Page 78
SOKOLOW
(Continued fromi Page 76)
nalist and a fine editor, he was
felso a jnan of many talents and
a great scholar in many fields/
; As every great personality, he
was a product of his environment, a worthy, offspring of a
rabbinical family and of a chas-
sidic community in Poland. Even
when he became an adherent of
Haskala, he never broke with
tradition. He remained attached
to it, and to Talmudic study, all
his life. It may be one of the
reasons why so many religious
Jews, Chassidim and Mitnagdim 'alike, read his "Hatzefirah" and
became influenced by it, while
they considered the "Hamelitz" ran anti-religious publication.
This is also one of the reasons
why his appeal to Rabbinical
circles, Le'Maranaxi Ve'Rabanan, : on the question of Zionism-and !the return to Zion (1901) made |.a deeper impact on so many reli-igious J«!ws^ of Russia, Poland
and Lithuania, than did the message of any other leading Zio^
nist. While he showed throitgh-jOut his long lif^ a~ trem^dous 'capacity for spiritual regeneration and literary growth, he al-. ways reiiialned essentially con--servative, with a basically posi-^;ive approach to tradition and *vith deep love for the cultural and religious legacy of the Jew-; jsh past.,
' His abhorrence ^pf extremism ^f any kind, and;; his natural! friendliness arid gwierosity, (made him a constant follower of i'Beth HilleP in many critical >isituations, both as a writer and [as a most prominent JJublie servant, an ambassajdor-at-large of the Jewish people. Although by nature a man of mediation and compromise, he knew no compromise when the basic values [of the Jewish people and of Jew-'"^ish history were at^ stake, be-. cause the spiritual values of : Judaism, the unfathomed treas-^ ures of the Hebrew language and culture and the innermost char-' acteristics of Jewish pedplehood, . as mysterious as thfey were eternal, were the most sacred things in Sokolow's life. PEN PORTRAITS
Undoubtedly, Sokolow*s most valuable and highly remarkable literary legacy is concentrated in the three volumes of his pen portraits of great personalities C^ISHIM") whom he knew and admired for many years.
Most of these pen portraits he vi^rote late in his life, although some of them he composed as a young man. A final version was eventually published in 1935, in Tel Aviv. In these masterful essays he appears as a real artist both in style and description. Sokolow's analysis of the essential qualities of his heroes are masterpieces. Most of the heroes are many-sided, complicated and often mysterious souls, like Sokolow himself. In his essay about Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, he does not choose the path of the obvious, and doesn't call eluded in the imprint of a land. Ben-Y^itrda the^'H^reator of thetNot«o Bei5-Y^uda'smeetaltor-
Hebrew language'.
Sokolow says: "How miserable the Hebrew language would have been if it were the work of one great man or another. Any exaggeration in this direction is not only a sign of ignorance, but also an attempt to degrade our national language to the level of Esperanto. True, the great writers improved our language. But they.did not create it from nothingness. The creator of the language is the people."
But at the same time, he feels that Ben Yehuda is more than just a stubborn fanatic preaching the revival of the Hebrew language and .working on a mammoth Hebrew dictionary with a simplicity and directness tha does not recogniase any problems or tlifficulties. Ben Yehuda has also in his personality/ a iiighly mysterious part uvrhich is; nevertheless, an integral parX of his character:
"You caa. feel that this frai man is inwardly a ^diit and tha there is a real fiery spirit in him which accompanies him on al his ups and downs throughMife. You cannot explain this rationally, and you cannot rationally understand why such a man is able to devote himself, all his life, to one ideal without compromise and with a fanaticism ifriiiich has the quality of an eternal flame, pure and devoid of any sludge of politics or-showmanship. Rationality and cleverness cannot explain his great devotion to our language, and it is a fact that his enemies and all the blows of fate could not weaken his spirit, but only added to his energy and self-assurance.
"This proves that in the very essence of his personality, he is tied to a Messianic vision, which has developed in him delicate senses and quiet heroism, a mysterious force. The lifelessness and disusfe of the Hebrew language have evoked, in him the same holy sadness which is felt by really religious Jews at the calamity of the exiled Shechina. But while such sadness marks helpless sorrow and neglect, his sadness^ has been of great influence and fruitful initiative. The torments of his soul have a Promethean loftiness, and nothing of the wishy-washy sentimentality of the generation of *'Meas-fim" who were weeping in a flowery language ' and copying biblical phrases, bewailing the *one and only' remaining language.
"Such sentimentality is the twin-sister of flattery, and, as Carlyle once said, the materia prima of Satan who turns it immediately into dullness and exhaustion, eaten by the rot of desperation, into something abstract and a result of passing taste, something passing which was never hammered on the anvil of the people, and never in-
JEWlSHj^WSteRN^'aULtWlN New Yeor Issue/Thursday, September 22, 1960
Here, Spkolow's main ideology is clearly discernible. We emphasized his words 'mutual to all of us' because Sokolow, while writing about Ben-Yehuda, wrote also about himself, and while being so different from Ben-Yehuda, had one quality in common with him: unbounded love for the Hebrew language and for Jewish spirituality. He also shared with him a readiness to devote his untiring efforts, to the last, to the revival and the constant progress of the Hebrew language and of Zion.
ROTHSCHILD
In his essay on Baron Edmond de Rothschild, whose collaborator and friend he was for many years, Sokolow's other love, his
(Continued on Pag» 80)
ment, which comes from my sterious prqmptinigs of the soul, from deep •values and heroic feelings ... This is the secret oi Ben Yehuda, and in this way his simplicityr and mysteriousness merge." LUZZATO
It would lead us too far to probe further into Sokolow's attempt to analyze the mysterious force behind Ben Yehuda's inner drive, but it is typical of Sokolow's approach to Jewish history and to great Jewjish personalities that he finds a prototype and an archtype for Ben-Yehuda in not too distant Jewish history, and this is Samuel David Luzzato, who comprehended the national idea in a spiritual way, and bravely fought against external reform, and against assimilation. He also was the pioneer of Hebrew speech, and a great lover of the Hebrew language himself, a unique mixture of simplicity and mysticism alike. Sokolow, the gijeat globe-trotter wbo lived a long life, Visited many countries and, met many pieople says:
"In Italy, I found that Luzzato used to speak Hehtew to his pupils. In ^adua, Lmet many times the late Rabbi Samato, wlio spoke a wonderful He? breiK^ -exsrct %eautiful of sound. He was one of the last devoted pupils of Lu2zato. H6 iand Ben-Yehuda were a product of different periods and environments, and, to a degree, - of different cultures. They didn't know each other and weren't influenced by each other. But there is one great thing mutuar to both c% them, mutual to all of us, and to whicb each of Us contributed, in greater or lessier degree in this or that field ..."
ANGELO E. BRANCA
Royal Bank Chambers 208 E. Hastings
MU 3-3281
New Year Greetings and Best Wishes for a year of cultural and spiritual growth for the Jewish Community of Vancouver.
May there afsp be Increased effort on behalf of the rehabilitation and absorption of our brethren in Israel.
VANCOUVER LABOR ZIONIST COUNCIL
Including:
PIONEER WOMEN'S ORGANIZATION
HISTADRUT COMMITTEE
HABONIM MOVEMENT
POALE ZION