Jewish Literature and Other EssaysKarpeles, Gustav
Religion
Jewish Literature and Other Essays
Karpeles, Gustav
Jewish literature -- History and criticism; Jews
Our rough and tumble time, delighting in negation and destruction,
crushing underfoot the tender blossoms of poetry and faith, living up to
its quasi motto, "What will not die of itself, must be put to death,"
will suddenly come to a stop in its mad career of annihilation. That
will mark the dawn of a new era, the first stirrings of a new
spring-tide for storm-driven Israel. On the ruins will rise the Jewish
home, based on Israel's world-saving conception of family life, which,
having enlightened the nations of the earth, will return to the source
whence it first issued. Built on this foundation, and resting on the
pillars of modern culture, Jewish spirit, and true morality, the Jewish
home will once more invite the nations to exclaim: "How beautiful are
thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel!"
May the soft starlight of woman's high ideals continue to gleam on the
thorny path of the thinker Israel; may they never depart from Israel,
those God-kissed women that draw inspiration at the sacred fount of
poesy, and are consecrated by its limpid waters to give praise and
thanksgiving to Him that reigns on high; may the poet's words ever
remain applicable to the matrons and maidens of Israel:[35]
"Pure woman stands in life's turmoil
A rose in leafy bower;
Her aspirations and her toil
Are tinted like a flower.
Her thoughts are pious, kind, and true,
In evil have no part;
A glimpse of empyrean blue
Is seen within her heart."
MOSES MAIMONIDES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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