The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885) | Page 2

their incredulity.
The history of the development of modern Hebrew literature, its
character, the extraordinary conditions fostering it, its very existence,
are of a sort to surprise one who has not kept in touch with the internal
struggles, the intellectual currents that have agitated the Judaism of
Eastern Europe in the course of the past century.
So far from deserving a reputation for casuistry, modern Hebrew
literature is, if anything, distinctly rationalistic in character. It is
anti-dogmatic and anti-Rabbinic. Its avowed aim is to enlighten the
Jewish masses that have remained faithful to religious tradition, and to

interpenetrate the Jewish communities with the conceptions of modern
life.
Since the French Revolution the ghetto has produced valiant champions
of every good cause, politicians, legislators, poets, who have taken part
in all the movements of their day. But it has also given birth to a legion
of men of action sprung from the people and remaining with the people,
who, in the name of liberty of conscience and in the name of science,
fought the same battles upon the field of traditional Judaism that the
others were fighting outside.
A whole school of literary humanists undertook the work of
emancipating the Jewish masses, and pursued it for several generations
with admirable zeal. Hebrew became an excellent instrument of
propaganda in their hands. Thanks to their efforts, the language of the
prophets, inarticulate for nearly two thousand years, was developed to a
striking degree of perfection. It was shown to be a flexible medium,
varied enough to serve as the vehicle for any modern idea.
The great wonder is that this modern literature in Hebrew made itself
without teachers, without patrons, without academies and literary
_salons_, without encouragement in any shape or form. Nor is that all.
It was impeded by inconceivable obstacles, ranging from the
fraudulence of an absurd censorship to the persecution of fanatics. In
such circumstances, only the purest idealism, and the most disinterested,
could have ventured to enter the lists, and could have come off the
victor.
While the emancipated Jew of the Occident replaced Hebrew by the
vernacular of his adopted country; while the Rabbis were distrustful of
whatever is not religion; and rich patrons refused to support a literature
that had not the _entrée_ of good society,--while these held aloof, the
Maskil ("the intellectual") of the small provincial town, the Polish
vagabond Mehabber ("author"), despised and unknown, often a martyr
to his conviction, who devoted himself heart, soul, and might to
maintaining honorably the literary traditions of Hebrew,--he alone
remained faithful to what has been the true mission of the Bible
language since its beginnings.
It is a renewal of the ancient literary impulse of the humble, the
disinherited, whence first sprang the Bible. It is a repetition of the
phenomenon of the popular prophet-orators, reappearing in modern

Hebrew garb.
The return to the language and the ideas of an eventful past marks a
decisive stage in the perturbed career of the Jewish people. It indicates
the re-awakening of national feeling.
The history of modern Hebrew literature thus forms an extremely
instructive page in the history of the Jewish people. It is especially
interesting from the point of view of social psychology, furnishing, as it
does, valuable documents upon the course taken by new ideas in
impregnating surroundings that are characteristically obdurate toward
intellectual suggestions from without. The century-long struggle
between free-thinking and blind faith, between common sense and
absurdity consecrated by age and exalted by suffering, reveals an
intense social life, a continual clashing of ideas and sentiments.
It is a literature that offers us the grievous spectacle of poets and writers
who are constantly expressing their anxiety lest it disappear with them,
and yet devote themselves unremittingly to its cultivation, with all the
ardor of despair. At their side, however, we see optimistic dreamers,
worthy disciples of the prophets. In the midst of the ruin of all that
made the past glorious, and in the face of the downfall of cherished
hopes, they lose not an iota of their faith in the future of their people, in
its speedy regeneration.
What we have before us is the issue of the supreme internal struggle
that engaged the great masses of the Jews torn from their moorings by
the disquietude of modern existence. A fervent desire for a better social
life took possession of all minds. The conviction that the eternal people
cannot disappear seems to have regained ground and to have been
stronger than ever, and the current again set in the direction of
auto-emancipation.
It is the true literature of the Jewish people that we are called upon to
examine, the product of the ghetto, the reflex of its psychic states, the
expression of its misery, its suffering, and also its hope. The people of
the Bible