THE GHETTO AND THE WORLD
ing and genesis to the German. For the Germans
Kultur
had been the
immediate and ultimate meaning of
Yolk,
the characteristic activity
and the fulfilment of spirit; it was a transcendental sublimation of na–
tionalism, originally
echt demokratisch,
an achievement of the Euro–
pean idea as a whole and therefore internationalist, with, however, the
significant qualification that the German idea take leadership; this
survived as a rationalization when Germany's empire' was no longer of
the clouds. Culture-nationalism was particularly appealing to Jewish
intellectuals-it served as a model synthesis of the inner group and the
outer Europe; it encouraged the development of the old tradition into
new and useful directions, and it made no direct appeal to power. It
was in this spirit, as "good Jew" and "good European," that Peretz
embraced the idea of cultural nationalism; and it is with this
in
mind,
the scope of his interests and European commitments, that one must tum
to the "Prince of the Ghetto" as author of the Chassidic tales and folk–
stories.
The most obvious difference between Peretz and Sholom Aleichem
in their use of the Yiddish language
is
that Peretz holds irony to a min–
imum (I mean the language itself and not the uses to which it may be
put). In Sholom Aleichem's Yiddish the medium is so inflected that
every expression, whatever its emotion, is necessarily also ironic; the
quality of the medium attaches itself to everything that passes through
it, and never could a literature bear more irony, for obviously the next
step is silence. Peretz' language is clear; his Yiddish, even at its most
poetic, is a means of communication. The author of the Chassidic wonder
stories retains the habits of the intellectual leader, and the pragmatic
stamp is on every word. The tone of wonder is given by the intelligence
and not by the Chassidic awe it represents. He shares the faith of which
he writes, but at a considerable remove, and it does not rest for him
in
the objects or efficacies of the Chassidic mystique, nor does it express
a natural piety of utterance, as with prayer; his is a borrowed piety,
taken from the intelligence, adept at translating one mode into another
and generous with words: let the Chassidim speak for me. So far he
is the artist, confident of the translation his art can make ; but faith
cannot
be
translated, it is not, like a meaning, common to men, but
rather an intention which each man must have for himself, his own
experience. Here the literary artist parts company with his artists of
faith, the Chassidic wonder-workers. The Rabbis and their disciples
enjoyed a unity of experience far greater than any modern literature,
no matter how "Chassidic," can hope to comprehend; their joy of life
and their faith, what they received and what they put out, were one.
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