Professor David Peimer
Portrayals of Jewish Resistance in Film: “Ben-Hur,” “Masada,” “Bar Kochba”

Professor David Peimer | Portrayals of Jewish Resistance in Film: “Ben-Hur,” “Masada,” “Bar Kochba” | 04.20.24

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- Okay, so today I’m going to dive into the question, which I’m sure many of us have thought quite a lot about. What is Jewish resistance in relation to particular “Ben-Hur” “Masada”, those two stories, ‘cause we’d obviously dealing with ancient Rome and the ancient period. And also just going to look at how one important debate in it needs to be included because it informs so much of this question, the Ben Zakkai and Bar Kokhba way, two ways of thinking about the notion of resistance. And I think it’s interesting, as I was thinking this morning before starting today, obviously we are coming up to Pesach and you know, for me it’s such a, I always remember from early days in childhood, such a powerful foundational myth, I think for Jewish people all over it. And that story of Exodus, obviously each of us has our own memories and whether Jewish or not, we all have our own memories of which, which aspect of it.

But that story has always somehow captured something so powerful. I don’t want to get into the archaeological discussion of whether it actually happened or not, and, you know, all of that and the sort of practical side of it in terms of archaeological reality. But even if it’s story or legend, it doesn’t matter, what it captures about life. And it struck me just to share in the beginning of myth and metaphor. It’s, you know, everything, everything is Egypt. And I think so much of Jewish survival, Jewish resistance comes from that foundational story. And obviously so many things have been written afterwards. And so many ideas emerging not only from the Exodus, but from many other aspects of Jewish history and culture. But there’s something profound about, let’s call it Egypt as a metaphor. And coming out of a condition of control, slavery, literally all psychologically and going into freedom. But then freedom is not just an easy path that would be naive and illusory. Freedom is a tough, tough walk.

You know, it’s across a sea, which who knows what’s going to happen then into a desert where there’s no food, there’s no water, there’s nothing. Then all the, so you know, the story, it’s sort of one comes out of something and really tries hard to come out of a condition of psychological or physical or mental, in today’s words bondage in some way into a free, resist it and get out. And get out to what to where? The insecurity of anxiety, the fear have to face all of that, which is captured so well in the story until finally there might be, you know, some milk and honey, but what has to get out? So it’s, I think it’s the trials and tribulations and it’s another version of resistance to me in the Jewish culture and Jewish collective imagined memory as well. And I think there’s something very powerful about that as a notion of resistance itself. And it’s not only survival because it’s resistance to something in order to get some somewhere else, however tough and hard it’ll be, it’ll be done no matter what. So that’s the first thing I wanted to share.

Everything is Egypt can be losing a job. It can be, you know, getting divorced, it can be a marriage, which this goes this way, or that it can be terrible death of a loved one. Everything is Egypt, trial and tribulation. Coming more into the classical concept of Jewish resistance. The discussion would be around should it be violent, should it be nonviolent? It can of course be individual. An individual can resist whatever, or a collective, a group can resist whatever the control or the domination. And it may not always be just an army, it could be of any kind. And obviously the example of Rome, because we go back to ancient Egypt or we go back to the temple times and then we go to the Masada times. But of course the others, let’s think of Treblinka. Let’s think of Sobibor, Warsaw Ghetto. So many examples of Jewish resistance, which are collective small collectives, let’s face it, resisting in their own way. So I think it’s such a multifaceted, nuanced notion, the idea of Jewish resistance. And I guess the more important thing is different kinds of different times versus for causes.

The great debate between Ben Zakkai and Bar Kokhba, as Trudy will often say and profoundly is of course the scholar versus the military leader is two archetypal icons. Of course it’s never just one or the other, but that’s what comes down through culture and history, you know, so we can start to identify patterns in history of Jewish history and others of different approaches to resistance at different times. Fight or compromise, fight or negotiate. It’s an ancient story going way back in human history, Jewish history, but so powerful in terms of this notion of resistance and resist what? And sometimes it can be resist within one’s own culture, obviously resist an external domination by other cultures, external threats. All of those things come in. The most terrifying times, I think, in my personal opinion would be the first century CE and of course the 20th century, the most horrific and complete change times in Jewish culture and Jewish history, tumultus to use a word, the destruction of the temple, the beginning of exile, diaspora, and then of course the 20th century Holocaust.

After the terrible irony of emancipation, enlightenment periods, 19th century going into the 20th. And then of course later in the mid-century, obviously the state of Israel and the remarkable achievements in developments ever since. So these extraordinary two periods and these we are looking at today, just to give an overall context today of course, 'cause we’re dealing with the ancient times, going to look at that first century CE. And the two primary times to look at is of course the destruction of a temple in around 70 CE and 135 the Bar Kokhba period. What happens under stress and pressure of such extreme change and challenge to Jewish identity, Jewish living culture, people’s living as a nation, as a religion, as a state of some kind 2000 years ago, what happens? And all the ideas we deal with today of assimilate and assimilation, exile, survival, resistance, negotiate, fight, all of these notions I think can be found in that period 2000 years ago. And it can be so interesting, profoundly fascinating to see what they chose, why and how. So I want to look at that. And then I want to look at “Ben-Hur” and “Masada” specifically and how they capture some of these ideas. First of all, the one was, if we can go onto the next slide, please. Thanks, Georgia.

So this is around the period of Judea, around 132 CE. And of course it’s the blue part at the bottom, which is Judea. And that is the part in 132 that Bar Kokhba is ruling in effect. And the rest of course is Roman province. This is his carved out tiny little area. I mean, it is so small, tiny little area where, you know, where the Jews are still leading or ruling in a way. I don’t want to get into all the details of the nuance of that. But you know, for us, for now, it’s enough. Small as a whole what we would call Israel today is a pretty small, relatively insignificant province of Rome. They’ve got far richer provinces, Egypt, Spain, and we can go on and on and on, you know, Gaul will be, has been conquered already France by by Julius Caesar and so on. So this is a part that is really small province of small little province in a part desert, not you know, of of a huge Roman empire. So this is the part that happens with the Bar Kokhba debate and the Bar Kokhba revolt around 132, 135 CE.

Okay, bring on to the next slide please. These are some coins from that era and it coins of Roman coins I’ve got here and some of the Judea coins and some of them are about glorifying Jerusalem and Judea and the other ones of course for the Roman army. We go to the next slide please. So we have this as there’s a lot of quite much more archaeological evidence, but you know, just as one little example. Go on to the next one please. Okay, so these are coins also a mixture that I have here of some of the ancient Jewish coins and the Roman. Have we gone to the next slide, please? This is interesting. This is the Roman legions that conquered and destroyed the destruction of the temple around 70 CE. And this is the Roman writing, you can see the Latin, the fifth and the 11th Roman legions that were employed by Vespasian, who was the general, of course, as we know, who led the Roman, the Roman army to retake or let you know, to conquer Jerusalem, to destroy the siege and destroy the Jewish people in it and take them off to slavery in Rome and elsewhere.

As I said last time, the slaves from this conquest in around 70, see many of those slaves ended up building the Colosseum in Rome and much of the money or the material objects from the temple and elsewhere, Jerusalem and elsewhere were of course carted off to Rome and helped to finance the building of the Colosseum and other things in Rome. And then of course Titus, his son was part of this battle as well. The two important legions, which are very big and very well trained legions were the ones they sent. It’s interesting, the Romans felt they had to put it down this revolt from what must have been a pretty small, relatively insignificant province for them at the time. But they couldn’t handle anything. It had to be put down inside the empire so it could never become, obviously an example for any other province and to scare possible barbarian invaders from outside the empire. This is around the time 'cause the height of the empire post Augustas, when it’s at, its at its absolute height. Okay, go on to the next slide please.

This is a cave of letters, which is, sorry, can we go back to number three, please, Georgia. I think there should be, there’s one missing here. No, there’s, I think there seems to be one missing. Oh no, sorry if we can go on to the next one. Oh no. Okay, it’s missing. So I don’t what’s happened to it. Okay, I’ll come back to it. But this is a cave of letters, which was found in relatively recent times where they found actually some documents with the name Bar Kokhba in it. And some letters that he’d written or had ascribed write for him in this known as well known archaeologically as a Cave of Letters. Quite extraordinary when one thinks about it, you know, this archaeological evidence of 2000 years ago found. So I want to look at these, these characters right now, the three main persons. There’s the Rabbi Ben Zakkai, let’s imagine ourselves in around 70 CE and of course the Roman armies there outside. We are in Jerusalem and we’ve got the walls around us. The Roman army is massive.

Those legions huge around armed trained, ready with all the most sophisticated military equipment of the times, catapults and not just, you know, swords and so on. Fire, everything. And there’s a small group of resistance inside Jerusalem. Big debate going on. What do we do? Do we negotiate with Vespasian the general and struck a deal with the Romans? Or do we fight knowing that we will 99.999% lose. Probably he will be so angry that he will have everybody slaughtered, killed and taken off to slavery and everything will be destroyed. And not only that, he could destroy the temples, he could destroy the very notion of a Jewish state, Jewish identity, the religion, every aspect can be destroyed in this battle. What do they do? What do we do if we part of them in Jerusalem? Shall we fight? No, we’ll almost be destroyed. Or do we go out and say, hey, General Vespasian, can we negotiate a deal here? Anything possible at least. Say, now, try it, honey first, then the vinegar, if it doesn’t work.

We can imagine that debate. It is so contemporary in so many places around the world, in our own times and in broader all over. I mean, I mean globally, you know, it’s so powerful these stories. It’s so powerful the reality of all these things that happened. So on the one hand, there’s the group that say fight no matter what, even if we all die, we fight. The other is led by Ben Zakkai, Rabbi Ben Zakkai, which has come down by some scholars to be called the courage of compromise, courage of negotiation against an almost impossibly powerful invading or or conquering army in this case. And see what deal can be struck. Ben Zakkai was the major rabbinic leader as the Roman siege of Jerusalem was happening, those trapped behind the walls, what do you do? Take on the Roman army. The superpower of its time or not, we just a small little group for heaven’s sake. So the zealots, no compromise, fight to the death, no surrender to Rome and the others led by Ben Zakkai, negotiate a deal, try, albeit from a position of deep weak, of extreme weakness, better to salvage something from defeat than nothing.

And in other than enslavement, slaughter and total destruction of state, religion, identity nationhood everything gone. To be opposed to the policy of the zealots also wasn’t easy. There’s evidence that they had burnt some of the food in the city to strengthen the inhabitants resolve in Jerusalem and threaten to kill anybody who would want to escape and go to Vespasian. And the Roman army outside the city walls. In this context, Ben Zakkai escape happens. Ben Zakkai’s students managed to sneak him out, put him in a coffin escape from Jerusalem. At the gate, the guards say, who are you carrying? And they said, one man who has died and a corpse may not pass the night in Jerusalem. They carry him to the Roman General Vespasian. Ben Zakkai gets out of the coffin stands in front of Vespasian. Powerful roman general, he’s the supreme commander of his times. And Ben Zakkai says, please, general, all I ask, can we go to Yavneh where I will teach students, institute prayer? At least I will try and help salvage and save something of Jewish identity.

We’ll lose the temple, we’ll lose nationhood, we’ll lose everything. But we will take the thinking, the thought, the books, the learning, the education, the values, all the laws, the all the books, the Torah, everything to Yavneh. You can have everything else, General. Vespasian says, okay, go. One of the seismic seismic shifts in Jewish history occurs, and I’m being intentionally a little bit more dramatic. I’m a theatre person ultimately as well. And Jewish history occurs. And this story happens again and again in Jewish history and broadly in the world with many empires and smaller, smaller groups. The central location of worship moves from Jerusalem to Yavneh. 'Cause of course, Vespasian marches, he conquers the city, destroys the temple, destroys everything. And what I said happens, the enslavement and the stealing of all, you know, of all the goods does help to finance coliseum and other things in Rome. So he gets a small community of scholars in Yavneh, which would develop into an academy helping the foundation of missionary Talmud, the writing of law, all of that, et cetera.

So Ben Zakkai saw resistance in the context of fighting, would lose everything, give up Jerusalem and the temple, which was crucial at the time to save something. Yes, the Jewish people will lose their national centre. They will lose their identity associated with that national centre, Jerusalem, the temple and their independence and their freedom to pay taxes, become another tiny little province in Yavneh of Rome. But the continued existence of the Jewish people will be saved. And the new practise of the study and of education and learning of Jewish history, Jewish culture and religion will replace the military option. Fight to the death even if we lose. I don’t think, of course there’s no right or wrong. All I want to do is present these ideas of resistance 'cause another idea of resistance is, well, what’s wrong? We fight, even if we die. No choice in the Warsaw Ghetto. No choice of the Sonderkommandos in Auschwitz who blew up, managed to kill one or two Germans, and then, you know, 250 of them were killed immediately pretty quickly. No choice.

You know, the escape from Sobibor and others, you know, even if a few got out. Complete different kinds of resistance in modern times but we can see the echoes of these ancient stories. So the decision plagued Ben Zakkai for his whole life, but it was made and it would shape Jewish life for the next two millennia, I would suggest. Ritual sacrifices, which were important of course at the time. Well, what do you do? There’s no temple anymore. So after the destruction, another Rabbi Joshua said, well, and I’m paraphrasing a lot here, we don’t have to have burnt offerings. We can find other values to replace burnt offerings in a religious way, in a religious context. For Ben Zakkai, its acts of kindness as important as achieving atonement. All these thoughts come out more prefer will be preferable in God’s eyes than burnt offerings. He throws it out as questions. Me, I’m just throwing out a few examples of what comes out of this seismic shift in Jewish culture at this time. The role of the temple. What do you do? The role of the temple of Jerusalem.

We all think so much of the Wailing Wall, of course, but we, what do we do in a world without a temple? What do we do in a world without a Wailing Wall in our times and other religious icons for Jewish and for others in their own context of their own religions. So the what do you do in the temple itself is destroyed, burnt down, Vespasian. Now you’ve got a world with no temple. And following the Ben Zakkai approached, you have to articulate a Judaism, which does not require a temple. Fascinating, profound. The same way when Moses is told, well, take off your shoes at the burning bush. The place on which you stand is holy ground, paraphrasing from the Bible, it’s Moses. God said, “The place in which you stand is holy ground.” You don’t need the physical temple only in Jerusalem. You can make a temple in Yavneh. You can have it under a tree. You can put up a cup of sticks of wood or whatever, have it in your home. Whatever you can. In a cave. Who knows?

Complete shift in philosophical thinking in Jewish history and culture. And it’s a shift which I think goes global. It moves away from it. It’s so profound, nation and state and identity and religion linked to the land. And the land gets taken away. The temple gets taken away. What do you do? And it’s so profound in terms of the Jewish diaspora, which is to come, the exile, the debates in our own times of assimilation, et cetera. The notion of the wondering Jew begins and all of that. Well, later, the phrase is used. Ben Zakkai, it’s radical if we really think about it. Every place where Jews can gather to pray, no matter where it can have a similar level of sanctity as the temple in Jerusalem. Yes, we stand next to you Jerusalem. Because it’s to remind us, of course, but there’s this also can happen anywhere, which gets taken up, of course by Christianity and other religions all over the place, you know, afterwards in the western world.

So what do we have? We have an ability to compromise or negotiate under the most insurmountable odds. A daring to innovate a new strategy of resistance and survival back to the old debate, negotiate or fight. At certain moments history is a crucible. I think it’s not dissimilar to the era that we are moving into now. The material inside the crucible gets so hot that its shape changes dramatically and quickly. That’s the notion of “The Crucible”. Arthur Miller uses that title in the play. That is “The Crucible”, when the times heat up so much. And I think we are beginning in those times now. I’m not predicting where it’ll go at the moment, I don’t want to get into that, but it’s a crucible. And one has to make profound and strong choices. And I think 70 CE was such a moment. Isaiah Berlin said something of Bismarck, and I think it can apply to Ben Zakkai. Isaiah Berlin said, “I’m quoting, political genius is the ability to hear the distant hoof beat of the horse of history, then by superhuman effort to leap and catch the horsemen by the coattails and ride.”

Isaiah Berlin in much more closer to our times, of course, you know, but I think it relates, when you hear that distant hoof, hoof beat of the horse of history where it’s coming. So what happens? Jerusalem falls, of course we know. Yavneh becomes a small little place for to save it through education, through learning, through study, through the values and ideas in a completely scholarly way. And we have the setup of the Jewish history and the Hellenic or the Greek history. And of course Greece, it happens before as well. But these two, I think are the foundational thought of Western civilization, is the Greek world and the Jewish world. The one is they’re very different, you know, in their way of approaching debate, argue, discuss, education, learning, culture, architecture, science, dah, dah, military, all of this. You know, they deal with all a lot of these things in a different way.

But they have influenced, I think the western world, those two rivers, if you like, so profoundly the sea of the present in the western world. Okay, so I want to mention briefly, Rabbi Akiva. Now he happens around the time of Bar Kokhba, and I’ll come onto the Bar Kokhba thing in a moment. But he lived two generations after Ben Zakkai. So after CE 70, after the destruction of the temple. The major event of his day was the Bar Kokhba revolt, 65 years later, around 130 to 135. Ben Zakkai pushes for compromise. Akiva thought it foolish. Why had Ben Zakkai only asked for Vespasian to spare Jerusalem? Why not more? Come on, negotiate buddy. Get more, get what you can. And I think Ben Zakkai must have, if we imagine ourselves in his shoes, must have feared, well, maybe it’s a demand, you know, one step too far. Maybe it’ll make this superpower general supreme commander of the Roman forces more angry. Maybe he’ll do even more destructive. Was he choosing rail politics, political realism?

Akiva saw it as a decision of weakness. That’s interesting. And he argued the destruction of the temporal. Then he argued an interesting approach. You know, this is a classic way of Jewish thinking. You have one piece, another piece, another piece, another piece. You know, it’s constantly editing all the time, as we all know. Akiva argues the destruction of the temple is only temporary. It’ll be rectified. The return is guaranteed. Profound thought, powerful. So, okay, this is all temporary, we’ll do this, we’ll do that, et cetera. But plant that and then whole different meaning to the notion of resistance and why. So this is how some see Akiva support for Bar Kokhba and the rebellion, you know, and also, you know, there’s the debate, but it probably, you know, that he thought Bar Kokhba was the Messiah and, and a king, et cetera.

So the revolt itself now of 132 CE, the Jews of Judea, that tiny little blue area showed rise up in serious revolt against the Roman Empire. It was the third and final revolt of the Jewish Roman wars ended in total annihilation and defeat disasters. So we have the 80, so we have the 71 CE, 70, and we have the 135 final. You know, the three major wars, battles of resistance after the destruction of the temple, the siege of Jerusalem. So the Romans are kept a pretty large military presence in the province. And of course a very unpopular change in the taxes because the Romans interestingly, said, “Well, you can get on with your religion.” You know, similar to the British Empire. Very clever. Keep your religion, keep your gods, your beliefs, your this, your that, whatever, but give us your tax. Because as I said in the one lecture about empire, the whole point of empire is to get rich at home.

Soviet empire never understood that. Their approach was conquer land, you know, for their own arrogant pride and ideology, not to get rich at home in Soviet Russia. British Empire, much cleverer and many others, which was, well, we’ll conquer, you can have your religions, you can keep this, you can keep that whatever you want, da, da, da, da, da. But just give us some of your labour and taxes and we get rich at home. I’m simplifying it obviously, but it’s the essence of why have an empire. Hmm, you know, what’s the point? So and what happened afterwards also, just as a small point, was that in the place of the temple, a statue and a place of worship for the god Jupiter, the Roman god Jupiter was set up by Vespasian on what we call the temple mount, where the second, where the second temple had stood, which of course freaks the Jews out of the time even more.

So we have a charismatic and messianic Bar Kokhba who begins the uprising in Judea against the might of the superpower. Is he the Messiah? He wants to restore Jewish national independence. Hadrian is the empire now the emperor of Rome. Hadrian’s Wall, we all know it in England. Hadrian is the emperor. He sends six legions, that’s a third of the Roman army of the times. He sends six legions, a third of the entire Roman army to take on Bar Kokhba in that tiny little blue area of Judea that I showed. Extraordinary, you know, one to a tiny little group or such a, you know, you think about it, not only is to make such an example so that all the other provinces don’t even think of rising up again, you know, but you forget it destroy them, slaughter, kill them, get rid of them. And as an example to the rest of the provinces in the Roman Empire, classic empire stuff.

You know, especially of these times, and not only these other times. Six legions, it’s a third of his army is sent to take on Bar Kokhba. I’m repeating it, I know, but I remain astonished. When you really think about how the Romans must have seen these militant, fierce, frightening Jews of the times and determined and strong in tenacity. We can only imagine how the Romans not only Hadrian as the emperor, but the Romans saw it. They didn’t see it just as a tiny little province, maybe in an upstart little bunch, something else. And there are many examples through history. You know, the British army felt the same with the Boers. The British army felt the same with the Zulus even. I mean, tiny little groups, I’m saying 'cause obviously I know South African history. But you know, you get the same concept happening when the huge empires, for whatever reason, identity, threat, other things, example.

They killed Bar Kokhba, disaster. The defeat of the rebels are disastrous consequences for Judea Jews. Resistance in this case led to utter disaster. So many thousands of Jews were killed. We don’t know the accurate figure. I mean, in the sources they talk about over half a million Jewish people were slaughtered by the Romans as a result of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Well, that’s an incredible amount, but we don’t know the real figures. It’s all up for debate. And you know, going back 2000 years and what was written. Many Jews are killed, slaughtered, expelled, slavery, all of that. Bar Kokhba revolt also has philosophical and obviously religious consequences. Jewish belief in the Messiah changes because a lot had seen Bar Kokhba as possibly a messiah, even Akiva. And it became an abstract and more spiritualized notion. Interestingly, political thought became more cautious, became more conservative, more hesitant, which is pretty obvious because of what happened against the superpower.

The rebellion also, we can’t ignore this nuance, but it’s important one. Also helped differentiate Christianity from Judaism. The emerging Christianity of the times from Judaism 'cause this is now 135 years after Christ’s birth. So Bar Kokhba ruled over an entity was called Israel. It was virtually independent for two years. That little bit I showed you, the blue. And Akiva was the spiritual leader of the revolt. And he did identify Bar Kokhba as the Messiah. And I said, as I said, a third of the Roman army. And I’m saying it for the third or fourth time, but it shows you, if we have to imagine ourselves in those times. The Romans went on an utter rampage killing so many slaughtering men, women, children eliminating Jewish villagers, everything. They were so angry. Roman casualties were heavy. The Roman historian, Cassius Dio, he wrote, “Many, many Romans perished in this war.” And he goes on a whole diatribe against it.

But you know, this is, they saw it as a major, major battle. Bar Kokhba revolt, some argue have catastrophic consequences for Jewish population in Judea and beyond. Loss of life, enslavement as I’ve said. The rebellion from what we try to gather today possibly led to the destruction of two thirds of the Jewish population, whether through death or enslavement or whatever. And as Cassius Dio wrote, I’m quoting, “The whole of Judea was made desolate.” And for Romans that in the Latin that would’ve meant empty of these rebels called Jews. In Hadrian’s Rome, Cassius dares goes on, sorry, Judea was, Jerusalem was completely destroyed. The Jewish nation massacred and expelled from the borders of Judea. Even the arable land owned by Jews was confiscated by Romans. Jewish captors were sold for the price of one ration of food for a horse. The slave market was flooded with new slaves. The price of slaves went down. So you could sell a slave for one ration of food for a horse. That’s it, one meal for a horse. That’s what a Jewish life was worth.

So after the suppression of the revolt, Hadrian issued edicts, which aimed at completely uprooting Jewish nationalism, Jewish religion in Judea. To erase the memory of Judea even more, it was called Judea. It was even called Israel. But won’t go into that now, the Romans decided the area would be named Syria Palestina. And that’s where the name begins. Bar Kokhba was called the Son of Deception, the false Messiah. And the rebellion continued, as I said. In the Cave of Letters here, we find some evidence of Bar Kokhba, letters with his name on it and some documents, et cetera. In this Cave of Letters, quite extraordinary. In this picture here. Ben-Gurion, it became a symbol. The Bar Kokhba revolt in our times become a symbol of national resistance. Not just revolt, but resistance on every level. And I’m trying to give you a sense of the nuance and how we could reply to in our own times. Ben-Gurion even took the Hebrew last name from one of Bar Kokhba, the Hebrew last name from one of Bar Kokhba’s generals. So compromise, adjust, is it dilution? Is it worth it? Fight, resist, try and do a deal, not?

All of these things are thrown up in the very notion of the word resistance. At the death of Ben Zakkai and the death of Akiva’s interesting. Ben Zakkai got very sick. His students come to visit him. He didn’t, he kept, he was in terror in his final moments, according to the records. And he sees two paths before him. One leading to heaven, one to hell, he’s as conflicted when he died, has he made the right decision? Did he make the wrong decision as conflicted in their dying moments? Well, the choice changed the next 1,900 years of Jewish history. Not only his choice, of course, the people who followed and decided to follow him and do it with him. Can’t just say it’s one person. Akiva did not die at home. Akiva was captured by the Roman, Bar Kokhba was already killed by the Romans. Akiva was captured and the Romans executed him horrifically. Terrible cruelty in the way they killed him. Slowly, bit by bit.

So we have this extraordinary legacy of these, these characters from history, a diaspora of two millennia begin. National existence, political centres, state centre, religious centre, everything trashed. How do you keep some sense of survival and resistance? How do you keep the sense of the culture, the people together? What Akiva did do was that a huge contribution to the world of oral law. Not only as opposed to religious slash political vision. Interesting. Ben Zakkai saw a way for Judaism that might survive even flourish in the diaspora. A vision for a people without a land, without a city centre, without a temple, a religious centre. Jewish national life, Jewish national independence, Jewish freedom, the religion, everything had gone. No land means nationalism, identity, independence goes. Can you find something to replace it in what we call today the diaspora.

Even with the rise of secularisation in the 18th and 19th centuries, newly emancipated Jews embraced many of the values of Ben Zakkai. That he put to the centre of Judaism. This the notion of study, of intellectualism, of learning. He turned a life of devoid of political power into a virtue. That’s a massive shift in philosophical thought and thought in a culture and the people. And then of course, Zionism from the middle, you know, from 48 onwards last, last century. Amos Oz, and I want to quote him, Amos Oz wrote, “The Zionist Revolution, aspired not only to obtain a bit of land and statehood for the Jews, but also perhaps mainly to upend the spiritual pyramid, to create a new ordeal, new solidarity, a new Jew, strong, brave, free.” Amos Oz gets it completely. He knows the history, he knows his characters. I’m talking about all of this massive periods of resistance, massive seismic shifts in Jewish culture. So kind of where can a flourishing existence be attained?

Compromise as necessity, fight as necessity, fight no matter what, resist no matter what, negotiate we go on and on. Okay, can we have the next slide, please? So I share that as a major context, but I really do profoundly feel one cannot understand these movies and all the subsequent ones, including “Escape from Sobibor” and whatever. I’m not talking about whether they’re good or bad movies, you know, but so many, we cannot escape them without knowing that context so profoundly. It applies certainly in the Jewish and it applies in other cultures as well that I’ve researched, you know, but it’s so clear in the Jewish history and culture. So yeah, it’s “Ben-Hur”, the movie. Of course, the picture on the right hand side is from a production in Chicago in the early 1900s, a theatre production, which was made of it. And then these other two are from the, from the movie that we, I’m sure we all know. I’m not going to go into the story because I’m sure many of us know it or you know, the main parts.

Basically it’s an historical adventure story and of course’s, a Christian message of redemption. So it shifts the notion of resistance to include Christian forgiveness and redemption in it. But it has the elements of all these things I’ve been talking about. How do you resist? Do you fight? Do you go the scholarly route? Do you come back and kill? Do you take vengeance? You know, on the Romans who’ve done this terrible thing to you? What do you do? You know, it’s at a fork if you like. Because be Judah Ben-Hur, has to finally choose. Is he going to go the way you know of the Christian way? You know, what way is he going to go? It’s thrown out in the movie. Of course, it’s written as a Christian adventure, redemption story. But it’s also what happens when you face trials. Your faith gets so tested. Perseverance is required and can change. Again, everything comes from Egypt. What happens when your faith is tested? What happens with perseverance? What happens with fight and resist and drives? When do you negotiate, when do you fight? And so on, okay?

So it comes from originally a novel written by a guy called Lew Wallace. 1880 is published and it becomes one of the most influential Christian books of the 19th century. A bestselling American novel surpassing “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. 1852, the sales massively outsell “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. The movie eventually in 1960 wins 11 Academy Awards. So it shows you how profoundly powerful it hits the national consciousness of not only America but the world. The story, I’m not going to go into it 'cause I’m sure many of us know it. You know how in essence, Judah Ben-Hur, is a Jewish nobleman in Jerusalem, falsely accused and gets convicted wrongfully of an assassination of a Roman governor of Judea, gets enslaved by the Romans. He is forced to work on the galleys as a slave for a couple of years, and then the slave ship is attacked and everybody gets thrown overboard. And he jumps in and he saves the Roman captain of the ship who happens to be a big shot aristocrat back in Rome.

And he’s thankful, he big shot takes him back to Rome, makes him kind of a son, and he becomes a great, then he goes later becomes a great charioteer. And he wants to take revenge on Messala, the Roman who originally betrayed him and had his mother and sister sent away from their home and they become lepers to get healed by the Christian thing coming in. But then what happens is, at the very end when you have the, you know, we all sure know the chariot race, which has gone down in movie folklore, and at the end of the chariot race, Messala is so angry, the Roman guy who betrayed him right at the beginning, wrongfully accused him of being, of having assassinated the Roman governor of Judea. And they were very good friends, these two Judah Ben-Hur and Messala, the Roman, very good friends, Jewish nobleman. And a Roman, let’s say like a major captain, a colonel today. And what happens at the end? Does he take revenge or does he go the Christian route of forgiveness and compassion, all that stuff. And he forgives him and they become buddies again. So all of this happens, but there’s the Christian tail woven in. And Wallace wrote, of course vengeance and forgiveness. Very, very Christian theme if you like.

But the notion of resistance is interwoven all the way through. He has to persevere. His fate is tested, he goes through his own Egypt. Everything is Egypt, you know, everything is involving the horror, the terror. Not only literal slavery, but mental slavery. Everything that you have is taken away. Everything you have is destroyed. Your home, your family, your sister, your mother, everything Judah Ben-Hur loses the lot, everything. And then finally has a chance for revenge. What does he choose? You know? And that’s where the Christian story comes in. So it’s all these ideas of resistance and knowledge and education and military is added on, is the Christian main theme, if you like, of forgive them, forgiveness, you know? So it’s, of course, it’s an adventure story. It’s romantic, it’s heroic action. It’s got the big chariot race. It’s got all the stuff of spectacle in a big budget movie. But what it, it’s not by chance it becomes so popular. It combines for me the stories of the emerging Jewish, the emerging Christian religion, and which is the end is put on as the most powerful message.

And it has served profound Jewish roots of resistance fight. So Wallace himself, and he was inspired by many of these romantic novels, Walter Scott, “Count of Monte Cristo”, and so many, many others, Wallace. And he drew from his own experiences as a commander during the American Civil War under Grant. A lot of dubious choices, decisions that he made. We won’t going into it now. 1886, the novel sells 50,000 copies. By 1889, it’s selling 400,000 copies. That’s an extraordinary amount. 'Cause let’s remember how many people are educated they can read. So within 20 years of its publication, “Ben-Hur” became the second bestselling book in America after the Bible. It’s a phenomenon, if you think, and I’m analysing why linking the Jewish and the Christian and how does it together. And then it becomes this huge popular novel. So powerful, so widely read and bought. And of course the movies made, it becomes a huge hit and all the rest because it’s dealing with these ancient concepts I think, going back to the ones I spoke about of resistance and all the different choices are subtly interwoven all the way through.

So it’s, “Ben-Hur” was also published. We have to remember when America was moving away from war into the beginning of reconstruction, let’s say, or the ideas of it might have been beginning then. It’s interesting, in 2017 in South Korea, a musical, a composer in musical theatre adapted it into a musical South Korea. And it’s a huge hit, “Ben-Hur” the musical. Okay, if we go onto the next slide, please. So this is Lew Wallace, you know, the guy who wrote “Ben-Hur”. We see very much part of the American Civil War period. Look at the image, look at his presentation and look at how obviously the Christian message on top of what I’ve described is a whole lot of aspects of Jewish resistance coming in, drawing from all of it, you know. And he read and researched a huge amount before writing this book. And I thought today, instead of showing just clips from the film and I started research more, it actually, this became fascinating.

The novel became fascinating and the effect of the novel in his times going right through to our times became so, you know, effective. I’m going to start because I want you to get on as the last part of today to talk a little bit about Masada, because it’s obviously one of the most powerful icons in Jewish culture, in Jewish history. This is a picture, thank you, Georgia. This is a picture of Masada as we know it very well. I’m sure many people. It’s one of the, I think one of the best pictures of it, so I’m sure everybody knows, and it’s mostly written by Josephus about, written about by Josephus, who without going into the detail, is the Jewish guy who does escape from, before Jerusalem is destroyed in 70 CE and goes to as Vespasian and he told Vespasian, “I know that you’ll be made, I prophesy, you’ll become the next emperor of Rome.” Vespasian says, “What?” “You’re crazy.” “I’m just a general sent out and I’m not going to.”

Anyway, he becomes the general and Vespasian and his son is taken back to Rome and give him lots of money and lots of nice house and all the rest of it. And he becomes one of the scholars, Jewish scholars in Rome writing Jewish history. And we get a hell of a lot from him. Of course, he’s always trying to impress his Roman masters, you know, in writing the histories. But he’s also trying to, I think in some way trying to see how he can write also for Jewish people, you know, for the future, for the present. Okay, so we have the story of it, you know, coming from Josephus, the siege of Masada of the Roman troops in in in around 73 CE, which as we all know ended in mass suicide of around 960 rebels, 1967, according to Josephus. Recent archaeological evidence is very, sets up a very big scholarly debate. 'Cause they haven’t found how many skeletons, how many this, how many of that? We don’t know exactly. Was it far less, was it more? I don’t want to get into that now. Bottom line is the notion of suicide instead of being captured by the Romans and sold into slavery or being slaughtered by the Romans, men, women and children, as we all know.

So mass suicide, the destruction of the second temple. And of course the zealots have fled Jerusalem to get to Masada. And of course Masada becomes the symbol of resistance. And as we all know, Moshe Dayan instituted in the Israeli army, you know, that when they, when the soldiers would finished their basic training, probably, you know, three, four months usual basic training, they would have to go up Masada and have a swearing in ceremony. Masada shall not fall again. Masada shall not fall again, never again. Which echoes throughout history. It echoes through the Jerusalem. It echoes through Bar Kokhba, it echoes through all of Jewish thought and culture and philosophy, everything, never again. At times it does, it gets forgotten and then it comes back, it gets forgotten, comes back. Resistance requires something of never again. Whether one goes the scholarly route or one goes the military, or aspects of both, or negotiate the more political route or, you know, fight to the end no matter what or commit suicide rather than be enslaved or lose freedom, independence, identity, again.

Never meekly to the slaughter again, which of course echoes the holocaust as we all know. So it becomes such a contemporary symbol of Jewish culture of thought. And let’s think in our own times of Passover. Again, if, for me everything is Egypt, it’s such a powerful foundational myth. Obviously it’s not the only one of Jewish history in Jewish culture, but it’s such a powerful story whether it happened or not. And it’s interesting 'cause it talks about the death of Moses, but he hasn’t died. You know, he’s supposed to have written it in the Sinai and coming out anyway, it’s a separate thing. So it’s all, what I find extraordinary is these ideas of resistance, these different approaches. How do you resist? What do you do? And Jewish culture goes into all of it in all these nuanced ways. And I’ve tried to just touch on a few today of a couple of these key areas and ways of resisting. Again, it may be individuals, it may be a small group of Sonderkommando in Auschwitz who know they’re going to die, but they at least kill one or two Germans, you know, before they do. It may be trying to, you know, escape from Sobibor, whatever. It may be the partisans, it may be the Bielskis group, you know, in the war, during the war. Whoever.

There’s so many ways one can be individual about it, you know, and very personal or one’s own family. One can be much more of a group and in a much larger group or smaller group. One can nuance the notion of resistance, compromise, fight. Does it dilute, what do you do with identity? How do you salvage and save something? So it continues or not, or parts of it. And then which parts of it, you know, and I think it’s one of most profoundly interesting notions, this idea of Jewish resistance. And I think it’s so powerful. I mean, I see the raid on Entebbe as Jewish resistance. It’s resisting the threat of terrorism, you know, and in Entebbe, as we all know, no matter what, we will go out and get those people back. And no matter what it would be done. It can be. Even if everybody had been killed in Entebbe. If all the, and of course the huge risk, the soldiers and of course the hostages, you know, no matter what. So the, I think it’s so profoundly central to the notion of Jewish identity and Jewish culture. And when it’s lost or forgotten, there are periods obviously when it is and in periods it comes back. And I think it’s this seismic shift moments that it really throws up all the questions again.

So it’s, I go back to the final thing, no matter what, for me the most powerful story of them all remains Egypt. Everything is Egypt. Get out no matter what when the times become so bad for whatever reason. And we have to relate it to our own lives. Not only, you know, not only the Middle East, but our own lives, anywhere we are at any time. Face the sea, whether it’ll happen or not. I forget the name of the person who goes into the sea first before Moses and goes up to the water is just about his nose and everybody looking you crazy, you mad. It’s the sea’s going to drown you. And it’s only when the sea is at his nose that it parks the Red Sea. You have to go in and try all the way. And then, let’s see, and then of course all the stuff that, you know, the trial and tribulation, the desert, the horrors of it, the no food, no nothing, everything, you know, crazy. But takes so little with. So I think that that is part of resistance as well. Maybe I’m stretching the idea of resistance too far. But I do see it under this very contemporary word of resistance. Okay, I’m going to hold it there.

And I wanted to share a whole lot of these ideas from ancient times and I’m sure we’ll get onto much more contemporary examples much later on lockdown of, you know, 19th, 20th, 21st century examples of resistance in Jewish culture. Okay, thank you. So sorry, the next slide. This is the last slide, which is a picture of course of the Roman ruins. This is the picture which I’m sure many know of the Roman encampments at the bottom, at the base of of Masada. Well of course we have all the Roman ruins, they surrounded it completely, the Romans. It shows you that even if it was 967 or less or more people, the Romans were prepared to hunt them down to the very last man, woman, and child no matter what and kill them or enslave them, whatever.

So it shows the Roman thinking and empire thinking, you know, for this tiny little group of zealots, you know, and probably very few, you know, could shot an arrow, hold the sword, whatever. So this is, but the Romans decided nothing can stay. That’s the extreme level they went to wipe it out completely. Because not only is I think as an example to everything else, but to show resistance against Rome is impossible so forget it. The superpower rules no matter what. Well all these choices came out, which I still think echo today and speak very powerfully to choices people make today. Okay, thank you very much. Let’s go into the questions.

Q&A and Comments

Rhonda, this is for lockdown. Rhonda, I think if you could email lockdown and then I’m sure one of the team will get it and just mention that you haven’t got the daily reminder. Thank you. Marilyn. And to you as well, Marilyn, to you and your family. Thank you. I hope everyone has a peaceful and healthy Passover. Marilyn, freedom involves responsibility. Yep, absolutely. Myrna. Thank you, and to the wonderful, thank you very much. All very kind. To you Myrna, everyone.

Q: Randy, can we learn anything from the Roman destruction of Judaism in early CE? A: Well, I think there’s a hell of a lot that can be learned from these stories and I purposely held back on applying it to today because obviously lack of time. But I’d rather just go into it all because we are in an educational context and of course I think ideas can be applied today. But I don’t want to get into political polemical debate of choose this or choose that. But I will at some time. Thanks, Randy. It’s a great point. For the metaphors work. The only point of learning all this in metaphors is obviously to keep it alive, keep it going in Jewish culture, but also how can we apply it to life today?

Rita. Thank you, thank you very much. Marilyn, freedom is a state of mind. Yep. Well that’s what it became through this thinking. You know, not linked to land or temple or city or place. It’s a whole shift in western philosophical thought in those times 'cause it was always linked to the land. Rita, Marilyn, more than set of mind freedom generally is having the ability to act or change without constraint. Yeah. Della, certainly good deeds were one replacement for the temple sacrifice. Yes. But you haven’t brought in the word prayer. It’s absolutely praying three times, replace the sacrificial ceremonies. Yes. Thank you. I wanted to hold on that 'cause it’s much more the religious aspect, but you’re absolutely right. And thank you for saying it, Della. Appreciate it. And the prayer became yes instead of the sacrifice. Important.

Q: Sandy, why is forgiveness of central in Christianity? A: That is a fantastic question. Thank you. And that’s a whole discussion. The notion of forgiveness in Jewish culture and history or the religion and atonement and you know, and in Christianity and Judaism. And I think that I don’t want to go into it now because it’d be, I would simplify it and not do justice, but it’s a fascinating idea for a debate.

Nema, what’s a sensibility means by the test of the result and in the lesson not learned today. Okay, thanks from Brie. Yeah. And know I speak to my sister every, every night or every second night who obviously lives in Jerusalem and her family, children and grandchildren, all, et cetera, and cousins, you know. And obviously we’ve all been there. Know it so well. Denise, no question. That’s a great print drape. Thank you. This is a print drape, you’re right behind me. I’m not sure if you can see it there anywhere there. Yeah. Thank you very much. Denise, the Sea of Reeds, I meant the Red Sea. Sorry. Carol, thank you. Dawn, to you as well.

And Eurith, Nachshon ben Aminadav, that’s right, was the first guy to go into the sea. That’s right. I forgot the name of that moment. Thank you. It’s fascinating that they would include that level of detail in the story. Isn’t it extraordinary storytelling and thinking and writing? That no, no, no Moses, you’re not going to go in. Somebody else going up to the nose and up to that. It’s that level of, of of amazing dramatic detail that is captured in the story. Okay, I’m being my dramatic self. Caroline, Lakshaun, that’s right. Was the name of the guy who went first into, thank you for reminding me of the name.

Anna, Martin Gilbert wrote a book called “Atlas of the Holocaust”, 150 Maps. Yes. Where resistance took place. Absolutely. And there were so many, I mean obviously we have Yad Ben Zvi, but you know, of Gentiles helping Jews, but so many acts of which, and I think it needs so much more research and Martin Gilbert brilliantly, you know, put it all together, you know. And acts of resistance. It might have been just an individual, two or three people, four or five, 50, doesn’t matter. It’s still part of it. Mavis, thank you. Liliana, thank you. And to you and your family as well. Rhonda, thank you.

And to everybody. May stay healthy and happy for you and your family, everybody, everywhere around the world. And speak to you soon. Take care. Georgia, thank you so much.