MASTER OF HIS DREAMS
December, 1941
AS Joseph was approaching his brothers, they said of him: ††Genesis XXXVII, 19.“… Behold this dreamer cometh….”
This Dreamer…. To-day, the term is used in a depreciatory sense. A Dreamer is blind to realities. He is unable to see and to recognise the hard facts of life. Instead of being guided by common sense he dreams of ideals which are never capable of being realised. Most of us are such devotees of common sense that we cannot find any use for a Dreamer. We consider him a pitiable fool.
The brothers of Joseph knew better. They took “this dreamer,” Joseph, very seriously. They feared him, they hated him, though Joseph was dreaming of “impossible” things. They were so much afraid of this “dreaming fool” that they conspired against him to slay him, their own brother.
Joseph’s brothers showed a much sounder judgment than our own much more enlightened days. The Dreamer is the only human type that must be taken seriously. The Dreamer is the true creator in human history, just as he is the only dangerous destroyer. The people of common sense trudging safely and securely along well-trodden tracks are of little importance, unless they too dream and use their common sense for the realisation of their dreams. The great thinkers and inventors, the great revolutionaries and prophets, they have all been so many dreamers, continuously fighting the representatives of Common Sense. And in every fight and struggle the Dreamer wins in the end and Common Sense loses.
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At the present moment it is important for us Jews to think of this. For years now we have been losing the battle for the future of our people. We must realise the fact and face it: we are losing. Judaism and the Jewish people are going under. The present is dark enough; the future looms even darker.
The sufferings of Jews in Europe, especially in Poland and the temporarily conquered territories of the Soviet Union, are unutterable. But how deep must the Jewish Tragedy reach if in spite of our faith in the victory of the democracies the Jewish future appears even darker than the present. Every Jew must understand this: in the present circumstances, the future holds no promise for us. Nowhere among the nations is there an adequate understanding for the true plight of the Jewish nation. Nowhere in the world does the sincere wish exist to do justice to the Jewish nation. Let us not fool ourselves, let us open our eyes: the solution which is contemplated, and which will be offered us when the war is over, is assimilation of the Jews in the countries where they live to-day. In the more progressive countries of the West this will mean progressive dilution and dissolution of Jewries, genteel extinction on noble democratic lines. In the countries of Eastern Europe (Poland, Rumania, etc.), however, it will mean rights on paper, nice empty phrases towards the Jews, and in practice plenty of Jewish disabilities and gradually increasing Jewish suffering.
We are caught between two fires. Here—venomous National-Socialist barbarity; there—sympathetic but evasive democracy. Whichever side wins, we shall lose. In the long history of Jewish suffering we have never experienced a period as dark and hopeless as the present one.
However, we have no right to put all the blame on others. How dare we expect understanding for the plight of the Jew and for Judaism from the nations around us, if understanding is lacking among Jews, if Jews themselves have ceased to think of the future, if they themselves do not care what may happen to our people to-morrow, if Jews themselves think only of their individual comfort and what they believe is their happiness, if their only wish is to be left alone and not to be reminded that they are Jews and that there is such a thing as Judaism which demands the surrender of their entire being?
I am much afraid that we may well be left alone, that the future peace conference may try to forget the existence of a Jewish nation, and slowly but surely Judaism and this people may disappear from the surface of the earth.
And what is at the bottom of the present tragedy? This question admits of various answers. To-day, however, I would choose the following: We are losing the battle, because in our generation Jews have stopped dreaming the dreams of Judaism.
Let us call to mind a few facts of Jewish history.
Jews lived in Egypt in servitude, they lived in the wilderness for forty years, and survived because they were dreaming; of a land they had never seen before, of which they had learned only from the sagas of their family; they dreamed like incurable “fools”, dreamed of this land in despite of common sense, in despite of the great and, to all appearance, insuperable obstacles presented by the might of Egypt and the dangers of the wilderness. And they lived to see the realisation of their dream—the Land, their Land.
Many centuries later, after the destruction of the first Temple, Jews lived in Babylon, in the shadow of a mighty empire, in despite of which they dreamed of Judaism, of return. They dreamed courageously and persistently and saw a new Jerusalem.
And again, centuries later, the world-power of Syria was threatening to destroy little Judea. The clever Jews, the common-sense Jews, wanted to appease the enemy, they wanted to come to terms with him, they wanted assimilation with Hellenism and a quiet and comfortable life. Had they succeeded, Judaism would have disappeared. They did not succeed. For a small band of Jews unfurled the Maccabean banner and went on dreaming of God, of Judaism, and continued to live in the spirit of their dreams in defiance of common sense, until the country was freed of the power of Antiochus.
And what else has been the history of our Galut but the picture of a whole nation dreaming of Justice, Truth, Decency among men, dreaming obdurately against the logic of the overwhelming facts of life around them, and living by the strength they have been able to derive from their dreams? The “clever” Jew, the common-sense Jew, will always lose, only the dreaming Jew, the Jew with faith and ideals, courage and character, will survive and win the last battle.
You remember the life-story of Theodor Herzl. Herzl,what a “fool” he was in the eyes of the “clever” Jews, what an unreasonable dreamer. But as long as he was dreaming and with him—and for some little time after him—a small band of “foolish” Jews were dreaming, not only of the number of dunams which should be bought in Palestine, but of the future of the people, dreaming great dreams of Jewish regeneration, there was hope for Judaism, there was hope for this people, there was growing understanding among the nations for the great cause of Zionism, an understanding that found its noble expression in the Balfour Declaration.
The Balfour Declaration itself was not the work of the “clever” people but of the dreamers.
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To-day, we are facing ultimate disaster because in our own “cleverness”, especially in the last two or three decades, we have squandered much of the achievement of our Jewish dreamers.
The average modern Jew is too “clever”, he is much too clever to take Judaism seriously. He is empty of Jewish ideals, he does not care for Jewish culture, for Jewish religious aspirations. He has neither character nor courage to dream the dreams of Judaism and to live them. He is the clever Jew impressed by the common sense of the market, by the “logic” of the clumsy facts which are ruling the passing hour of an uncertain day.
In this manner we have unfortunately wasted the only great achievement of modern Jewry—the dynamic force of Zionism. Lately, even we Zionists have been afraid of the great dreams of Judaism, even we have renounced them. Instead of following a great vision, following it fearlessly and resolutely in accordance with the true principles of Jewish history, even we Zionists have started to be “clever”. For the past twenty odd years Zionist leadership has allowed itself to be overawed by political combinations and developments which were inimical to our aspirations. Instead of denouncing these intrigues as an integral part of the world-wide insanity which was heading for the present catastrophe, and so rendering a great service to humanity, Zionist leadership has always been prepared to come to terms with them in the name of common sense.
The “clever” Jews cannot help us. We need dreamers, Jews with a vision and a faith; Jews who are prepared to bring the greatest sacrifices in order to realise their Jewish dreams; Jews who are not overawed by the powers of the world around us; Jews with courage enough to follow their vision undismayed by lack of appreciation and in spite of the policies of mighty governments; Jews with faith, with a religious faith in the future of our people; Jews who will not haggle for Jewish rights, who will accept nothing less than Justice, who—if this is denied to them—are prepared to go on dreaming against a whole world rather than accept any sham solution which can only lead to dissolution.
Joseph could not be ignored by his brothers because his dreams were self-consistent. He was the **This is the literal translation of the Hebrew “Ba’al Hachalomot.”“Master of his dreams”. Nor will the world be able to overlook us, if we remain faithful to our dreams, to our own visions and our own ideals.
“Behold, this dreamer cometh”—this is how the nations saw us in the past; and they hated us for our dreams. To-morrow, however, if only the Dreamer remains faithful to himself, he will be honoured for his dreams. The Dreamer, the man of vision and ideals, can never be ignored. He must be hated, or he must be acknowledged.
What we Jews need to-day is courage and steadfastness to dream our dreams and to live them, whatever the consequences may be.