Part 8 (1/2)

But especially it is love that pervades the work, love, chaste and ingenuous, apotheosized in the relation of Amnon and Tamar.

The impression that was made by the book is inconceivable. It can be compared with nothing less than the effect produced by the publication of the _Nouvelle Helose_.

At last the Hebrew language had found the master who could make the appeal to popular taste, who understood the art of speaking to the mult.i.tude and touching them deeply. The success of the book was impressive. In spite of the fanatical intriguers, who looked with horror upon this profanation of the holy language, the novel made its way everywhere, into the academies for Rabbinical students, into the very synagogues. The young were amazed and entranced by the poetic flights and by the sentimentalism of the book. A whole people seemed to be reborn unto life, to emerge from its millennial lethargy. Upon all minds the comparison between ancient grandeur and actually existing misery obtruded itself.

The Lithuanian woods witnessed a startling spectacle. Rabbinical students, playing truant, resorted thither to read Mapu's novel in secret. Luxuriously they lived the ancient days over again. The elevated love celebrated in the book touched all hearts, and many an artless romance was sketched in outline.

But the greatest beneficiary of the new movement ushered into being by the appearance of ”The Love of Zion” was the Hebrew language, revived in all its splendor.

”I have searched out the ancient Latin in its majestic vigor, the German with its depth of meaning, the French full of charm and ravis.h.i.+ng expressions, the Russian in the flower of its youth.

Each has qualities of its own, each is crowned with beauty. But in the face of all of them, whose voice appeals unto me? Is it not thy voice, my dove? How pellucid is thy word, though its music issues from the land of destruction!... The melody of thy words sings in my ear like a heavenly harp.” [Footnote: See Brainin, ”Abraham Mapu”, p. 107.]

This idealization of a language of the past, and of that past itself, produced an enormous effect upon all minds, and it prepared the soil for an abundant harvest. The success won by ”The Love of Zion” encouraged Mapu to publish his other historical romance, the action of which is placed in the same period as the first work. _Ashmat Shomeron_ (”The Transgression of Samaria”), also published at Wilna, is an epic in the true sense. It reproduces the conflicts set afoot by the rivalry between Jerusalem and Samaria. The underlying idea in this novel is not unlike that of ”The Love of Zion”. But the author allows himself to run riot in the use of ant.i.theses and contrasts. He arraigns the poor inhabitants of Samaria with pitiless severity. Whatever is good, just, beautiful, lofty, and chaste in love, proceeds from Jerusalem; whatever savors of hypocrisy, crookedness, dogmatism, absurdity, sensuality, proceeds from Samaria. The author is particularly implacable toward the hypocrites, and toward the blind fanatics with their narrow-mindedness.

The personification of certain types of ghetto fanatics is a transparent ruse. The book excited the anger of the obscurantists, and, in their wrath, they persecuted all who read the works of Mapu.

”The Transgression of Samaria” shares a number of faults of technique with the first novel, but also it is equally with the other a product of rich imaginativeness and epic vigor. In reproducing local color and the Biblical life, the author's touch is even surer than in ”The Love of Zion”.

If one were inclined to apply to Mapu's novels the standards of art criticism, a radical fault would reveal itself. Mapu is not a psychologist. He does not know how to create heroes of flesh and blood.

His men and women are blurred, artificial. The moral aim dominates. The plot is puerile, and the succession of events tiresome. But these shortcomings were not noticed by his simple, uncultivated readers, for the reason that they shared the artless _navete_ of the author.

Besides these two, we have some poetic fragments of a third historical romance by Mapu, which was destroyed by the Russian censor. There is also an excellent manual of the Hebrew language, _Amon Padgug_ (”The Master Pedagogue”), very much valued by teachers of Hebrew, and, finally, a method of the French language In Hebrew.

We shall revert elsewhere to his last novel, '_Ayit Zabua_' (”The Hypocrite”), which is very different in style and character from his first two romances.

In his last years he was afflicted with a severe disease. Unable to work, he was supported by his brother, who had settled in Paris, and who invited Mapu to join him there. On the way, death overtook him, and he never saw the capital of the country for which he had expressed the greatest admiration all his life.

In southern Russia, especially at Odessa, literary activity continued to be carried on with success. Abraham Bar Gottlober (1811-1900), writing under the pseudonym Mahalalel, was the most productive of the poets, if not the best endowed of the whole school.

A disciple of Isaac Bar Levinsohn, and visibly affected by the influence of Wessely and Abraham Bar Lebensohn, he devoted himself to poetry. The first volume of his poems appeared at Wilna in 1851. Toward the end of his days, he published his complete works in three volumes, _Kol s.h.i.+re Mahalalel_ (”Collected Poems”, Warsaw, 1890). His earliest productions go back to the middle of the last century. He is a remarkable stylist, and, in some of his works, his language is both simple and polished. ”Cain”, or the Vagabond, is a marvel in style and thought.

In the poem ent.i.tled ”The Bird in the Cage”, he writes as a Zionist, and he weeps over the trials of his people in exile. In another poem, _Nezah Yisrael_ (”The Eternity of Israel”), perhaps the best that issued from his pen, he puts forward a dignified claim to his t.i.tle as Jew, of which he is proud.

”Judah has neither bow nor warring hosts, nor avenging dart, nor sharpened sword. But he has a suit in the name of justice with the nations that contend with him....

”I take good heed not to recount to you our glory. Why should I extol the eternal people, for you detest its virtues, you desire not to hear of them.... But remember, ye peoples, if I commit a transgression, not in me lies the wrong--through your sin I have stumbled....

”I ask not for pity, I ask but for justice.”

On the whole, Gottlober lacks poetic warmth. In the majority of his poems, his style errs on the side of prolixity and wordiness. He has made a number of translations into Hebrew, and his prose is excellent.

His satires frequently display wit. His versified history of Hebrew poetry, contained in the third volume of his works, is inferior to the _Melizat Yeshurun_ by Solomon Levinsohn referred to above. Later he published a monthly review in Hebrew, under the t.i.tle _Ha-Boker Or_ (”The Clear Morning”). His reminiscences of the Hasidim, whom he opposed all his life, are the best of his prose writings, and put him in a cla.s.s with the realists. He also wrote a history of the Kabbalah and Hasidism (_Toledot ha-Kabbalah weha-Hasidut_). [Footnote: In the monthly _Ha-Boker Or_, and _Orot me-Ofel_ (”Gleams in the Darkness”), Warsaw, 1881.]

Gottlober was the _Mehabber_ personified, the type of the vagabond author, who is obliged to go about in person and force his works upon patrons in easy circ.u.mstances.

The number of writers belonging to the romantic school, by reason of the form of their works, or by reason of their content, is too large for us to give them all by name. Only a few can be mentioned and characterized briefly.

Elias Mordecai Werbel (1805-1880) was the official poet of the literary circle at Odessa. A collection of his poems, which appeared at Odessa, is distinguished by its polished execution. Besides odes and occasional poems, they contain several historical pieces, the most remarkable of them ”Huldah and Bor”, Wilna, 1848, based on a Talmudic legend.

[Footnote: In _Keneset Yisrael_, Warsaw, 1888.]