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There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high. It was encompassed with valleys of such vast depth downward, that the eye could not reach their bottoms; they were abrupt, and such as no animal could walk upon, excepting at two places of the rock, where it subsides, in order to afford a passage for ascent, though not without difficulty.
he also built a wall round about the entire top of the hill, seven furlongs long; it was composed of white stone; its height was twelve, and its breadth eight cubits; there were also erected upon that wall thirty-eight towers, each of them fifty cubits high;
…..for here was laid up corn in large quantities, and such as would subsist men for a long time; here was also wine and oil in abundance, with all kinds of pulse and dates heaped up together; all which Eleazar found there, when he and his Sicarii got possession of the fortress
…At the same time Silva ordered that great battering ram which he had made to be brought thither, and to be set against the wall, and to make frequent batteries against it, which with some difficulty broke down a part of the wall, and quite overthrew it.
“Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were then without danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also as are intolerable; …We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly.
Det fanns en sten, inte liten i omkrets och mycket hög. Den var omgiven av dalar med så stort djup nedåt, att ögat inte kunde nå deras bottnar; de voro plötsliga och sådana som inget djur kunde gå på, utom på två ställen i klippan, där den sjunker, för att ge en gång för uppstigning, dock inte utan svårighet.
han byggde också en mur runt hela toppen av kullen, sju stadier lång; den var sammansatt av vit sten; dess höjd var tolv och dess bredd åtta alnar; på den muren restes också trettioåtta torn, vart och ett av dem femtio alnar höga;
…..ty här låg säd i stora mängder, och sådant som skulle finnas kvar länge; här fanns också vin och olja i överflöd, med alla sorters puls och dadlar samlade; allt som Eleasar fann där, när han och hans Sicarii fick fästningen i besittning
…Samtidigt beordrade Silva att den stora slagkolven som han hade tillverkat skulle föras dit och ställas mot väggen och att ofta slå batterier mot den, som med viss svårighet bröt ner en del av muren, och ganska störtade den.
“Eftersom vi för länge sedan, mina generösa vänner, beslutade att aldrig vara tjänare åt romarna, inte heller åt någon annan än Gud själv, som ensam är mänsklighetens sanna och rättvisa Herre, är tiden nu kommen som tvingar oss att göra den resolutionen stämmer i praktiken. Och låt oss inte i denna tid komma med en förebråelse över oss själva för självmotsägelse, medan vi förr inte skulle undergå slaveri, fastän det då var utan fara, utan måste nu tillsammans med slaveriet välja sådana straff också som är outhärdliga; …Vi var de allra första som gjorde uppror från dem, och vi är de sista som kämpar mot dem; och jag kan inte annat än anse det som en ynnest som Gud har givit oss, att det fortfarande står i vår makt att dö modigt och i ett tillstånd av frihet, vilket inte har varit fallet för andra, som oväntat erövrades.
Det var en stein, ikke liten i omkrets, og veldig høy. Den var omgitt av daler med så stor dybde nedover at øyet ikke kunne nå bunnen; de var brå, og slike som ingen dyr kunne gå på, bortsett fra på to steder av klippen, hvor den senker seg, for å ha råd til en passasje for oppstigning, men ikke uten vanskeligheter.
han bygde også en mur rundt hele toppen av bakken, syv stadier lang; den var sammensatt av hvit stein; dens høyde var tolv og dens bredde åtte alen; det ble også reist trettiåtte tårn på den muren, hver av dem femti alen høye;
…..for her ble det lagt korn i store mengder, og slikt som kunne leve lenge; her var også vin og olje i overflod, med all slags puls og dadler samlet; alt som Eleasar fant der, da han og hans Sicarii fikk besittelse av festningen
…På samme tid beordret Silva at den store slagramen som han hadde laget skulle bringes dit og settes mot veggen, og å lage hyppige batterier mot den, som med en viss vanskelighet brøt ned en del av veggen, og ganske styrtet den.
«Siden vi for lenge siden, mine sjenerøse venner, bestemte oss for aldri å være tjenere for romerne, og heller ikke for noen annen enn for Gud selv, som alene er menneskehetens sanne og rettferdige Herre, er tiden kommet som forplikter oss til å gjøre at resolusjonen er sann i praksis. Og la oss ikke på dette tidspunkt bringe en bebreidelse over oss selv for selvmotsigelse, mens vi tidligere ikke ville undergå slaveri, selv om det da var uten fare, men nå sammen med slaveriet må velge slike straffer også som er utålelige; …Vi var de aller første som gjorde opprør fra dem, og vi er de siste som kjemper mot dem; og jeg kan ikke annet enn å betrakte det som en tjeneste som Gud har gitt oss, at det fortsatt er i vår makt å dø tappert, og i en tilstand av frihet, som ikke har vært tilfelle for andre, som ble erobret uventet.
Settlement of Bet She’an first began in the 5 millennium BCE on the tell …Harod Stream, ….fertile area major crossroads.
In the Late Canaanite period (16th–12th centuries BCE), the city became the seat of Egyptian rule. The Israelite tribes did not succeed in conquering Canaanite Bet She’an. After the battle waged at Mt. Gilboa, the Philistine lords of Bet She’an displayed the bodies of Saul and his sons on the city walls. The city was later taken by King David along with Megiddo and Ta’anach, becoming the administrative center of the region during King Solomon’s reign. The site was destroyed in 732 BCE, with the conquest of the northern part of the country by the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III.
Det fanns en sten, inte liten i omkrets och mycket hög. Den var omgiven av dalar med så stort djup nedåt, att ögat inte kunde nå deras bottnar; de voro plötsliga och sådana som inget djur kunde gå på, utom på två ställen i klippan, där den sjunker, för att ge en gång för uppstigning, dock inte utan svårighet.
han byggde också en mur runt hela toppen av kullen, sju stadier lång; den var sammansatt av vit sten; dess höjd var tolv och dess bredd åtta alnar; på den muren restes också trettioåtta torn, vart och ett av dem femtio alnar höga;
…..ty här låg säd i stora mängder, och sådant som skulle finnas kvar länge; här fanns också vin och olja i överflöd, med alla sorters puls och dadlar samlade; allt som Eleasar fann där, när han och hans Sicarii fick fästningen i besittning
…Samtidigt beordrade Silva att den stora slagkolven som han hade tillverkat skulle föras dit och ställas mot väggen och att ofta slå batterier mot den, som med viss svårighet bröt ner en del av muren, och ganska störtade den.
“Eftersom vi för länge sedan, mina generösa vänner, beslutade att aldrig vara tjänare åt romarna, inte heller åt någon annan än Gud själv, som ensam är mänsklighetens sanna och rättvisa Herre, är tiden nu kommen som tvingar oss att göra den resolutionen stämmer i praktiken. Och låt oss inte i denna tid komma med en förebråelse över oss själva för självmotsägelse, medan vi förr inte skulle undergå slaveri, fastän det då var utan fara, utan måste nu tillsammans med slaveriet välja sådana straff också som är outhärdliga; …Vi var de allra första som gjorde uppror från dem, och vi är de sista som kämpar mot dem; och jag kan inte annat än anse det som en ynnest som Gud har givit oss, att det fortfarande står i vår makt att dö modigt och i ett tillstånd av frihet, vilket inte har varit fallet för andra, som oväntat erövrades.
Det var en stein, ikke liten i omkrets, og veldig høy. Den var omgitt av daler med så stor dybde nedover at øyet ikke kunne nå bunnen; de var brå, og slike som ingen dyr kunne gå på, bortsett fra på to steder av klippen, hvor den senker seg, for å ha råd til en passasje for oppstigning, men ikke uten vanskeligheter.
han bygde også en mur rundt hele toppen av bakken, syv stadier lang; den var sammensatt av hvit stein; dens høyde var tolv og dens bredde åtte alen; det ble også reist trettiåtte tårn på den muren, hver av dem femti alen høye;
…..for her ble det lagt korn i store mengder, og slikt som kunne leve lenge; her var også vin og olje i overflod, med all slags puls og dadler samlet; alt som Eleasar fant der, da han og hans Sicarii fikk besittelse av festningen
…På samme tid beordret Silva at den store slagramen som han hadde laget skulle bringes dit og settes mot veggen, og å lage hyppige batterier mot den, som med en viss vanskelighet brøt ned en del av veggen, og ganske styrtet den.
«Siden vi for lenge siden, mine sjenerøse venner, bestemte oss for aldri å være tjenere for romerne, og heller ikke for noen annen enn for Gud selv, som alene er menneskehetens sanne og rettferdige Herre, er tiden kommet som forplikter oss til å gjøre at resolusjonen er sann i praksis. Og la oss ikke på dette tidspunkt bringe en bebreidelse over oss selv for selvmotsigelse, mens vi tidligere ikke ville undergå slaveri, selv om det da var uten fare, men nå sammen med slaveriet må velge slike straffer også som er utålelige; …Vi var de aller første som gjorde opprør fra dem, og vi er de siste som kjemper mot dem; og jeg kan ikke annet enn å betrakte det som en tjeneste som Gud har gitt oss, at det fortsatt er i vår makt å dø tappert, og i en tilstand av frihet, som ikke har vært tilfelle for andre, som ble erobret uventet.
THE AGRICULTURAL COLONIES were failing miserably.
There were many reasons. Apathy and lethargy and complete lack of
idealism, for one. They still planted only export crops and continued to use the cheaper Arab labor. Despite the influx of Jews and the desire of these Jews to work the land the Zionists could barely convince the colonies to use them.
The over-all situation was discouraging. Palestine was not much better off than it had been when the Rabinsky brothers came twenty years before. There was a measure of culture around Tel Aviv, but all other progress was too small to be measured.
The energy and idealism which had come in with the Second Aliyah was going to waste. Like Yakov and Jossi, the immigrants drifted from place to place without cause and without putting down roots.
As the Zion Settlement Society purchased more and more land it became increasingly obvious that some drastic change in the entire thinking about colonization was necessary.
Jossi and others had long concluded that individual farming was a physical impossibility. There was the matter of security, there was the ignorance of the Jews in farming matters, and, worse, there was the complete wastage of the land.
What Jossi wanted with this new land was villages whose inhabitants would work the soil themselves, plant balanced crops to become self-sustaining, and be able to defend themselves.
The first principle involved was to keep all land in the name of the Zion Settlement Society—all-Jewish land for all the Jewish people. Only self-labor would be allowed on the land: the Jew had to do the work himself and could hire no other Jew or Arab.
The next dramatic step was taken when Jews of the Second Aliyah pledged
to work only for the redemption of the land and build a homeland with no thoughts of personal gain or profits or ambition. Their pledge, in fact, came close to later communal farming ideas. The communal farm was not born of social or political idealism. It was based on the necessities of survival; there was no other way.
The stage was set for a dramatic experiment. The year was 1909. The Zion Settlement Society purchased four thousand dunams of land below Tiberias at a point where the Jordan River flowed from the Sea of Galilee. Most of it was swamp or marshland. The society staked twenty young men and women to a year’s supplies and money. Their mission was to reclaim the land.
Jossi traveled out with them as they pitched their tents at the edge of the marshland. They named their place Shoshanna- Degania
after the wild roses which grew along the Sea of Galilee. The Shoshanna experiment on national land could well be the key to future colonization and was the most important single step taken by the Jews since the exodus.
3 clapboard sheds were erected. One was a communal dining and meeting hall. One was a barn and tool shed. The third served as a barracks for the sixteen men and four women.
In the first winter the sheds collapsed a dozen times in the winds and floods. The roads were so muddy they became isolated from the outside world for long stretches. At last they were forced to move into a nearby Arab village to wait it out till springtime.
In the spring Jossi returned to Shoshanna as the work began in earnest. The marshlands and swamps had to be rolled back foot by foot. Hundreds of Australian eucalyptus trees were planted to soak up the water. Drainage ditches were carved out by hand; the work was backbreaking. They labored from sunup till sundown, and a third of the members were always bedridden with malaria. The only cure they knew was the Arab method of cutting the ear lobes and draining blood. They worked in waist-deep muck through the terrible heat of the summer.
By the second year there was some reclaimed land to show for their toil. Now the rocks had to be dragged from the fields by donkey teams and the thick brush hacked down and burned.
In Tel Aviv, Jossi continued to fight to continue support for the experiment, for he was discovering an amazing thing. He was discovering that the drive to build a homeland was so great that there were at least twenty people willing to do this thankless, backbreaking work without pay.
The hardships endured at Shoshanna never ceased, but by the end of two years enough land had been readied to lay in a crop. This was a crucial stage, for most of the group did not know how to farm or what to farm or the difference between a hen and a rooster. They worked by trial and error, and the results were mostly errors. They did not know how to sow or plow in a straight line or how to get milk from cows or how to plant trees. The earth was a gigantic mystery.
They attacked the problem of farming with the same dogged determination with which they had attacked the swampy land. With the swamp water drained off, irrigation water had to be brought in. At first it was carried from the river in water cans on donkey back. Next came an experiment with an Arab water wheel, and after that several attempts at wells. Finally they put in irrigation ditches and built a network of dams to trap the winter rains.
Little by little the land yielded its secrets. On many of his visits Jossi held his breath and wondered and marveled at the morale at Shoshana. They had nothing but what they wore on their backs and even that belonged to the community. They ate the meagerest of meals in a community dining hall, had common showers and toilets, and slept everyone under the same roof. The Arabs and Bedouins watched the slow steady growth of Shoshanna with amazement. When the Bedouins saw several hundred acres of land under cultivation they set out to dislodge the Jews.
All work in the fields had to be done under cover of armed guards. Along with sickness, overwork—security became a problem. After a torturous day in the fields the tired farmers had to stand guard throughout the night. But they
carried on at Shoshanna through isolation and ignorance and threats of attack and swamps and murderous heat and malaria and a dozen other calamities.
Yakov Rabinsky came to Shoshanna to try his luck there.
Joseph Trumpledor arrived. Trumpledor had been an officer in the Russian Army and was famous for his valor in the Russo-Japanese War during which he lost an arm. The call of Zionism brought Trumpledor to Palestine and the path led to Shoshanna. With Trumpledor and Yakov handling security the Bedouin raids soon ceased.
There were more problems in communal living than they had imagined.
There was the governing of the community. This was completely democratic, but Jews were traditionally independent and no two Jews ever agreed on any given subject. Would the governing turn into endless conversation and haggling?
There was the division of work. There was community responsibility for health, welfare, and education. And what of the members who could not or would not do a full day’s work? What of those who were disgruntled over their assignments? What of those who objected to the cooking or to living in such tight quarters? What of the clash of personalities?
One thing seemed to overrule all else. Everyone in Shoshanna had a violent hatred for the things which had made him a ghetto Jew. They were going to destroy those things and they were going to build a homeland. Shoshanna had its own code of ethics and its own social laws. They made the marriages and the divorces by common consent. They ran the village in such a way as not to be bound by the old traditions. They threw off the shackles of their past.
So long had their oppression been and so great their desire that here at Shoshanna was the birth of a true free Jewish peasantry. They dressed like peasants, and they danced the hora by firelight. The earth and the building of the homeland had become a noble cause for existence. As time went on flowers and trees and shrubs and lawns were set in and new and fine buildings were erected. Small cottages were built for the married couples and a library was begun and a full-time doctor was hired.
Then came the rebellion of the women. One of the four original women settlers was a stocky unattractive girl named Ruth. She was the leader of the women’s rebellion. She argued in the community meetings that the women had not ventured from the Pale and from Poland and certainly not to Shoshanna to become domestics. They demanded equality and responsibilities on the farm. They broke down the old taboos one by one and joined the men in all phases of the work, even plowing the fields. They took over the chickens and the vegetable fields and proved equal in ability and stamina to the men. They learned how to use weapons and stood guard during the nights.
Ruth, the ringleader of the women’s uprising, really had her eye on the five- cow dairy herd. She wanted very badly to have the cows. But the votes of the men squashed that ambition. The girls were going too far! Yakov, the most boisterous of the men, was sent into battle with Ruth. Surely she must know that the cows were too dangerous for women to handle! Besides, those five cows were the Shoshanna’s most prized and spoiled possessions.
Everyone was astounded when Ruth coyly quit her fight. It was so unlike her! She did not mention another word about it for another month. Instead she slipped out of Shoshanna at every opportunity to the nearby Arab village to learn the art of milking. In her spare time she studied everything she could get her hands on concerning dairy farming.
One morning Yakov went into the barn after a night of guard duty. Ruth had broken her word! She was milking Jezebel, their prize cow.
A special meeting was called to chastise comrade Ruth for insubordination. Ruth came armed with facts and figures to prove that she could increase the milk yield with proper feed and common sense. She accused the men of ignorance and intolerance. They decided to put her in her place by letting her take charge of the herd.
Comrade Ruth ended up as permanent keeper of the cows. She increased the herd twenty-five times over and became one of the best dairy farmers in all of Palestine.
Yakov and Ruth were married, for it was said that she was the only person in the world who could win an argument with him. They loved each other very much and were extremely happy.
The greatest crisis came at Shoshanna with the birth of the first children. The women had fought for equality and gained it and in so doing had become important in the farm’s economy. Many of them held key positions. The point was argued and discussed. Should the women quit their jobs and become domestics? Could some other way be found to keep a family going? The members of Shoshanna argued that because they had a unique way of life they could find a unique way to handle the children.
Children’s houses came into existence. Certain members of Shoshanna were chosen for the job of raising the children under supervision during the day. This allowed the women to be free to work. In the evenings the families stayed together. Many outsiders cried that this would destroy family life, which had been the saving factor of the Jewish people through centuries of persecution. Despite the detractors, the family ties at Shoshanna became as powerful as those in any family anywhere.
Yakov Rabinsky had found happiness at last. Shoshanna grew until it had a hundred members and over a thousand dunams of the land reclaimed. Yakov did not have money or even clothing to call his own. He had a snippy, sharp-tongued woman who was one of the best farmers in the Galilee. In the evenings, when the day’s labor was done, he and Ruth would walk over the lawns and through the flower gardens or to the knoll and look down at the lush green fields—and Yakov was content and fulfilled.
Shoshanna, the first kibbutz in Palestine, seemed to be the long-awaited answer for Zionism.
Simon Rabinsky lived the way his father and his father’s father had been forced to live inside ghetto walls. Because they were so poor there was endless haggling over a few kopeks. Yet, despite the desperateness of their daily existence, Simon and all other Jews adhered to rigid codes of business ethics inside the ghetto. No man was allowed to infringe on the livelihood of his neighbor or to cheat or to rob.
Community life pivoted around the Holy Laws, the synagogue, and the rabbi, who was at once teacher, spiritual leader, judge, and administrator of the community. The rabbis of the Pale were all great scholars. Their wisdom was far-reaching and their authority rarely questioned.
Within the ghetto the Jews organized their own government under the over- all leadership of the rabbis. There were a hundred different lay offices and wardenships. There was a score of Biblical and Talmudic societies. There was an organization for the care of orphans and a society to pay the dowries of the poorer girls. There were societies to care for the sick, the aged, and the lame. There were administrators of marriage contracts and an elected synagogue summoner, as well as a dozen other synagogue posts. There was an ecclesiastical court, there were psalm readers, and administrators over the ritual baths. Indeed, the community moved as one for the existence of all.
The poor donated to the poorer. The poorer—to the poorer yet. Charity was the eleventh, the unwritten commandment. Leading scholars and religious leaders had to be cared for. Nothing was allowed to interfere with the pursuit of wisdom.
Jews called their Talmud a “sea.” They claimed it was so vast that one could read it and study it for a lifetime without ever looking at another book and never swim from one side of the “sea” to the other. The Rabinsky brothers studied this great collection of laws and customs, which contained information on everything from social behavior to personal cleanliness.
In addition to studying the Talmud the Rabinsky brothers spent hours learning the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses which make up the Torah and were considered the holiest of all works.
They learned the Bible. They learned the oral laws of the Mishnah. They learned the folk legends, wise sayings, and commentary on the Bible of the Midrash. They learned the Cabala, the book of mystics, and they learned the prayers and songs and customs and holidays.
and there was the Sabbath.
On one night each week, Simon Rabinsky and every other ghetto Jew became a king. The traditional horn would sound in the ghetto, and Simon would lay down his tools and prepare for his day with God. How he loved the sound of the horn! It was the same sound that had called his people to prayer and to battle for four thousand years. Simon would go to the ritual bath while his good wife Rachel lit the Sabbath candles and recited a benediction.
He would dress in his Sabbath finery, a long black silk coat and a beautiful
fur-rimmed hat. He would walk proudly to synagogue with Jossi on one arm and Yakov on the other.
At home there was traditionally a family poorer than his in to share the Sabbath meal. Over the candles and the blessed bread and wine he spoke a blessing and a few words of gratitude to God.
Rachel served stuffed fish and noodles and chicken broth, and in the evening they would stroll through the ghetto calling upon the sick or receiving visitors in their shop, as they had no parlor.
On Saturday, Simon Rabinsky prayed and meditated and spoke with his sons and reviewed their lessons and learnings and discussed religion and philosophy.
As the sun set ending the Sabbath, Simon sang the song of the ghetto with Rachel, Yakov, and Jossi: “Rejoice to Israel … banish despair.”
With the day over he returned to the realities of his bitter life. In the dingy cellar he called home and shop, Simon Rabinsky would crouch over his workbench in the candlelight, with his wrinkled hands drive a knife deftly through leather. Simon then said the same lament that had been said by Jews since their captivity in Babylon….
“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning … let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”
Messiah
our own people to want to better our conditions?” Yakov demanded.
“You are a Jew,” his father answered, “and being a Jew entails certain obligations.”
“To hide under my bed while people try to kill me?”
“Don’t raise your voice to Father,” Jossi admonished.
“No one said it is easy to be a Jew. We were not born on this earth to live
from its fruits. We were put here to guard the laws of God. This is our mission. This is our purpose.”
“And this is our reward!” Yakov snapped back.
“The Messiah will come and take us back when He is good and ready,” Simon said, unruffled, “and I do not believe it is for Yakov Rabinsky to question His wisdom. I do believe it is for Yakov Rabinsky to live by the laws of the Holy Torah.”
There were tears of anger in Yakov’s eyes. “I do not question the laws of God,” he cried, “but I question the wisdom of some of the men who interpret those laws.”
There was a brief silence. Jossi swallowed. Never had anyone spoken so harshly to his father. Yet he silently applauded his brother’s courage, for Yakov was daring to ask the very questions he himself dared not ask.
“If we are created in the image of God,” Yakov continued, “then the Messiah is in all of us and the Messiah inside me keeps telling me to stand up and fight back. He keeps telling me to make my way back to the Promised Land with the Lovers of Zion. That is what the Messiah tells me, Father.”
Simon Rabinsky would not be shaken. “In our history we have been plagued with false messiahs. I fear you are listening to one of them now.”
“And how do I recognize the true Messiah?” Yakov challenged.
“The question is not whether Yakov Rabinsky recognizes the Messiah. The question is whether the Messiah will recognize Yakov Rabinsky. If Yakov Rabinsky begins to stray from His laws and listens to false prophets, then the Messiah will be quite certain that he is no longer a Jew. I suggest to Yakov Rabinsky that he continue to live as a Jew as his father and his people are doing.”
Simon Rabinsky levde på det sätt som hans far och hans fars far hade tvingats leva innanför gettots murar. Eftersom de var så fattiga blev det oändligt prutat om några kopek. Ändå, trots desperatiteten i deras dagliga tillvaro, höll sig Simon och alla andra judar till stela affärsetiska koder i gettot. Ingen man fick göra intrång i sin grannes försörjning eller fuska eller råna.
Samhällslivet kretsade kring de heliga lagarna, synagogan och rabbinen, som på en gång var lärare, andlig ledare, domare och administratör av samhället. Rabbinerna i Pale var alla stora lärda. Deras visdom var långtgående och deras auktoritet ifrågasattes sällan.
Inom gettot organiserade judarna sin egen regering under rabbinernas övergripande ledning. Det fanns hundra olika lekmannakontor och förmynderskap. Det fanns en mängd bibliska och talmudiska sällskap. Det fanns en organisation för vård av föräldralösa barn och ett samhälle för att betala hemgiften till de fattigare flickorna. Det fanns sällskap för att ta hand om de sjuka, åldrade och lama. Det fanns administratörer av äktenskapskontrakt och en vald synagogakallare, samt ett dussin andra synagogatjänster. Det fanns en kyrklig domstol, det fanns psalmläsare och administratörer över de rituella baden. Ja, samhället rörde sig som ett för allas existens.
De fattiga donerade till de fattigare. De fattigare – till de ännu fattigare. Välgörenhet var det elfte, det oskrivna budet. Ledande forskare och religiösa ledare måste tas om hand. Ingenting fick störa jakten på visdom.
Judar kallade sin Talmud för ett “hav”. De hävdade att den var så stor att man kunde läsa den och studera den för en livstid utan att någonsin titta på en annan bok och aldrig simma från ena sidan av “havet” till den andra. Bröderna Rabinsky studerade denna stora samling lagar och seder, som innehöll information om allt från socialt beteende till personlig renlighet.
Förutom att studera Talmud tillbringade bröderna Rabinsky timmar med att lära sig Pentateuchen, de första fem Moseböckerna som utgör Toran och ansågs vara den heligaste av alla verk.
De lärde sig Bibeln. De lärde sig Mishnahs muntliga lagar. De lärde sig folklegender, kloka talesätt och kommentarer till Midrashbibeln. De lärde sig Cabala, mystikernas bok, och de lärde sig böner och sånger och seder och helgdagar.
och där var sabbaten.
En natt varje vecka blev Simon Rabinsky och varannan ghettojude kung. Det traditionella hornet skulle ljuda i gettot och Simon lade ner sina verktyg och förberedde sig för sin dag med Gud. Hur han älskade ljudet av hornet! Det var samma ljud som hade kallat hans folk till bön och till strid i fyra tusen år. Simon gick till det rituella badet medan hans goda fru Rachel tände sabbatsljusen och reciterade en välsignelse.
Han skulle klä sig i sina sabbatsfinesser, en lång svart sidenrock och en vacker
pälskantad hatt. Han gick stolt till synagogan med Jossi på ena armen och Yakov på den andra.
Hemma fanns det traditionellt en familj som var fattigare än hans för att dela sabbatsmåltiden. Över ljusen och det välsignade brödet och vinet talade han en välsignelse och några tacksamma ord till Gud.
Rachel serverade fylld fisk och nudlar och kycklingbuljong, och på kvällen promenerade de genom gettot och ropade på de sjuka eller tog emot besökare i deras butik, eftersom de inte hade någon salong.
På lördagen bad Simon Rabinsky och mediterade och talade med sina söner och gick igenom deras lektioner och lärdomar och diskuterade religion och filosofi.
När solen gick ner och avslutade sabbaten sjöng Simon gettots sång med Rakel, Yakov och Jossi: “Gläd dig åt Israel … förvisa förtvivlan.”
Med dagen över återvände han till verkligheten i sitt bittra liv. I den snurriga källaren som han kallade hem och butik, satt Simon Rabinsky på huk över sin arbetsbänk i levande ljus, med sina skrynkliga händer körde en kniv skickligt genom läder. Simon sade sedan samma klagan som hade sagts av judar sedan deras fångenskap i Babylon…
”Om jag glömmer dig, Jerusalem, så låt min högra hand glömma hennes list … låt min tunga hålla sig fast vid min mun; om jag inte föredrar Jerusalem framför min största glädje.”
Messias
vårt eget folk att vilja förbättra våra villkor?” krävde Yakov.
“Du är jude”, svarade hans far, “och att vara jude innebär vissa skyldigheter.”
“Att gömma sig under min säng medan folk försöker döda mig?”
“Höj inte din röst till far,” förmanade Jossi.
“Ingen sa att det är lätt att vara jude. Vi föddes inte på denna jord för att leva
från dess frukter. Vi sattes här för att skydda Guds lagar. Detta är vårt uppdrag. Detta är vårt syfte.”
“Och det här är vår belöning!” Yakov slog tillbaka.
“Messias kommer och tar oss tillbaka när han är god och redo,” sa Simon oberörd, “och jag tror inte att det är för Yakov Rabinsky att ifrågasätta hans visdom. Jag tror att det är för Yakov Rabinsky att leva efter den heliga Torahs lagar.”
Ther
In France there lived a young career army captain. He came from a well-to- do family. In the year 1893 he was hauled into a military court on trumped-up
charges of selling secrets to the Germans. The trial of this man shook the world, and became an irremediable blotch on the cause of French justice. The man was found guilty of treason and sentenced to life on Devil’s Island.
His name was Alfred Dreyfus.
In the bitter winter of 1894 Alfred Dreyfus stood in disgrace in a courtyard. In a ceremony of public ostracism the epaulets were cut from his shoulders, his cheeks were slapped, his sword broken, and the buttons pulled from his cloak. He was denounced above an ominous drum roll as a traitor to France. As he was taken off to begin life in a penal hell he cried, “I am innocent! Long live France!”
Alfred Dreyfus was a Jew.
The dormant disease of anti-Semitism erupted in France. Goaded on by Edouard Drumont, the arch Jew hater, mobs of Frenchmen ran through the streets of Paris screaming the age-old cry—“Death to the Jews!”
In later years the great novelist Emile Zola took up the case of Dreyfus. In an open letter to the President of France he branded the horrible miscarriage of justice in immortal prose.
A certain man witnessed Dreyfus’ hour of disgrace in the Paris courtyard. Although Dreyfus was freed, this man could not forget the cry, “I am innocent!” Moreover he could not forget the Parisian mobs screaming, “Death to the Jews!” It haunted him day and night.
The man who could not forget was Theodor Herzl.
Theodor Herzl was also a Jew. He was born in Hungary, but his well-to-do family moved to Austria and he grew up in Vienna. His training in formal Judaism was superficial. He and his family firmly believed in the prevalent theories of assimilation.
Herzl was a brilliant essayist, playwright, journalist. Like so many creative men of his school he was hounded by an incessant restlessness. He was married to a good woman but one completely incapable of giving him the compassion
and understanding he needed. Fortunately for Herzl his restless ventures were well financed by a generous family allowance.
Herzl drifted to Paris and eventually became Paris correspondent for the powerful Viennese New Free Press. He was relatively happy. Paris was a carefree city and his job was good and there was always that wonderful intellectual exchange.
What had brought him to Paris, really? What unseen hand guided him into that courtyard on that winter’s day? Why Herzl? He did not live or think as a devout Jew, yet when he heard the mobs beyond the wall shout, “Death to the Jews!” his life and the life of every Jew was changed forever.
Theodor Herzl pondered and thought, and he decided that the curse of anti- Semitism could never be eradicated. So long as one Jew lived—there would be someone to hate him. From the depths of his troubled mind Herzl wondered what the solution could be, and he came to a conclusion—the same conclusion that a million Jews in a hundred lands had come to before him—the same conclusion that Pinsker had written about in his pamphlet about auto- emancipation. Herzl reasoned that only if the Jews established themselves again as a nation would all Jews of all lands finally exist as free men. They had to have a universal spokesman—they had to command respect and dignity as equals through a recognized government.
The paper in which he set down these ideas was called “The Jewish State.”
Galvanized into action by this sudden calling, Herzl drove himself unmercifully to gather support for his ideas. He went to those enormously wealthy philanthropists who were supporting the colonies of Jews in Palestine. They ridiculed the Jewish state idea as nonsense. Charity was one thing—as Jews they gave to less fortunate Jews—but talk of rebuilding a nation was madness.
But the Jewish state idea caught on and spread through a hundred lands. Herzl’s idea was neither novel nor unique, but his dynamic drive would not let it die.
Important support began to gather around him. Max Nordau, a transplanted Hungarian in Paris with an international reputation as a writer, rallied to his support, as did Wolfsohn in Germany and De Haas in England. Many Christians in high places also expressed their approval of the idea.
In the year 1897 a convention of leading Jews throughout the world was called in the town of Basle, Switzerland. It was, indeed, a parliament of world Jewry. Nothing like it had happened since the second Temple had been destroyed. Assimilationists were there and Lovers of Zion were there. Orthodox Jews were there and Socialists were there. No matter what their leanings, they all had a common bond, and to a man they were prepared to stage a rebellion against two thousand years of unspeakable persecution. The Basle convention called for a return of Jews to their ancient historic homeland, for only through the establishment of a Jewish state could all Jews of all lands achieve freedom.
They called the movement Zionism.
As blood riots against the Jews were increasing in Russia, Poland, Rumania, Austria, and Germany and as Jew baiting was reborn in France, the Basle convention made its historic proclamation:
THE AIM OF ZIONISM IS TO CREATE A HOMELAND FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN PALESTINE SECURED BY PUBLIC LAW.
Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary, “In Basle I established a Jewish State. If I were to say that aloud today, universal laughter would be the response. Maybe in five years, certainly in fifty, everybody will recognize it.”
After the formal declaration of Zionism, Theodor Herzl plunged into the arduous work like a man possessed. He was a dynamic leader and inspired all those around him. He consolidated his support, gained new adherents, raised funds, and built an organization.
Herzl’s immediate objective, however, was to obtain a charter or some other legal basis upon which Zionism could be built.
There was a split within Jewry itself. Herzl was constantly harassed by an element which considered his “political” Zionism impure. Many of the old Lovers of Zion balked. A part of the religious element decried him as a false Messiah, just as another segment had praised him as the true Messiah. But the Herzl train would not and could not be derailed. Hundreds of thousands of Jews carried an imprinted “shekel” in their pockets as proof of membership.
Still without a charter, Herzl began visiting heads of state to obtain a hearing for his ideas.
Herzl worked beyond his capacities. He depleted his personal finances, neglected his family, and impaired his health. Zionism had become a great obsession with him. At last he obtained an interview with the Sultan of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II, “Abdul the Damned.” The aging old despot fenced with Herzl and gave half promises to consider a charter for Palestine in exchange for desperately needed money. Abdul was a corrupt human being. His vast holdings in the Middle East ran from the Mesopotamian Province and included Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and much of the Arabian Peninsula. He tried to play the Zionist proposal off against better gains and finally refused Herzl’s appeal. It was a terrible setback.
In the year 1903 matters reached a new low in Russia. In the city of Kishinev the Jews were charged once again with using Christian blood for their rituals, and on Easter of that year the government secretly spurred on a wanton slaughter that left the ghetto of Kishinev in ruins.
Finally England lent a sympathetic ear. At the turn of the century the British were expanding their influence in the Middle East and were already becoming a challenge to the failing Ottomans. They were entrenched in Egypt as well as in half a dozen sheikdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, and they were anxious to gain the favor of world Jewry in order to further their own aspirations. They offered the Zionists a part of the Sinai Peninsula for Jewish immigration and colonization. It was the understanding that this area stood at the door of the Promised Land and the door would open when the British took over. The plan
was vague and ill advised and Herzl still hoped to gain a charter for Palestine, so the plan collapsed.
More attempts to gain a charter failed. The pogroms were overrunning a great part of Europe. Herzl became certain that a temporary haven had to be obtained to ease the situation. The British came forth with a second proposal. They offered the African territory of Uganda to the Zionists for Jewish colonization. Herzl desperately agreed to take it up before the next convention.
When the Uganda plan was proposed by Herzl, a fierce opposition developed, led by the Russian Zionists. The basis of their resistance was the fact that they could find no mention of Uganda in the Bible.
Twenty-five solid years of pogroms in Russia and in Poland were now causing the Jews to pour out from eastern Europe by the thousands. By the turn of the century fifty thousand had found their way to Palestine. Abdul Hamid II saw this influx of Jews as potential allies of the British and decreed that no more Jews from Russia, Poland, or Austria would be allowed.
However, the Sultan’s empire was rotten to the core. The Zionists had a world headquarters in England and a growing bank to back them up. Zionist bribe money kept the door of Palestine open for all who would enter.
This was the First Aliyah of the Jewish exodus!
Along with the return of the exiles to their Promised Land another event was taking place in the Arab world. After centuries of subjugation there was a rankling of unrest among the Arabs that spelled the beginnings of Arab nationalism. In all the Arab world there existed not a single independent or autonomous state.
Arab nationalism sprang first from liberal elements in Lebanon as a progressive movement bent on instituting long overdue reforms. The ideas grew until a first conference was held in Paris and the call was given for the sleepers to awake.
These ideas not only frightened the colonials but they frightened the oppressors within the Arab world, and the well-meaning movement was grabbed
up by tribal leaders, sheiks, religious leaders, and effendi landowners, under whose influence the original ideals degenerated into hate-filled dogma as each maneuvered to gain control of the dying Ottoman Empire.
The twentieth century!
Chaos in the Middle East. Zionism! Arab nationalism! The Ottoman’s decline and the British ascent! All these elements stewing in a huge caldron were bound to boil over.
Theodor Herzl’s comet streaked over the sky with blinding light and speed. It was a mere ten years from the day he had heard Alfred Dreyfus cry, “I am innocent!” to the day he dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of forty-four.