“The truth does not go out and come back empty.”

As Hadassah begs her father not to preach to an angry mob who “hate us more with each passing year” (10), he remains firm in his faith that spreading the truth of God’s word is more important than any one person’s life. To hold the truth to oneself without sharing it, he argues, is like covering a light in the darkness. No amount of physical abuse can keep his tongue silent, and the inspiration of her father sustains Hadassah through her trials.

“The tantalizing aroma of roasting beef drifted to hungry captives across the night air. Even had they been offered some, righteous Jews would have refused to eat it. Better dust and death than meat sacrificed to pagan gods.”

The uncompromising nature of religious belief systems is on full display. “Righteous” Jews would rather die than violate a single tenet of their faith, implying that any Jew who chooses life in these circumstances is less worthy. These are times of strict adherence to codes—Jews to their Biblical law, the Germanic tribes to their ethics of loyalty and sacrifice—although such rigidity means certain death for those trapped in war-torn Jerusalem. Martyrdom to one’s faith, even over what may seem an arbitrary dietary restriction, is a powerful theme in the novel and one which separates the virtuous from the sinful.