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THE JEWISH

Twenty-four

Friday, December 24, 1943

-NEWS

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The Menorah

By THEODOR HERZL

Translated from the German by Bessie London Pouzzner in Menorah Journal (1915)

D

EEP in his soul he
began to feel the need of being a
Jew. His circumstances were not
uhsatisfaCtory; he enjoyed an .arri-
ple income and a profession that
permitted him to do whatever his
heart desired. For he was an artiSt.
Iis JeWish origin and the faith of
his fathers had long since ceased to
trouble him, when suddenly the old
hatred came to the surface again in
a new mob-cry. With many others
he believed that this flood would
shortly subside. But there was no
change for the . better; in fact, .
things went from bad to worse; and
every blow, even though not aimed
directly at him, struck him With
fresh pain, till little by little his
Soul became one bleeding wound.
These sorrows, buried deep_ in his
heart and silenced there, evoked
thoughts Of their origin and of his.
Judaism, and now he did some-
thing he could not perhaps have
done in the old days because he
was then so alien to it—he began. to
love this Judaism with an intense
fervor. Although - in his own eyes .
he could not, at first, clearly justify
, this. new yearning, it became so
powerful at length that it . crystal-
lized from vague- emotions into a.
definite idea which he must needs
express. It was the conviction that
there was only one solution for this
Judennot — the return to Judaism.
Feared for His Reason
- When this came to the knowl-
edge of his closest friends, similar-
ly situated though they were, they
Shook their heads gravely and even
feared for his reason. For how
could that be a remedy which
merely sharpened and intensified
the evil? It seemed to hirri, on the
other hand, that their moral dis-
• tress was so acute because the Jew
of today had • lost the poise which
Was his father's very being. They
ridiculed him for this when his
back was turned — many even
laughed openly in his face; yet he
did not allow * himself to be misled
by the banalities of these people
whose acuteness of judgment had
never before inspired his. respect,
and he bore their witticisms and
their sneers with equal indiffer-
ence. And since, in all other re-
spects, he acted like a man in his
senses, they suffered 'him gradual-
ly. to indulge in his infatuation,
Which a number of them soon be-
gan to call by a harsher term than
idee fixe.
He continued, however, with
characteristic persistence, to de-
velop one idea after another from
his fundamental conviction. At this
time he was profoundly moved by
several instances. of apostasy,
though his pride would not permit
him to betray it. As a man and as
an artist of the modern school, he
had, of course, acquired many non-
Jewish habits and his study of the
cultures of successive civilizations
had left an indelible impress upon
him, How was this to be reconciled
With bis'return to Judaism? Often
doubts assailed him as to the
Soundness of his guiding thought,
his idee waitress, as a French
thinker calls it. Perhaps this gen-
eration; having grown up under the
influence of alien cultures, Was no
longer capable of that return
Which_he had perceived to be their
redemption. But the new genera-
tion. would be capable of it, if it
were only given the right direction
early enough. He resolved, there=
fore, that his own children, at least,
should be shown the proper path.
They should be trained as -Jews in
their own home.

-

-

Hitherto he had permitted to
pass by unobserved the holiday.
which the wonderful apparition of
the Maccabees had illumined for
thousands of years with the glow
of miniature lights. Now, however,
he made this holiday an opportu-
nity to prepare something beautiful
which should be forever commem-
orated in the minds of his children.
In.their young' souls. should be im-
planted early a 'steadfast devotion .
to their ancient people: He bought
a Menorah, and when he held this
nine-branched - candlestick ini his
hands for the first time, a stran -$2e
mood came over him. In his fa-
ther's houSe. also, the lights bad
on burned in his youth, now far
away, and the recollection :gave=.
him a sad and tender feeling for
home.
• Excited His Interest -
The tradition was neither
cold nor dead,L-thus it had passed
through . the ages, one light kind - .
ling another. Moreover, the ancient
form of the Menorah had excited .
his interest. • When was the primi:-
tive structure of . this candlestick
fashioned? - Clearly the design was
suggested by the tree-,-in the cen- -
ter the sturdy trunk, on right. and
left four . branches, one below the.
other, in one.plane, and. all of equal
height. A later symbolism brought
with. it the ninth branch . , which
projects in front and functions as a
servant. What mystery • had the
generations which.folloWed one an-
other read into this form of art at
.once. so simple and natural?' A.n
d
our artist wondered to himself if it

were not possible
to animate again •
the withered form
of the ,Menorah,
to water its roots,
as one would a
tree. The mere
sound of the
name, which he
n o w pronounced
every evening to
his ,children, gave
him 'great . pleas-7
ute. There was a
lovable -ring to
the wOrd -When
came frOm --the„
lips of little
dren.

On the first
night the candle
was lit and the
origin of the
holiday explain-
ed. The wonder-
f ul incident of
the lights that
strangely re-
mained burning so long, the story
of the return from the Babylonian
exile, the second Temple, the Mac :.
cabees—our friend told :his chil-
dren all he knew. It was not very
much, to be sure, but it served.
When the second candle was lit, -
they repeated what he had told
them, and though it had all been
learned from him, it seemed to him
quite new and beautiful. In the
days that f011oWed he waited keen-
ly for the evenings, which became
ever brighter. Candle after candle

The Feast of Lights

By EMMA LAZARUS

(From Poems of Emma Lazarus, Hou g hton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1899.
Part of this poem has been set to music as Kindle the Taper.)

Kindle the taper like the steadfast star
Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the
earth,
And add each night a lustre till afar
An eightfold splendor shine above thy
hearth.
Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the
lyre; .
Blow the brass trumpet and the harsh-
-
tongued horn;
Chant psalms of victory till the heart
take fire,
The Maccabean spirit leap new-born.

Remember how from wintry dawn till
night,
Such , songs were sung in Zion, when
again
On, the high altar flamed the sacred
light.
And, purified from every Syrian stain,
The foam - white walls with golden
shields were hung,.
With crowns and silken spoils, and at
the shrine,
Stood, midst their conqueror-tribe, five
chieftains sprung
From one heroic stock, one seed divine.

Five branches grown from. Mattathias'
stem,
The Blessed John, the keen - eyed
Jonathan,
Simon the fair, the burst-of-Spring, the
Gem.
Eleazar, Help of God; o'er all his clan
Judas the Lion-Prince, the Avenging
Rod,
Towered in warrior- beauty, uncrowned
king,
Armed with the breastplate and the
sword of God,
Whose praise is: "He received the
perishing."

They who had camped Within the
mountain-pass,
Couched on the rock, , and tented 'neath
the sky,
Who saw from Mizpah's height the
tangled grass
Choke the wide Temple - courts, the
-altar lie
Disfigured- and polluted, who had
•
flung -
Their faces on the stones, and mourned
aloud
And rent their garments, wailing with
one tongue,
Crushed as a wind-swept ,bed of reeds
is bowed.

Even they by one voice fired,. one heart
of flame,
Through broken reeds, had risen, and
were men,
They rushed upon the spoiler and
o'ercame,
Each arm for freedom had the strength
of ten.
Now is their mourning into dancing
turned,
Their sackcloth doffed for garments of
delight,
Week-long the festive torches shall be
burned,
Music and revelry wed day with night.

Still -ours the dance, the feast, the
glorious Psalm,
The mystic lights of emblem and the
Word.
Where is our Judas? Where are our
five-branched palm?
Where are the lion - warriors of the
Lord?
Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the
lyre,
Sound the brass trumpet and the harsh-
tongued horn,
Chant hymns of victory till the heart .
take fire,
The Maccabean spirit leap new-born!

DR. THEODOR HERZL

stood in the Menorah, and the fa-
ther mused on the little candles
with his children, till at length his
reflections became too deep to be
uttered before them.

Finds Gratification
When he had resolved to return
to his people and to make open ac-
knowledgment of his return, he
had never dreamed that he would
find in it a gratification Of his
yearning for the beautiful. Yet
nothing less was his good fortune.
The Menorah with its many lights
became a thing of beauty to inspire
lofty thought. So, with his prac-
ticed hand, he drew a :plan for. a
Menorah to present to -his children
the following year. He made free
use of the motif of the right
branching arms projecting right
and left in one plane from the cen-
tral stem. He did-not hold himself
bound by the rigid traditional
form, but created directly from na-
ture, unconcerned by other sym-
bolisms also seeking expression. He
was on the search for living beauty.
Yet, though he gave the withered
branch new life, he conformed to
the law, to the gentle dignity of its
being. It was a tree with slender
branches; its ends were moulded
into flower calyxes which would
hold the lights.

The week passed with this ab-
sorbing labor. Then came the
eighth day, when the whole row
burns, even the faithful ninth, the
servant, which on other nights is
used only for the lighting of the
others. A great splendor streamed
from. the Menorah. The children's
eyes glistened. But for our friend
all this was the symbol of the en-
kindling of a nation. When there is
but one light, all is still dark, and
the solitary light looks melancholy.
Soon it finds one companion, then
another, and another. The darkness
must retreat. The light comes first
to the young and the poor—then -
others join them who love Justice,
Truth, Liberty, Progress, Human-
ity, and Beauty. When all the
candles burn, then we must all
stand and rejoice over the achieve-
ments. And no office can be more
blessed than that of a SerVant of
the Light.

The features on this page are
reproduced from the fascinating
book "Hanukah: The Feast Of
Lights"' by EMily Solis-Cohen,
Jr., With the permission .of
copyright.. owners; The Jewish
Publication Society of America,