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fact. It means there must be a profound kinship, a fundamental
bond between this myth and the spirit of our people, if it thrust so
deep! It means there is a basic harmony, a full and perfect unity
between it and our people's ideal, between it and the people's will,
and the direction it desires to go! ... There's not the least doubt:
It's quite clear!"
He stopped for a moment, and his face turned dull and pale.
It was quiet, as quiet as in the rainy season just before the rains come,
a waiting, oppressive, gloomy quiet.
"Ye-es ..." he said on a long, groaning breath, as a spoken
conclusion of his thoughts, "such is that wild, enthusiastic, moonlit
fantasy of theirs . . . the fantasy they need for such practical pur–
poses, for their well-understood ends. Just as I've already told you ...
because ... because...."
He halted and could not speak on. And in that paralysis his
eyes went from one to another in a sort of driven frenzy.
"Because they don't want to be saved!" he blurted out all in
one breath.
Again he was still, looking from side to side like one who fears
he has been trapped by his own foolishness.
"Because they don't want to be saved!" he repeated, seeking
assurance in speech. "That is the deliberate intent of this myth, that
is its practical effect, consciously or unconsciously, not to be saved,
not ever to go back to the land of their fathers.... I don't say that
it is conscious, necessarily. But if it's unconscious, it's even worse....
They
really
believe redemption will come, I repeat it, again, they
believe in all truth and sincerity, they hope for it, ;tSpire to it, and
yet they
intend
that it should not come. This is not deceit, it's not
duplicity at all. I'm sure of it, I'm sure of it. . . . Here something
is at work beneath the surface, something rooted in the depths of
their heart, something unconscious.... It's not for nothing that that
myth became so beloved among the people, and holds such sway
that they became like some kind of poets, not concerned at all with
the world as it is, but altogether given up to dream and legend. Two
thousand years it has consoled them, and for two thousand more
they will live by its warmth, in dream, in mourning, in expectation,
and in secret fear of it, and never will they tire. And that's the whole
essence of Judaism, the whole character
of
Israel, and
of
its
love
of
