The Doctrine of Beitar

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in society, in the public sphere, as a statesman, who will aim for the top—let him not fear, lest he flee from the new action. He will not find here anything ready-made — no roads, no proper forces, no electric lights, — but he will surely find an obstacle, it will rise, a nature demanding a double portion of blood from nobodies, from fading neighbors, and perhaps also leaders from the generation before the flood, and perhaps also a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph. Whoever cannot bear all these will flee; whoever can withstand all these will build the Jordan.

Among the other burdens will also be the burden of the language, for this too is part of the building. Do we not agree that whoever has not yet built a house for himself will dwell in a tent, and whoever has not yet acquired his bride will suffer from dullness? Whoever has not yet earned enough to buy a new garment will wear a torn garment. This principle also applies to matters of language. And if fanaticism is needed for this — long live fanaticism.

(Published in "Haaretz" in the year 5679 [1919])

5. The Role of Betar in Relation to the Hebrew Language.

I hope (for in general I am a man of hopes and besides that I have unlimited faith in the revival of Betar) — that a day will yet come when Betar will fill an important role also in the revival movement of our holy language; which all other groups participating in that same revival-movement have forgotten and neglected. We are bound to the concern for the beautiful sound of Hebrew, whose grace is diminishing, to our sorrow, and fading. It is impossible to call it a revival without those wonderful sounds it had in the days of the ancient prophets. There is no doubt that in those days it was no less musical than the French chansonnettes; but today Hebrew is spoken with all sorts of oriental tunes, even in the Land of Israel, even in its schools. This too is essentially just a matter of a lack of a "manner" of speaking, of talking however one pleases without paying attention to the beauty of the sound. It is enough for us to look for a moment at a page from the Tanakh, at the marked vowels, the "khamsin," the "nuance," the "strong dagesh," to understand with what love and devotion for each and every letter, as if for the preservation of every single sound, the ancient Jew cared in his language. And I hope that the forces of a Betar group will begin to take a new interest in the rich past, in the signs of the ancient and modern Masorah, to make our national language what it once was and what it must return to being: poetry, a musical creation.