his eyes are closed he sees the ray, and not only that one, but the whole sun—the bright sun—which no one else can see; no one but he. Chayim Chaikin can see the sun because he is raised above this world with all its wicked lusts. He feels well he feels happy; he will have a very easy fast.
Chayim Chaikin keeps his eyes closed, and sees a strange world, a new world, a world which he has never seen before. Angels soar before his eyes, and he looks at them, and recognises in them his children —the large and the small—and he would like to say something to them, but he cannot speak. Over his bright and happy eyes it curls like smoke, and he feels as if something were leaving his body from inside, from his heart. It rises and rises, and leaves the body. He feels so easy, so very, very easy, that he heaves one sigh, a heavy sigh, and a long, long sob, a sigh
of relief, and he feels so easy, and then nothing—nothing at all....
The sexton, a red-haired Jew, with protruding lips, enters the synagogue. He sees Chayim Chaikin sitting with his head turned upwards, leaning backwards, his eyes wide open, and he is provoked. Thinking that the man is dozing, he scolds.
“An impudence of a Jew! Stretches himself out a bit! Count Pschangutski would not take such a position! That is what I call impertinent! Comes here to sleep! Reb Chayim! will you, now, please? Hey! Reb Chayim?”
Chayim Chaikin does not hear him.
The last rays of the parting sun penetrate the windows of the synagogue, and fall upon Chayim Chaikin's white face, upon his jet-black hair, tinged with a little grey, upon his kindly, black, starved eyes, and they brighten up the dead man's famished features. Chayim Chaikin has had an easy fast.
The President's Manifesto.
THE following manifesto has been issued by Herr David Wolffsohn, Chairman of the Greater and Smaller Actions Comite.
“By my election as President of the Smaller and Greater Actions Committees an extraordinarily high honor has been paid me which I know well how to appreciate. I feel, at the same time, however, the heavy burden and the great responsibility which have been imposed upon me. It is no small matter to take up and continue the work which our Herzl has bequeathed to us as a sacred trust. It was granted to me to serve Zionism and him as a faithful colleague for eight years. During this period I had an opportunity of admiring the greatness of this, the greatest and noblest Jew of our times, and of guaging the weight of the burden which he bore. In willingly obeying the summons, I did so because I considered it an obvious duty to serve our great cause with all my
heart and all my might, and because I count on the collaboration and help of all good Zionists. As President of the Greater and Smaller Actions Committees, in common with whom I have now to conduct the affairs of our movement, I desire in a few sentences to indicate the road which, in my opinion, we must now follow.
“The Basle program, as it was given us by the First Congress, remains the fundamental law of our movement. Our object is solely and only to create a publicly recognised, legally-secured home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
“From that we must not diverge by a hair's breadth. We must neither become adventurous land explorers nor conduct philanthropic small colonisation in Palestine. Our movement is a political movement. This idea must never be lost sight of. We must continue to regard Zionist