The Ashkenazi Revolution

118blessing of the people” and “For the volunteers among the people”. But theliteraturary calibre of these poems was nothing compared to “On YourHeart That’s Barren”. The optimism of Bialik, which was expressed inthese poems of hope, is not convincing. It is reserved and not committed.This is not the case with the diabolism that we find in “On Your HeartThat’s Barren”, which freezes the blood with its evil, and reaches the finallimits of joy at calamity and wild celebration at total annihilation. It is notdifficult to guess that by the words “the joyous sect” Bialik meant thefollowers of Herzl, for the poem was written at the time of the first ZionistCongress. The sect of believers was, in the eyes of Bialik, a “joyous sect”whose future expulsion and elimination was a misfortune he would rejoiceover.It is impossible to have a national literature without a grasp of history, andwithout providing explanations for how history unfolded. HebrewLiterature displays a complete estrangement from history. For Bialik thereare no set definitions even for the most basic historical events of Hebrewhistory, which are components of his own world and private life, forexample the advent of the yeshiva student. In “The diligent student”, thefamous poem that bears this name, Bialik praises the yeshiva student and,at the same time, mourns for his lot. (Avraham Kariv dealt with this in hissmall booklet “My motherland Lithuania”) Clearer words, about thehistorical character of the yeshiva student, are heard from Bialik in hisletters. In a supplemental letter to Ahad ha’Am, which was attached to themanuscript of “The diligent student”, Bialik says:Therefore my diligent student won’t be “robbed of both alternatives” – thedepressing end of a common character who was already trampled byauthors. No; he more or less accomplished his goal: Rabbinicalordination, the title “illustrious scholar” and a stipend of hundreds ofrubles to top it all off. Afterwards – the rabbinate, retail work, tutoring,miserliness and a long, silent death. (Letters, volume 1, pages 100-101/P.L., Bialik, volume 1, page 201).