JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

feierstein, ricardo
In “Le’an?” Feierberg dwells in minute detail on the sensitive,
thinking individual who detaches himself and is cut off
from the historical Jewish community. The hero, Naḥman, is
the leader prototype, but he has lost contact with his community.
His character and education makes him an “aristocrat”,
an “elected” Jew. The scion of a rabbinical dynasty, his father
educates him to be a “soldier” (the same idea also appears in
“Ha-Kame’a”) and to assume a life of responsibility in the unceasing
battle to protect Judaism from secular inroads. His
detachment from the community begins at a very early age
when he was taught to regard the “normal” Jewish existence
around him as a frivolity which he himself morally could not
afford to lead. At this stage one type of alienation is apparent –
a detachment between the community and its representative,
between the public and the individual who is able to personify
ideally the values in which all believe. Naḥman, the ideal,
wants to perform great deeds: he wants to heal the historical
schism in the fate of the Jewish people by hastening the coming
of the Messiah. In his search for a way, he steeps himself
in the holy books; years pass and he despairs of messianic redemption.
He then becomes interested in the Haskalah, thus
alienating himself completely. Naḥman’s loss of faith in Divine
Providence is sudden and swift and his position in the Jewish
community becomes a “border state” of unbearable tension
which finds concrete expression in the synagogue on the Ninth
of *Av: “The whole congregation is praying, it has one heart
now, and he – the other heart – is lonely and separated from
the community, cut off from his people … And how he would
have liked to rejoin his people! He would have given his life
for the bond. But how could he? No, he had undone the knot
of his own free will and could not tie it again ….” This sense
of separation is like a hidden disease within Naḥman, but at
last the rift between him and his father and the community
breaks out in the open with his symbolic act of extinguishing
the candle in the synagogue on the Day of Atonement.
Naḥman now lapses into a mental state which the community
interprets as madness. Toward the end of the story he makes
a final attempt at rejoining his people. In a speech at a Ḥibbat
Zion gathering, he propounds the idea of national renaissance
and a return to the East. This speech is Naḥman’s last call and
outcry, he then fades away and dies.
Structurally weak, because Feierberg tried to incorporate
the Naḥman story into a narrative of reminiscences (as a continuation
of the Ḥofni stories), “Le’an?” is nevertheless one of
the great literary achievements in Hebrew fiction. The tragic
proportions of its hero have been attained by few figures in
Hebrew literature. The story gives full expression to the torment
of the Jew who is torn between the temporal historical
moment and his sense of responsibility toward the Jewish
heritage of the ages and toward Jewish history. By grappling
sincerely and honestly with the tragic problem of the Diaspora
Jew in a modern world, Feierberg left an indelible imprint on
modern Hebrew literature.
An English translation of Whither and Other Stories appeared
in 1973 and “The Calf ” was included in G. Abramson
(ed.), The Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories (1996). For
other works which have been translated into English see
Goell, Bibliography.
Bibliography: M.J. Berdyczewski, Ma’amarim (1922), 266f.;
J.H. Brenner, Ketavim, 2 (19532), 241–3; J. Fichmann, Ruḥot Menaggenot
(1953), 277–83; S. Ẓemaḥ, Massah u-Vikkoret (1954), 9–26;
B. Kurzweil, Sifrutenu ha-Ḥadashah-Hemshekh o Mahpekhah? (1965),
149–71; J. Klausner, Yoẓerim u-Vonim, 2 (1929), 165–82; S. Rawidowitz,
in: Ha-Tekufah, 11 (1921), 399–419; E. Steinman, Be-Ma’gal ha-
Dorot (1944), 87–112; A. Sha’anan, Ha-Sifrut ha-Ivrit ha-Ḥadashah
li-Zeramehah. 2 (1962), 249–66; Waxman, Literature, 4 (1960), 54–62.
Add. Bibliography: E. Avisar, “Samkhut ha-Av u-Ze’akat ha-Ben
be-‘Le’an,’” in: Hadoar, 53 (1974), 372–74; A.L. Mintz, “Mordecai Zev
Feierberg and the Reveries of Redemption,” in: AJSR, 2 (1977), 171–99;
S. Werses, in: Moznayim, 48:5–6 (1979), 280–91; M. Bosak, “Rabbi
Naḥman mi-Braslav ke-Model le-Gibboro shel ‘Le’an,’” in: Mabu’a, 15
(1980); D. Steinhart, “Figures of Thought; Psycho-Narration in the
Fiction of Berdichewsky, Bershadsky and Feierberg,” in: Prooftexts,
8:2 (1988), 197–217; H. Bar Yosef, “Eyzeh min Romantikan Haya Feierberg?”
in: Bikoret u-Farshanut, 23 (1988) 87–116; G.Shaked, Ha-Sipporet
ha-Ivrit, 1 (1997), 206–13; Aberbach, “David, Mordecai Ze’ev
Feierberg,” in: Jewish Quarterly, 46:2 (1999), 51–52.
[Dan Miron]
FEIERSTEIN, RICARDO (1942– ), Argentinian writer.
Feierstein was born in Buenos Aires. In his youth he joined
Zionist and socialist movements; later he lived for some years
on a kibbutz. His literary writings, his achievements as editor
of the journal Raíces and director of the Milá and Acervo
Cultural publishing houses, and his contributions to periodicals
reflect his continuous involvement with Jewish cultural
life in Argentina. In his writing, Feierstein seeks to close the
gap between ideologically oriented and aesthetic literature.
His poetry, narratives, and essays seek to build a harmonious
individual identity as an Argentinian, a Jew, and a socialist,
and the successes and failures of such attempts lie at the core
of his writing. His poem “Nosotros, la generación del desierto”
(“We, the Generation of the Wilderness,” 1984, tr. 1989) speaks
for a whole generation that lives between historical events
and conflicting trends, unable to establish its own ground.
The trilogy of novels Sinfonía inocente exposes the unrealized
coming-of-age of an Argentinian Jew from adolescence (Entre
la izquierda y la pared, 1983), to his kibbutz experience (El
caramelo descompuesto, 1979), to his search for reintegration
in a politically shattered Argentina (Escala uno en cincuenta.
1984). In Mestizo (1988; tr. 2000), a murder mystery frames the
search for a fullly realized Argentinian-Jewish identity, while
his later novel, La logia del umbral (2002), exposes the painful
collective failure of such a project (especially in the shadow of
the AMIA terrorist bombing in 1994). His views of Argentinian
Jewry and their existential experience as a dynamic cultural
mestizaje (a term meaning racial but also cultural mix
in Latin America) are discussed in his books Judaísmo 2000
(1988) and Contraexilio y mestizaje: Ser judío en la Argentina
(1990). He also edited Historia de los judíos argentinos (1993);
Cuentos judíos latinoamericanos (1989); Cien años de narrativa
judeo-argentina 1889–1989 (1990). His poems and stories have
732 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6