, and that he who kills himself honorably and nobly has given himself life, while he who is content to live in shame and disgrace has killed himself. [ . . . ]

We know that when Abraham, peace be upon him, took his only son to offer him as a sacrifice, he did not believe that he would be killing him, but rather that by killing him in obedience to God, he would be giving him life. That is why he made haste and did not hesitate. And when King Josiah, peace be upon him, saw the sinful and disobedient state of the people of his time, he disdained to be among them and preferred to stay away from them. He therefore abstained from the life of this world and aspired to the great light, exchanged his life for death, and did not recoil from being killed. He exposed himself to battle against Pharaoh and was killed, and he was therefore justly known as a brave man. [ . . . ] The lot of Josiah and righteous men of his kind is the great light, the life of perfect beatitude and everlasting existence that comes after this world. We know that good men do not obtain their reward in this world, but rather in the world to come, after they leave this lower world. For this world is the realm of labor, but the next is the realm of delight without weariness. [ . . . ] You are aware that Abel did not have a long life in this lower world because his brother Cain killed him. The brevity of his life did not harm him because he entered into the reward of the next world and was relieved of this world’s misery. Cain survived him but had no benefit from his long life, for he was a fugitive and a wanderer as long as he lived, and then he died and went to his punishment. Thus he lost this world and the next. [ . . . ] As long as the soul is in the body, it is like a captive in a prison. It is never safe from falling into sin and transgression because the body, with its reprehensible desires, impels it toward them; if it obeys that summons, that is the cause of its death and destruction in the next world; but if it disobeys and refuses and does not sin, it enters, after death, into eternal life. Therefore, the righteous soul rejoices when it departs from the body, as does a captive when he is freed from captivity, or a prisoner when he is released from prison, or a slave when he is emancipated from slavery. [ . . . ]”

When the men heard this, they accepted it and did accordingly. They assembled their wives and children, embraced them and kissed them, and said to them, “Which do you prefer? To live in glory in your own land and country? Or to enter into slavery in the power of your enemies and die in some other land among the idols of the nations with a religion that is not your own, after experiencing in your lives things that are disgusting to you?”

They all chose death where they were. They passed the whole night lamenting and weeping and saying farewell to one another. When the night reached its end, they all tied up their wives and children and whoever was with them, great and small, and killed them and threw them into the cisterns, which they then filled in. Then they went out against the Roman troops, seeking death in battle, and they went on fighting until all were killed, but not before killing many Romans. They left the world in the conviction that they had done right and that they had expended their lives in obedience to God, defending His religion and His sanctuary. The enemy had not gained a victory over them, and not one of them had been taken captive.

We pray to God for His gracious reward, for a desirable outcome after death, and for His steadfast protection; for pardon, atonement, and forgiveness; and that He grant forbearance for what is past and peace in what is to come, in His graciousness and glory. Peace!