The Maccabaean

TALMUDIC legend tells us that there is in God's Heaven a room called Guf (body) and that this very room is the dwelling of the souls which quicken the earth. From time to time a tender little soul leaves its home and flies through the vast spaces of the universe until it finds its resting-place in a suitable body. The soul enters upon a corporeal existence and thus a new being appears in the world. And when all the souls will have been incorporated Mashiach will come.

Undoubtedly the treasure-house of souls has many sections; and one of its fairest nooks is that in which the Jewish revival fashions its souls.

Prometheus robbed the gods of fire. Zionism steals little by little into the treasure-house and brings hence souls of such beauty that they cause the eye to glow and the heart to leap for joy. And the best of them are those which have been embodied in the Jewish National Fund.

Air and water are free for all men, God's gifts to his creatures. And the soil? We cannot live severed from it. Why is it not free for all who wish to cultivate it and nourish themselves by the fruit of their labor? How does it happen that the few have seized God's earth and divided it among themselves? How is it that there are men who have no work for their hands, men who have no ground beneath their feet, men who have no place to rest their heads?

And now that the Jews are creating a new life for themselves, let them not commit the age-old mistake. Should they who have money “redeem the Holy Land” and the workman remain homeless? Go, and open their eyes. Let us acquire as much land as possible, but let it belong to no one and to every one. Do not rest until the whole country will have become the property of the whole people. Air, water, and land must be free to all. Speed, little soul, speed. Do not shrink from the mighty, cruel world; illumine the minds and the hearts of all men. Some there are who will understand your message now, others not yet sufficiently enlightened. And thus, in the limitless ocean, steadfast islands are being created—national farms.

And they flock thither, the sons and daughters of the Jewish people. They come from different countries and classes, children who have left behind them parents and fair prospects. They come from schools, from workshops, from factories and barracks; they come to seek a home and to strengthen their souls with creative labor. Some men wish to conquer the world, but these have as their goal the conquest of work, Kibbush ha-Avodah. Where can they find suitable employment? Of course they might sell their hands for a few pennies, but what of the thoughts and feelings with which they desire to enrich their work, which are of no value to the individual property-owner? These find their full development in the national farms.

There is in Palestine the society of Shom’rim, intrepid riders and unerring marksmen who guard the Jewish colonies against the Arabs. They do not flinch from months of service, from keeping vigil under the burning sun and the driving rains. But they have wives and children who must be cared for, and are themselves in need of a place where they can rest, of a refuge in times of sickness. Where can a home be found for them, if not on national soil? The same may be said of the Jewish herdsmen.

And when the Jewish youth feels the need of erecting a social edifice as yet undreamed-of on a co-operative or communistic foundation, where is he to find the free scope for economic experimentation until plans will have been perfected? Where can this progressive creative spirit be fittingly embodied, if not on the land of the National Fund?

And when the daughter of Israel wants to take part in the revival of her people? Why should she let a machine in the Galuth sap her youth and strength, or be tied to the kitchen in her home? Better that she should work shoulder to shoulder with her brothers in the life-giving fields. But how can she be trained for agricultural

work? A delicate soul flits from the heavenly treasure-house and alights in the delightful corner where the Jordan emerges from Kinereth—and behold! A farm springs up, a school, a home for Jewish girls. Their beautiful eyes are bright and limpid as Kinereth in its banks, their rosy, sunburnt cheeks as sweet as the flow-