“Everywhere I walked my fate walked with me, sewn to my feet with red thread. All that will ever be has already been written long before it happens. There is nothing we can do to stop it.”

These lines by Yael introduce The Interplay Between Faith, Dignity, and Free Will. Yael believes she and her people are destined to wander and suffer, using the metaphor of her fate being “sewn to [her] feet” to imply her destiny is to forever be stuck in the desert. As the novel progresses, Yael will grow in strength and agency, learning to take a more active role in her life.

“Victims often attack one another, they become chickens in a pen, bickering, frenzied.”

Yael notes that as the Jewish people of Jerusalem are persecuted by Romans, they turn on each other. Powerless to act against Rome, Yael describes the community as divided and contentious. This image of a quarreling community will form an important contrast to the unity the Jews will demonstrate during their last stand during the Siege of Masada.

“Stone should last forever, but on that night, I came to understand that a stone was only another form of dust.”

The image of a stone being nothing but “dust” symbolizes the impermanence of life. Just like the strong Temple of Jerusalem falls, everything else in this life will fall too. This passage reflects the fatalism that some of the characters contend with in the novel, reflecting The Interplay Between Faith, Destiny, and Free Will.