The Ashkenazi Revolution

119The yeshiva student is the romantic hero of rabbinical culture; he is themighty one within it who fights its wars in the wide sea of the Talmud.Through his sacrifice and example, he sustains this culture for thousands ofyears and makes history every day and every hour. But Bialik does notunderstand the romantic greatness that is engrained within this historicalcharacter. He asks the typical question of the lowly family man: “Whatnext? – Who will tend to the distant future?” This is the typical question ofthose who lack any emotion or historical affinity and who live only theirown personal lives. Thus, “who will tend to the distant future?” Accordingto Bialik, it would be better if the yeshiva students did not waste their timewith “things of no consequence” but, instead, invested their energies in“things of substance”, like setting themselves up in private business andaccumulating a fat bank account. Bialik had his opportunity to migrate tothe Land of Israel, and to be a teacher at an educational institution for theorphans of Kishinev. There is no doubt that he was offered the bestpossible accommodations in those days. But, during negotiations withUssishkin, Bialik was very demanding, asked for far-reaching monetarypledges, and when he did not receive them, he did not respond to the offer.Had all the migrants and pioneers demanded “pledges” as he did, the landwould not have been built and the State of Israel would not have beenfounded. After he abandoned the rabbinical world, Bialik estrangedhimself from all history-making romantic characters, both of the “diligentstudent” and of the yeshiva student, whom he had relegated to the past, andof the pioneers of the Land of Israel.“On Your Heart That’s Barren” is not the only poem where the “national”poet advanced political Zionism; he wrote a few other poems that wereworse than that one, but no less poisonous. One poem is “Rabbi Zerah”,which tells the fable of a particular Jew, Rabbi Zerah, who, wishing tohasten the end of days, first tried to attain this goal through the magicalnames of God, the mystical numerical values of the letters and eventhrough fasting and prayer, just like R. Yosef Dela Rina. But, in the end,he chose a new tactic and took the “direct path to the king”. Rabbi Zerah isa parody of Herzl and his political activities. The poet ridicules themessianic spirit, which had taken hold of Rabbi Zerah: