The Ashkenazi Revolution

256Macabee, but in order to flee from the Jews of Warsaw and Kiev. Throughsuperhuman efforts, in the spirit of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, this language wastransformed into a spoken one, and it cast aside its literary chains. But atthe same time it continued to lack a deep ideological basis, and it turnedinto a limited language that does not answer the needs of a rich civilization.The living breath of Modern Hebrew is the history that is currently beingforged in the territory of the Land of Israel; that is being made and forgedon the anvil of political, social, economic and military activity. But theclassicists of Modern Hebrew, the authors of Eastern Europe, hated thishistory with a mortal hatred. They sought to banish it, and to replace itwith literature, polished language and linguistic ability. The heir of theclassicists, the native Israeli Hebrew author, is too dependent upon them,and too deeply rooted in them, to express the historical events that takeplace in the Land of Israel. After unsuccessful attempts at political writing,he is generally inclined to take the narcissist path, and he severes himselffrom the great masses of Israeli natives. The classicist wrapped himself inthe garb of a prophet when he wrote in Hebrew about a nation, a decisivemajority of whom did not understand his language, and his words found adirect echo only within a small circle of followers and allies. Not so thenative Israeli author, who writes Hebrew for Hebrew speakers. His readerswill not allow him to play, before them, the game of being a prophet and arebuker, and they would tear the false façade from his face. Nothingremains, however, for the native Israeli author but to take the path ofnarcissism, the path of suicide. Moreover: The native Israeli tires even ofthe undertone of false rebuking and moral lashing of the authors of EasternEurope, and he strives to mix in his language, as much as possible, slangthat frees him from the parables of the classicists. Through slang, thenative Israeli finds his liberation, but at the same time, he severes himselffrom a rich cultural heritage that the generation of classical creatorsrepresents. The classical section of the New Hebrew Literature is a deviantside segment of the rabbinical culture of Eastern Europe, and today’sModern Hebrew – as spoken and written – is a deviant side segment of thecreation of the classicists. This language is not, and cannot, be thelinguistic tool of a rich civilization.