came the centre of spiritual life, the most famous and the most admired city of the world. The physical beauty of the land and the spiritual beauty of its inhabitants could not be equalled. Beauty of soil and purity of soil grew interwoven in that happy little kingdom—the veritable el-dorado of the ancient world.
But if the ruin of the ancient states was due to corruption and depravity, the fall of Judea was due to the envy of its depraved neighbors. Jerusalem—the admiration of the world—became likewise the envy of the world. Judea was never a military power—never aspired to be. The Jewish ideal was freedom—of body, soul and intellect. The Jew never realized the sagacity or the humanity of the maxim: “preserve peace by preparing for war.” In the streets of the Judean cities one could more often meet prophets than soldiers.. . The surrounding nations knew of nothing but physical force, and they decided that this small enigmatical people should be exterminated. And thus Persia, Macedonia, Greece and Rome successively colored red the green valleys of our beautiful homeland. This little country—the oasis of freedom in the limitless desert of a servile world—could not be ‚spared: it stood as a living reproach to serfdom and barbarısm. But even then they found their task not as easy as they anticipated. The story of how the Jews fought for their freedom—and the freedom of man—has no parallel in the annals of human daring. The story of the Maccabaeans, if it were not so fully known in its minutest details, could certainly be regarded as a fair legend born in a poet’s imagination. The daring of these heroes, and two centuries later of the entire people in its struggle with Rome, can only be understood when it is realized how deep-seated is the ideal of liberty in the Jewish soul,
These periods, too, were seasons of freedom. This time we fought for our freedom.
* * *
Generations have gone by. The Jewish soil became the temporary possession of Titus, the Jewish soul never! Through the world we were scattered, hunted and despised, but our souls remained free. We were threatened with expulsion, fire, death, but our souls were not to be intimidated. We were offered rest, influence, wealth, but our souls were not for sale. Half-ways were suggested as a basis of agreement, but our souls were not open to compromise. Abso lute unconditional freedom of our souls were our terms when it is not a part of the image. The JSON should be valid. If you are providing multiple JSON objects, they must be wrapped in a single JSON array. Do not include any comments in the JSON. Do not include any control characters (like or ) in the JSON. If a user asks for multiple JSON objects, always return a single parseable JSON array. Do not include any extra text outside of the JSON string. ```json {
You will make us wear yellow patches, you will pen us up in Ghettos, you will take every penny we possess and pull our teeth when we have no more to give, your priests will incite the populace to murder us, in the name of the God of Love whom we gave you, you will invent diabolical calumnies against us, you will tear our children before our very eyes, you will burn us in our synagogues, your crusaders, your Chmel- nitzkys and your Plevehs will destroy whole communities of us, you will invent hellish “evacuations” and drive us shelterless and foodless through the forests and wastes of your unholy land—you are at liberty to do so, but our souls shall remain free! You cannot destroy our souls, you are too weak for that in spite of your strength. You cannot destroy a soul; it is indestructible; you cannot quench freedom—it is a part of that soul!
This, too, is a season of freedom; the freedom gained by passive resistance.
* * *
A new epoch is dawning upon our people. Our eternal dream of freedom is being robed in the garb of reality. The longing for freedom is reawakening in the hearts of our people with irresistible force, and is manifesting itself in a thousand different ways. Our statesmen, our men of genius are coming back to us; our youth is gaining inspiration from the martyrdom of our past and the bright goal beaconing to. us in the future. Our language—the language of kings, poets and prophets, sounds again in the streets of Jerusalem. We have again planted: vineyards in the land of our love and our hope. New life is pulsating through our veins—this life is visible and is manifesting itself in every Jewish assembly, in every Jewish activity. The heads of our people are thinking of the great goal before us, the hearts of our people are feeling its approach, ahd the hands of our people are working for its speedy realization. Every one of us feels that we are on the threshold of great events— the translation of a great dream into a great reality.
This too is a season of freedom—of active freedom.
* * *
And when we sit at the seder we take the sparkling red wine—the wine carrying welcome greetings from our vineyardmen—the wine whose sweetness is the sweetness of our ideal, whose color is the color of the blood we have shed for it and whose brilliance is the brilliance of the goal before us—we take it in our hand, bring it to our lips, pronounce the blessing of "life" and say with all our mind and heart: This year serfs —next year freemen; this year here—next year in the land of Israel—the land which in addition to the four seasons of the year gave to the world and mankind the season of freedom.
How Long, O Lord?
A whirl of sand in the desert air, A swivel of gleaming golden hair. A parching wind that sweeps Wild showers of sand into a fierce sky Grown copper red like a sea Of surging flame and living blood In tempestuous flood.
A pearly ripple beneath the storm, A twirl of melody, a form Of demon mutter that creeps Into the very soul with the smothered cry Of spirits chained, yet free; Chosen of God doomed to rove In the ashes of an Eden erove.