The Maccabaean

THE renaissance in Jewish life and thought, which goes back to the eighties of last century has manifested itself in various ways in the spiritual life of the Jew in the diaspora. In art you find traces of this re-awaking of Israel, as well as in literature and philosophy. In all branches of Jewish learning and activity you recognize the remarkable influence of the Revival movement, which was started by a small group of Lovers of Zion.

“The Jewish poetry of the present is only one of the manifestations of the mighty process of the resurrection of a nation that has been pronounced dead; it is the most fascinating, however, and the most astounding. Fascinating, for it reveals the genius of the Jewish people in its purest, most glorious form, since here the revivifying process, far removed from political parties, echoes in beautiful rhythms. Astounding, for the Jewish literature of to-day in its luxuriant fullness reminds us of a piece of fireworks that seemed almost burned out, rising as a thin, pale thread of light and just as it seems to be wholly extinguished suddenly bursting into many colored rays in the dark sky.” (Nossig, Maccabaean, 1907.)

The standard bearer of modern Jewish poetry is Chayim Nachman Bialik. He was born in 1874 in a small country place in Volynia. At the age of six, he lost his father and was adopted by his grandparents. Bialik did not distinguish himself in his studies at the cheder, but he cultivated a great passion for reading, drinking deep from the great fount of Jewish lore. At the age of seventeen he came to Odessa where he met the famous philosopher and leader of the Chovevei

Zionists Achad Haam, by whom the poet was greatly influenced. In 1891 he published his first poem, “The Bird,” by which he at once established the reputation of the foremost figure in Jewish poetry. In 1905 he became literary editor of the Hashiloach; in this capacity he has been engaged up to the present day, Chayim Nachman Bialik is the representative poet in Israel. He was the first who actually took the harp from the willows of the Babylonian streams.

The "ruin of the Jewish nation" is his central theme; the pain and affliction of Israel is the lamentation of his lyre. Justice he demands for the Jew. He despises the Jews who sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. "The slave generation, those bred in the Egyptian atmosphere of spiritual bondage, had to die out, and a new generation had to be trained for national ideals."† So in our day, the Jews who consider themselves first Germans, Russians or Frenchman, are not capable of the great task of restoring the Jewish people to its own soil. Another generation shall rise, a generation proud of its national ideals, of the heritage of its fathers, and it shall solve the problem of Jewish Revival.

My people is like grass pluckt up, and how Shall that which has no root revive and live?‡

Bialik in despair shows the lovers of bondage that they are strangers in spite of all their activity in prompting their country's prosperity:

† M. Margolis, The Maccabaean, 1907.† Helena Frank's tr. in J. Q. R. XIX.