The Mission of Ha-Shiloaḥ

In establishing this monthly periodical today, we believe that we are doing that which the times demand, its absence being felt by many.

We are not establishing a study house for sages who will sit and debate with one another and find new readings for the sake of increasing Torah and wisdom; rather, we are directing our hearts to the whole people, who will find in this periodical proper nourishment for their spirit—matters that it behooves them to know—to mend breaches in its fence, and build up their ruins.

Once again, “to make fences and build!” For what is all of our literature doing now, if not delineating and developing [culture]?

The goal is the same, but the paths are different.

Literature can penetrate the spirit of the people and affect the courses of their lives in two ways: either by bringing in, with loud voices, with thunderous and thrilling words, new emotions and desires that alter choices in spite of knowledge; or by slowly introducing with words of good judgment and wisdom, new concepts and opinions, that alter choices in tandem with knowledge.

In the past, when Hebrew literature was a weapon in the war of the Haskalah [Enlightenment], it walked both paths at once. With means that attract the heart, it sought to arouse within the people a desire for “light,” and by means that broaden the mind it tried to introduce “light” within them. It was indeed a dim light that only increased desire without the ability to satisfy it; but that was enough for our literature then, since its only wish was to cause us to know the nature of the light, so that we would go and seek its source.

Indeed, we went, we sought, and we found. The gates of general enlightenment have been opened before us without hindrance, and anyone who seeks it now will find it with ease; they no longer require mediation through Hebrew literature. In the path of knowledge, therefore, that poor soul [Hebrew literature] no longer finds a proper purpose for her activity. For what benefit is there in gleaning meager sheaves for us in another field,¹ when we can enter without [such gleaning] and eat our fill? But in the second way, as well, to be a trumpet ceaselessly sounding to awaken the sleepers, it can no longer offer actual benefit, since the “sleepers” have already been awakened without it, by the tumult of life itself. Thus, most likely, Hebrew literature would have died out by itself in the East [i.e., Eastern Europe] as well, just as it had already died out in the West [i.e., Western and Central Europe] were it not for that new aspiration that has been born among us: the aspiration for resurrection and inner progress which has granted our literature the right to live and progress as well, not as before, as a passage to another world, but by [being] an independent part of our inner world.

Since there are no privileges without duties, the privilege of allowing our literature to be regarded as an independent part of our inner world entails with it a duty as well: to teach us to know that inner world—the course of the development of our people in every generation, the way the spirit is revealed in all walks of life, its spiritual and material situation in every land at the present, and the connections, both open and hidden, between all of the above and those phenomena appearing in the nations surrounding it and within the laws that govern human life in society in general. For only when it has been revealed to the nation what it was and continues to be, as well as the true relationship between it [the nation] and the world around it, only then will it understand what it can yet be and recognize its proper place in the world. Only then will it be able to find its way, and its life will be fully reformed. But our literature has not fulfilled its duty. [ . . . ]

These thoughts prompted us to attempt to manifest this [journal]. Will we succeed in truly creating this necessary organ? It depends not on us, but rather on our scholars and writers. We on our side will do everything in our power. Will they do the same?

Therefore, we do not think it possible to make definite promises in advance regarding the nature of the subjects that will be presented in this periodical, and we will make do by presenting just the essence of the matters we aim to cover here.

1. Scholarly Articles that will provide correct conceptions from various significant phenomena—religious, ethical, social, literary, etc.—that relate to the life of the Jewish people and the development of its spirit from antiquity to today. [ . . . ]

2. Essays and Articles on intellectual, moral, economic, and political situations, and the like, regarding Jews throughout the world in the present day. [ . . . ]

3. Criticism. We usually use this term only in its narrow sense: for review of new books. But our goal is to expand this concept to its true limit: as a critique of man’s spirit and the fruit of his labor in relation to truth (rational criticism), to the good (ethical criticism), and to the beautiful (aesthetic criticism). In this sense criticism deals not only with books, but also with all ideas and actions, new and old, that have made, continue to make, or will make in the future an impression on the life of the nation and its spirit. Therefore, it is proper and necessary to examine them from the three perspectives mentioned above, either all three together or one or two, according to the matter at hand. However, books are especially appropriate for general critique, usually providing an occasion for the judgment of many ideas and actions, for showing connections among them and for demonstrating those elements shared by them. [ . . . ]

4. Belles Lettres. Poetry—by concretizing the phenomena of life, its questions and customs, palpable and beautiful forms—has a significant impact on most people, and is capable of inscribing upon their hearts all these things, prompting them to think and reflect far beyond abstract theoretical discussion. Choice stories about our people from the past can provide reliable pictures of our situation in various times and places, or can shine a ray of light on a dark corner of our “inner world” that will become most useful for stimulating thought and expanding the national idea among us, and therefore they are directed toward our goal no less than the aforementioned theoretical sections. However, a beautiful work of art, that has nothing to it but its beauty, that arouses emotions merely for the sake of pleasure—while it, too, has a place and value as a specific aspect of human life—we think, given our situation at present, that our meager literature should not waste what little strength it has on such things while more pressing and productive matters require treatment—but there is no strength for it. For this reason, the number of poems in the periodical will be perhaps few—most of our poets today do not follow the path of Judah Leib Gordon, combining poetry with reflection upon our lives and our many needs. Artistic poetry alone, the outpouring of the soul on the splendor of nature and the pleasures of love and the like—let any of our young readers who wish, to seek it in gentile languages, where they will find it in sufficient amounts.