• 11 -

...only so that "the race" could live, albeit a narrow and limited life, but in its own environment; so that it could breathe, even if with only one lobe of its lung, pressured air, but its own social air.

"Exile and Assimilation". A lecture on the history of Israel./

3. The State of the Jews.

The foundation of the chimeric worldview is one and only: the State-of-the-Jews. However, even in this simple idea is hidden a deep worldview. What is the reason for the mere existence of different nations? The "reason" is that each and every nation must contribute its own part to the shared human culture, with the stamp of its unique spirituality. And it must not be content with only ideas and good advice for other peoples: it must serve as a living example, it must realize its ideas and ideals in practice, to express them not only in "books," but precisely through the collective life forms of the people. But for this purpose, each and every people needs its own "kingdom," a land where it is considered the "master of the house" and is free to arrange its collective life according to its own view of good and evil; such a "laboratory" can only be an independent state.

For a long time, the opinion prevailed among a portion of the Jews: that while the Jewish people indeed has its own "mission," a complex of ideals, which it must introduce into human "civilization," the best way to fulfill this "mission" is its dispersion among all the peoples of the earth; in this way — they thought — it would be easy for us to influence every nation, foreign and otherwise, with our ideas, and it will then implement our works in the realm of its "collective life." But this is nothing but a gross error. As mentioned, one cannot "guide" others with advice! The world learns only from tangible examples, even when it comes to a "new idea." England, for example, enriched the world with a valuable social idea: self-government of free citizens; that is, the parliamentary system. But how did the English nation teach the other peoples to understand and lead such a political system? Not by the English dispersing among the foreign nations