"I Told You So"
I T is not often that we have the sublime gratification of saying: "I told you so." And when we do earn the moral right to this sweet form of revenge, the other party to the dispute will almost never admit it. Either he has changed his mind so completely that his old mind has been blotted from the tablet of memory. Or he finds some way—clearly illogical—of proving that we did not tell him so. Or he proves, with reservations, that he said so himself. Or—worst of all—he disappears.
When I was a child, my idea of life after death included some form of retribution for adult injustice. A child may never say: “I told you so.” He is not strong enough. Even if he does manage to say it, no one listens. He is never right unless he agrees with his elders. Therefore I used to wish for a heaven with a judgment seat, and in that judgment seat sat the judge transformed into the criminal, for there, with his mouth gagged, would be bound the unreasonable grown-up, and he would not be allowed to move or speak until I had told him everything in my mind.
A minority is in the position of a child. It is never right, and the majority is always right—until the minority grows up. But upon closer examination we find there are no such things as a minority and a majority; there are two minorities and a crowd. Every minority has its turn; it is the instrument of progress. All great deeds in the world are done by minorities. As soon as they change to majorities they become decadent, and a new minority arises to lead the world. For the crowd is always late. It comes in when things are safe. And when we see the old deserted minority dwindling into nothingness, who would be so poor a sport as to say, “I told you so”? Or who would gag a dying argument? Let it say its last word.
But dreams are irresponsible things; they do not follow moral laws or even laws of sportsmanship. A few nights ago I had a reversion to that childish hope of the day of judgment. I was standing on the top of a mountain. I knew—as one does know such things in dreams—that it was Mount Zion. And before me stood a tall, carved chair, with a Mogen David carved at the very top of the back, and with wide arms that were shaped like crouching lions. And in the chair, firmly tied with strands of white and blue, sat the Anti-Zionist!
He was gagged. He looked at me helplessly, and I was moved to pity. Think of the Anti-Zionist being gagged! It would be almost as cruel as gagging the Zionist. For we Jews—deprived of more normal outlets—have become a debating society. And to gag a Jew is worse than to starve him. But in his hand he held a written scroll—a megillah—and he gave it to me with a look of defiance in his sad eyes. I took it and read:
"(1) How dared you decide my fate without my consent? I was the majority. No matter where I live, you endanger my status by claiming that the Jews are a nation and that they belong in Palestine.
"(2) You are a separatist. You want to divide humanity instead of uniting it. But I believe in the brotherhood of man. I believe Jews should mingle with all other peoples and not separate themselves by peculiar customs, laws, ceremonies, or by living in a separate land.
"(3) You say we are a race, therefore we must again be a nation. But the conclusion is not obvious. If our race has no value, but only our religion, then let us forget the race. But even the premise is false. Jewish anthropologists have clearly proven that we are not a race at all.
"(4) Zionism is the result of anti-Semitism. Do away with anti-Semitism and Zionism will disappear. It has no other base, and therefore you magnify anti-Semitism.
"(5) You call into question the patriotism of Jews in other lands by asking their allegiance to a Jewish State.
"(6) By raising the issue, you cause disunity in Judaism, whereas the whole Jewish strength lies in unity.
“(7) You want to reunite church and state, which is clearly a backward step.
“(8) We are not a nation but a religious sect, a priesthood, a church. It is our mission to teach righteousness to the nations among whom we are scattered. You would destroy that religion by making of us merely a people. Your leaders are unreligious.
"(9) Our religion is universal. Would you confine it to a place? Do you want again a tribal God?
Rg EE EEE IEEE EIS “(10) Do you want to stain our pure ethics and religion with the crimes of politicians, the low passions of politics, the evils of international intrigue?
> (11) If you do—I do not wish to be held responsible for you. You have no right to drag the Jewish people with vou into Zionism.
“(12) Why should you speak for the Jewish people? I have as good a right as you to represent them.”
Carefully I perused the megillah. Then I struck an attitude and prepared to make a speech. I held the megillah before me, to answer it point by point. I hope you will have patience to listen to my speech. At least you, dear reader, are not bound and gagged. . . .
I said: “To begin with (1), you were never the majority. You and I were both minorities, you by far the smaller one, but between us stood the great mass of the Jewish people who hated your position and who did not yet understand mine. For two thousand years they had prayed for the return to Zion. Their whole religion was a concentrated and consecrated nationalism—ceremonies, customs, language, laws, history—but they were slow to understand a practical movement to fulfill their dreams, as the crowd is always slow. Today they understand, they are with us, because we are their natural spokesmen.