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PARTISAN REVIEW
on every hand. . . . Exile, exile ... Oh oh, how they love it, how
they hold it fast! This is the most sacred thing, the most beloved,
intimate, closest to their hearts, nearer and dearer than Jerusalem,
more
jewish
than Jerusalem, deeper and purer. Far more, there's
simply no comparison! Is this paradoxical? But that's how it is....
Wait now, don't talk!" He hurriedly gestured to each side, though
nobody made any attempt to interrupt. "Let me tell you how I
look at it...."
He rubbed
his
hand over his face and his lips, as though coming
up out of a tub; he muted
his
voice and whispered, as though it
were a deep secret.
"The Exile, that is our pyramid, and it has martyrdom for a
base and Messiah for its peak. And . . . and . . . the Talmud, that
is our Book of the Dead.... In the very beginning, as far back as
the Second Temple, we began to build it. Even that far back we
planned it, we laid the foundations. . . . Exile, martyrdom, Mes–
siah.... Do you grasp the deep cunning hidden in this wild fan–
tasy, the cold moonlight with which it flames ...? Do you grasp
it? Just think, just think! Millions of men, a whole people plunging
itself into this madness and sunk in it for two thousand years! Giving
up to it its life, its very existence, its character, submitting to afflic–
tion, suffering, tortures. Agreed that it is foolish, a lunatic dream.
But a dream, that is, a vision, an ideal. . . . What an uncanny
folk! What a wonderful, awful people! Awful, awful to the point
of madness! For look, it scorns the whole world, the whole world
and
all
its fighters and heroes and wise men and poets all together!
Fearsome and blind! A bottomless abyss.... No, one could go mad!"
He formed the last words soundlessly on his lips and stood
as though
in
trance, pale, with his mouth open and a fixed stare.
The chairman invited him to be seated. "Sit down," he said,
pointing to an empty chair.
"What?" He came to himself, speaking as out of a maze. "But
it's not just a fantasy, it's more than fantasy ... fantastic, to be sure.
But a necessary fantasy.... Why necessary? What is its purpose?
A very necessary purpose, let me tell you, a vitally necessary purpose!
This madness is practical, it is very deliberate, it has a clearly under–
stood aim, and it is thought out to the finest detail.... Look here,
here we have a single element, as slight as can be, a trifling anec-
