Got Myself a Gun

I watched The Sopranos last night on A & E. One of my favorite episodes!

Tony and his crew are hired by an elderly Hassidic gentleman to force his son-in-law into divorcing his daughter, because he's an abusive husband. The son-in-law is resistant to the divorce and hides piously behind his religious beliefs to avoid it. However, he says he'll divorce his wife if he receives a 50% share of the gentleman's business. So not only is the son-in-law a complete weasel, but he's a hypocrite, a blackmailer and beats up women. Tony's thrilled to have his crew do the job.

His crew has a tough time convincing the son-in-law to divorce his wife. They've beaten him, they've threatened him, and still the little weasel won't agree to the divorce. So the crew calls Tony in for backup.

When Tony arrives, the son-in-law is reeling, laying on the floor after the beating, but is still indignant, pious and arrogant.

"Have you ever heard of Masada?" asks the son-in-law.

"No, I haven't," says Tony.

"Masada was a town surrounded by stone walls and just 900 Jews lived there," he says. "For three years 15,000 Roman soldiers surrounded Masada, trying to take it, and when they finally did, all the Jews living in Masada committed suicide, rather than become Roman slaves." Here he pauses and looks at Tony, pityingly. "Where are those Romans now?" he asked.

"You're lookin' at 'em, asshole," replies Tony.