AHARON MEGGED
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they were vanquished either by a greater hero-man (a legendary
creature) or by one of the elements. Their common denominator
was their subjection to a fixed system of ethical and social laws from
which the author did not deviate.
Then came Cervantes and put in the mouth of his hero, Don
Quixote, the antithesis of chivalric narrative and "heroic" heroes, the
words, "A man by the name ofCid doubtlessly existed but it is very
doubtful whether he actually performed all the feats ascribed to
him." He was followed by Shakespeare, who restored the human di–
mensions of historical, mythological, and classical figures, and by
the process of lowering them, bestowed on them a new, other great–
ness which brought out the enormous force latent in their internal
contradictions. The trunk of the felled family tree of biblical heroes
put out new shoots-"a twig shall grow forth from his roots"-and
these grew and branched out. The transmigrated spirit of Abraham,
Joseph, Samson, Saul, and Jonah can be found in all modern
literature.
The Hebrew story itself became impoverished after the Bible
was written . Talmudic, Cabbalistic, and Hassidic narrative strayed
into exaggeration, irony, parable, and miracle, and lost the com–
pression and conciseness of the first story-tellers . Nevertheless, even
here there are no heroic or ideal types. The "Zadik," a spiritual hero,
is nevertheless a creature of flesh and blood "like all men" who has
succeeded in subjugating his instincts and overcoming obstacles by
the power of faith. This is no titanic figure . Through all metamor–
phoses of Hebrew narrative, there is a certain absence common to all.
What is the source of this exclusively distinctive trait that has
no parallel in the literature of the Western World? (Far Eastern nar–
rative has a completely different nature.) Is it the belief that ethics
are to be realized on earth, in this world and in no other, and that
man through choice is responsible for his actions and fate? Is it the
Hebrew-Jewish scepticism that tends to question truths and does not
accept anything as a given axiom? The American poet Archibald
MacLeish said that the Bible is not a book of belief but
constant search
for
belief, of
strugglefor
belief. The Chosen People, he says, incessantly
and along its entire way, sins, flees from God, abandons Him, for–
gets Him, murmurs against Him, and returns to Him - and the cycle
repeats itself.
Perhaps this constant struggle, unforeseen at the outset, rooted
in an awareness of the contrasting natures of man and the world is
also the secret of the singularity of Hebrew narrative, which has
never had a perfect hero .
