The Ashkenazi Revolution

115itself from it but, nevertheless, is built entirely of its substance and drinksfrom its wells. Bialik absorbed all of his strength and effort, and all of hiswisdom and great knowledge, when he was a day-school student and ayeshiva student, as a fervent believer. As a fundamentalist and completelyreligious man, Bialik believed with all his heart, in the assets of the Jewishreligion and rabbinical culture. He was faithful to the yeshivaestablishment, which bore these assets on their shoulders. However, whenhis faith in God collapsed, this collapse was complete and devastating, sothat it left no faith at all. Moreover: Due to his depth and fundamentalism,Bialik was restrained from turning his back on the rabbinical assets andseeking greener pastures. He always remained in this world in hisknowledge that, for his sake, it had turned into a world of ruins and junkheaps, and he remained within it more as a prisoner than out of free will.The collapse of the rabbinical world in the soul of Bialik created a terriblewound in his heart that would never heal. Moreover: This collapse wasalso an economic, and social, disaster for Bialik. His intellect and lifestylehad prepared him for a livelihood within the rabbinical framework, as arabbi or as a renowned head of a yeshiva. However, when he turned hisback on this field, it became very difficult for him to make a living. Due tohis sensitivity, work as a private teacher brought him bitterness, and eventhis was not always available. Had he attained his desire, had he reachedthe West, studied in universities and done a comparison between the assetsof Shem and the assets of Japheth, then perhaps his life would have turnedout differently. Then he would have built a private world according to hiswill, and this would have expressed itself in his creation. But Bialik wasnot able to attain this. He remained within the old reality, which he saw asfull and overflowing with pieces of rabbinical culture. The marriage ofBialik was not a marriage of love but a typical arranged one, which wasaccepted among yeshiva students. This was at a time when he had alreadyturned his back on the world of the yeshivas and rebelled against it.Afterwards he owned a printing press (together with a partner) andpublishing house, and his livelihood was always through writing andliterature. These two blows, the terrible blow of the collapse of therabbinical world and the second blow being a product of Bialik’s own