Lacking a Family Life

One of the causes of the failings in the lives of the young workers [in Palestine] is certainly the lack of family life. Here, too, there is room for observation. Here we have a phenomenon that is not only born of the economic conditions here in the Land of Israel, but it also extends increasingly from the diaspora. There, too, it is not only born of the economic conditions, but to a large extent it is influenced by the lives of others. In this phenomenon you see with palpable clarity how much venom a basic way of conducting life can introduce into a certain form of life if it comes suddenly, not in the way of the development of that life itself, but from another, different kind of life. How much late marriage—bachelorhood until one’s hair turns white—brings a blessing into the lives of others, let others judge. In any event the blessing is not visible, and our eyes see things differently. But the others at least became accustomed to this over many generations, and the damage is not so evident. However, amongst us, in this sense, a kind of secret revolution has taken place in a single generation: and we see the results. One may say that the main root of the excessive nervousness of the generation, with all its consequences, lies in this phenomenon. The weak eyes, the rotten teeth, the premature baldness, the early wilting of our young people, especially our young women, testify to this sufficiently. How many opinions, especially how many spiritual relations of the members of the generation, whisper to your ears, when you look at them closely: if there is no wisdom here, there is old age here! Old age, in youth! A phenomenon, which leads to sad, miserable, and insulting thoughts such as few others. And here there is no weeping, no vociferous shouting, though here, in a single generation, perhaps more has been destroyed (in the opinion of those who believe that it did destroy), even more than what has destroyed the tradition of the ancestors across the generations. Of course, if we do not hold it accountable for what the diaspora destroyed. As for those who weep over the fate of the daughter of Israel, which is so bitter, so harsh, and R. Vofsi is to blame, etc., their heart isn’t at all broken or seething about the fate of the daughters of Israel in this generation, because here we don’t have “The Tip of the Yod”¹ that can only be seen under a particular microscope. Here, only our life is speaking, only our miserable life. The main point is that the new tribulation is surely influenced by the core existence of the desired form of life, by the very life of others. Hence, we do not have to be ashamed of it and abnegate ourselves before those others. [ . . . ]

Lacking a family life, a people will not be formed. In general, actual, active human life begins from family life, with all the light and shadows in it, all its greatness and depth, its pettiness and baseness, and with all its sanctity and impurity. This is the test furnace; this is the core secret of life. Just one more thing, the main thing: life must be life, not an ideal, and not work for an ideal. Life is creation and an ideal. The life of the creator himself. Only someone who creates his own life anew is a creator of new life. [ . . . ] The true living creation or the creation of life begins only when a young person starts to live a life of his own in that form, for which his soul yearns, in which he sees the desired life. And this is impossible without family life. A young man can see life only with the woman he loves and with all the world that life opens up for him and places in his heart. But if there is to be a new, desired life, then family life must also receive a new form and a new virtue. New relations, that is, great relations in their naturalness and purity, between man and wife—this is the desired foundation. In this manner family life will not be like a rot upon all the work for accomplishing our human and national aspirations; rather, the forces joined by nature itself will become the source of new courage and light.