The Maccabaean

hotsility to us, our weapon—humility, our individuality— adaptability, our future—to-morrow. What a contemptible role for a people which once had its Maccabees!” (p. 15.)

Moreover, Pinsker would not have felt the humiliation to which we are subjected to be so intolerable, if he could have found consolation in that oft repeated assertion that it is no fault of our if we are made the butt of the nations’ contempt, but rather the fault of prevailing ignorance and prejudice. In that event, no doubt, his national pride would have led him to despise and ignore that contempt. But, alas! how can he be comforted while his eyes behold his people sunk to a state of moral ugliness and capable, in very truth, of inspiring nothing but contempt in the minds of others.

“What wonder that a people who have allowed themselves to be trampled upon for dear life’s sake, and have learned to kiss the very feet that trample upon them, should fall a prev to the utmost contempt!’ (Thid_)

“You are contemptible because you have no real self-love and no national self-respect.” (p. 12.)

So bitterly was Pinsker wrought up over this fact that he exclaimed: “We are but a flock scattered over the whole face of the earth.” In that single word, “flock,” Pinsker expressed completely the terrible truth which he had to convey to his fellow-Jews. For a flock takes no offense when its honor is violated, nor does it feel any anxiety about its future welfare. It has no desire or aim in life other than to satisfy its apetites and to escape immediate dangers, no matter where or how, whether it

be as a unit or as mere individuals.

VO dod Ullit UL do 111016 1:11 + It is significant that J. L. Gordon dedicated his celebrated poem, “The Flock of the Lord,” to “the author of the pamphlet Autoemancipation.” But a short time previously, following the “first pogroms” in Russia, this poet had said in an effort to comfort his people: “Not thine the shame, but of thy ravishers.’”’ He also pointed out the only road of salvation: to migrate to the land where “the lamp of liberty sheds its lustre on all alike,”—-America. Now, that “pamphlet” appeared on the scene and convinced the poet that the shame was really ours, that we were neither a nation, nor even a congregation, but merely—a flock,” and that not even “the lamp of liberty,” shedding its lustre upon a strange soil, could transform a “scattered flock” into a really living nation. But Gordon was not sufficiently endowed with the divine gift of song to mould this unplastic material into a great poetic mas- verpiece, which would burn our disgrace into the memory 01 all future generations. It remained for a much greater bard, years after Gordon’s death, to rear an eternal monument tr the chame af the Bvile in hie “Sonee of Wrath.”

we יי + ee ee eg ee ee eS ee ו רו ירי ריר ee >רור NT RTE te יו .ו יי יר It is to be lamented that. Pinsker could not live to hear our “New Poetry.” If he had, he might have realized that his angry tones had not rent the stifling, all encom- passing atmosphere of our golus life in vain; and his last moments might have been sweetened by the consideration that he was not the last Jew to have dedicated his life zealously and devotedly +0 the honor of his people.

London, the 28th of Shevat, 5677. Translated from the Hebrew by Emanuel Neumann.

THERE are books which do not readily fall a prey to the ravages of time. Ever fresh, they neither. wither nor decay. Happy are their authors!

Among books of this class with which we have been enriched in recent years, Pinsker's pamphlet, pleading for auto-emancipation, occupies a commanding position. At first it won little notice and was almost hidden from public gaze. It was only after many another author had drunk from its waters and could no longer conceal it, that it emerged to view —an old well, but filled with a new liquid.

The great upheaval (in Jewish life) came in the early eighties of the last centuries. It was generally felt in Russia that times were changing, that something new, auguring little good, was on its way. In the Jewish world it was felt that a calamity was impending but none could as yet foretell what form it would take. All feared the uncertainty of an approaching Day of Judgment, and the very atmosphere was stifling and oppressive. I remember that, having experienced the feeling myself.

The cataclysm did come; and, although it had been expected, its effect was overwhelming and crushing. The season of massacres was ushered in. The bitter reality put to shame the dreamers of assimilation, at least for a while, before they could draw breath and muster courage to resume their interrupted dreaming. During that interval a great many returned to their allegiance mortified, with agonized souls, and with shattered hopes. Many a gentile of our own blood was reconverted to Ju-

daism, and many a Hebrew emerged from his concealment to accept in meek repentance the rebuke meted out to him for having denied his nationality and for his failure to share its sorrows in the past, and made national vows for the future. The massacres removed the veil from their faces and reconstructed their whole mental life. And thus the period of the Revival began.

It was at the commencement of this period that Pinsker’s pamphlet appeared. Nevertheless one scrutinizes it in vain for the hall-mark of the times. It is nowhere to be found, On the contrary, it is evident that the author consciously avoided basing his views on proofs and arguments derived from the calamity and the crisis of the moment, but sought that basis in the continuous and enduring phenomena in the life of an exiled nation which the very nature of things necessitates. As an analytic investigator he did not wish his work to appear prompted by opportunistic considerations, but strove to rise above the terrible impressions of the moment

As between permanent and transitory things—the permanent takes precedence. That is a great law of life. What is permanent merits first consideration and should be made the cornerstone of any theory of life. If you would study life and draw conclusions, you must get at general Jaws. You can not build on isolated instances, though they may appear as perfectly good proofs for your views. Just as we do not rely upon miracles, even so we may not choose exceptional cases as illustrations or examples.

Pinsker was in fact the first to approach the Jewish